Doff Pub And Lounge

There isn’t any discernibly unique proposition to Doff, the new pub lodged in a building that’s as yet under construction on a stretch of 100-Foot Road, Indira Nagar. And that it’s just another nondescript new drinking hole is not without reason. Over the last year, the stretch that Doff sits at the head of, has had a horizon hovering over it fluctuating like backlit indices on a graph – of newer establishments parlaying assorted manners of style, inspirations, cuisine and, above all, the promise of a good evening out. If you’d excuse us for relying on crude methods of math, involving fingertips and plodding computations, we’d give you a chart that reveals a baffling equation: between the number of restaurants, bars and lounges that have barely turned one, versus those that were compelled to hastily shut shop, within those very months. The folk at Doff are playing things safe, and agreeably so. There’s a bar that some might call well-appointed (their gin options are limited but the draught’s crisp), projected screens stuck on live sport telecasts, a genial old hand strumming a guitar for the well-turned couples around on Friday nights (between matches), and munch options from momos to fries and super-spiced hogwash Manchurian. Then again, Doff is perhaps the first establishment here to deliberately stay clear of any stated theme or presaging, be it Californian, Mediterranean, transcontinental, trans-fusion, what have you. None of which is to suggest that the joint isn’t hopping – especially on match nights; a strident gathering we found for a league match earlier this August only convinced us that Doff has it’s start-up equation right. Think of it as a basemodel hatchback or even a sandwich with no trimmings; Doff’s barebones plan – in a glut of offerings that are inventive, clever and, at times plain featherbrained – actually makes pretty good sense. To that sort of assuredness, we’d doff our hats....