Last weekend was one hectic action-packed one. I was booked in for a blog event, Snubnose was committed to take part in a mural painting event that was from dawn to dusk on both days of the event. Well, just kidding on the dawn to dusk part, but you get the idea, she was going to be occupied outdoors on two blisteringly hot days. I would need to be on hand to make sure she's properly fed and hydrated, and be on hand to bring her back home if she gets too tired and hot (she's prone to migraines in the heat).
Rather serendipitously, the blog event at Big Pitcher was a stone's throw away from the park where she was painting. So, we all agreed that on Saturday, we could drop her off at the park, hang around with her till lunch time, and then K, Piglet, and I would spend a couple of hours at Big Pitcher and then join Snubnose at the park.
And so that's what we did. We spent the morning admiring the hard work all the big and little artists put into creating the mural. The theme was horses, and the inspiration was M.F. Hussain's famous horse paintings.
Promptly at noon, the three of us left Snubnose with a picnic lunch, and made our way to Big Pitcher to try out their blogger menu.
Big Pitcher located at Airport Road, right next to Leela Palace has its own micro-brewery, and we were quite eager to sample their wide variety of brews. I'd been to the place a couple of times before for their weekday working buffet lunches, and so I thought I knew what to expect - decent enough food, but nothing whatsoever to write home about (which is why I haven't talked about Big Pitcher earlier on the blog).
But the a-la carte menu is a completely different beast altogether, and I was wowed by the quality of the food and drinks.
First up, the beer is really good, and they have a variety of the stuff. So, if you want something really dark and malty, or if you want something lighter, there is a beer to suit you.
I went for the Sarava beer, which is a light one, and it was predictably good. However, I was surprised by the Kingslayer beer, which is very dark. I expected something really bitter but I quite liked it too (I am probably biased by the GOT reference though 😉 ). Still, even if I wouldn't glug down an entire mug of the stuff, it was definitely a beer I could enjoy shared with someone.
So, yes, the beers were good. But the cocktails that came around for the tasting were the real stars. The staff were extremely generous with their cocktails inviting us to taste and sip from many varieties.
The drinks we tried:
- High Seas Adventure - Vodka, vanilla, and coconut milk. A must-try if you are a fan of coconut in your drinks.
- Kiss on the Lips - Baileys, Kahlua, and vodka. This was one of my favorites, and I highly recommend giving it a shot if you are a chocolate-hazelnut lover.
- Another favorite was the Morning Caress - a mix of whisky, fruits, and cucumber. Mmmm, this was simply too delicious.
- There was also an unnamed beer and wine mixed drink. This was the ultimate and I settled down with it basking in the afternoon sunshine. You can just make out from my smile in that photo below that the drinks in this place were A++.
The restaurant was empty when we walked in, and Piglet had the run of the place walking around everywhere like he owned the joint. This particular floor we were on (the second floor) had a Western theme, and Piglet was pretty enchanted with the dark wood, the unusually shaped tables, and the wall of guns, and hats, and cowboy boots.
Plenty of joints that focus on the drinks skimp on the quality of the food. I am happy to say that this wasn't the case with Big Pitcher. The food served was uniformly good.
I can highly recommend all the starters we had - the fries, the vegetable drumstick (amazing manchurian on a stick), the dum dum mushrooms are also excellent, as is the golden fried babycorn.
In the mains, I highly recommend the Zafrani Tarkari Biryani. It was so good that even the non-vegetarians at the table helped themselves to multiple helpings of this dish.
The desserts looked very attractive and tasted good too. However, I was too stuffed to do any justice to them.
In any case, I think I would recommend filling yourself up with the delicious starters than focus on the desserts. Here's an overhead shot of all the starters that were served on the table. Now you can understand why I didn't feel up to the desserts 😉 .
And what of the lovely art I started off this post with?Well, that continued beautifully for the entire weekend. Once we were done with the lunch, we went right back to the park to watch Snubnose and her friends in action. It was an intense four days for the team to complete the mural, and I am so happy that Snubnose stuck through it till the end, especially as some of the sections were very difficult for her. Here are a couple of sections I really loved (and before you ask, neither of them was by Snubnose).
Snubnose had missed a lot of art classes recently because of school sports activities, and she hadn't quite mastered some of the concepts taught in class yet. The poor thing struggled a lot with getting the shadows right, and in the end, the teacher had to step in and help out.
She did complete doing her work on canvas though, and I love it for the amount of work she put into it - clumsy shadowing or not.
And even though her work on the wall art was disappointing for her, I hope she will continue to stay inspired and focused on her art.
She will be taking a break from art classes this summer and will hopefully come back refreshed and rejuvenated back in June.
Note: This mural is in Children's Park in the Indra Nagar/Defense Colony area. If you are in the area, do stop a moment to take a look at their work.
Details about Big Pitcher:
Location: Airport Road, next to Leela Palace Hotel
Cost for two: Approx Rs. 2000/-
Ambience: Casual bar with live sports screening
Call for reservations: 080 49653523
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