A Retro night that was surprisingly classy, but with drinks priced as if we were sipping on them in Central London. Harry’s was a little too British for its own good. Read on…
Pretending to be Central London in Mumbai’s Western Suburbs
Harry’s Juhu. Rtro.
2nite @ 9.
– Jay
That’s the cryptic message I received this afternoon from my friend. This text had me flummoxed at first, but then, I decided to put on my cryptographer’s hat and get decoding. A little bit of sleuthing later, I had my answer. The code was actually a message about tonight’s plan at Harry’s, apparently a pub in Juhu, where there seemed to be a retro night planned. Why though, my friend decided to be as uncouth as to type ‘2nite’ instead of ‘tonight’ is beyond me. Are the suburbs charged per character for their texts?
Anyhoo, come 10 PM and I found myself outside Harry’s – an admittedly fun looking pub (at least from the outside).I quickly walked into Harry’s, only to be harshly disappointed by the immediate interiors of the joint. As brightly lit and fun the façade looked, the outdoor drinking/smoking section (it was hardly al fresco dining, to be honest) was equally drab and dull.
With a heavy heart, I pushed open the door to the indoor section – this time, to be pleasantly surprised. Adequately crowded but not making us compromise on our personal space, with dim enough lighting without having to warrant the use of our phone flashlights, Harry’s had a good vibe going.
This was particularly surprising because the music playing was more ABBA, Dancing Queen, and Rasputin than Hotline Bling or Cheap Thrills. Suburbs, you have me duly impressed. Some of you have a good taste in music. Who knew?!
But as I sat down at the table with my friends I noticed their uniform glum looks. On enquiring, I learnt that the place was too expensive to eat and drink – so we had to pick one. Obviously they had gone ahead with drinking and were in the midst of drinking Whisky Sours (done rightly, thank heavens) and LIITs accompanied only with groundnuts still in their shells.
Harry’s obstacle course of a chakna was like adding insult to injury for a group that was too broke to order food and soon wouldn’t be able to pry the nuts out of their shells, given the amount of alcohol in their systems. I obviously didn’t think the prices were an issue; but frankly, ‘burby places trying to pretend that they are located elsewhere (I’m guessing Central London, in this case) by being extra snobby and charging sky-high prices makes me want to laugh.
Leave the snobbishness to the experts, please sweethearts.
Where? 101, Juhu Tara Rd, JVPD Scheme, Juhu, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400049
