A 5-Step Guide to Reviving Your Neighbourhood Bar

Amit Dev and Neil Quadras were heartbroken to hear news of their neighbourhood bar’s imminent closing; an increasingly common story in an economically fraught climate. But they decided to take matters into their own hands, investing and turning things around, to bring back a neighbourhood institution.

‘Change is constant’ is one of those ancient but annoyingly accurate slogans that have found themselves on t-shirts in contemporary culture. But as a quintessential Bangalorean, I persist by ceaselessly cribbing about these changes, teaching myself to live (and believe) in the city’s past, or pretend like nothing has changed, da.

But things are changing. Two deep-in-their-bone Bangalore boys — Amit Dev and Neil Quadras — decided to stop commiserating about these ‘new developments’ in the city and do something about it: they’ve managed to hit pause on the past — or at least secure a portal into it. In September last year, the duo partnered with Anand Shetty, one-half of the original management of Dolphins, a much-loved neighbourhood bar in Cox Town, on the verge of shuttering, to refresh and run it for him.

Dolphins was started in 1977

1. Don’t be a Part-Time Lover. Be committed

Dolphins was founded by two friends, Ponnanna and Anand Shetty, in 1977. “Its name is a reference to our early USP: Mangalorean seafood specials and inexpensive booze,” Amit tells us on a weekday afternoon over mugs of draught beer. Amit has over fifteen years experience running bars in the city. He was part of the team that launched Cirrus in Indiranagar, then Rewind in Kammanahalli.

“I didn’t believe him when he told me Dolphins is closing. ‘No chance! No chance at all!’” Amit remembers saying when Neil called him in August last year with news of its imminent shutdown. Neil, a Dolphins regular for decades, runs a video production company across the road. “I need a round-the-corner place to drink. And I just couldn’t let another Bangalore institution like this close down,” says Neil, only half-joking.

Neil was tired of Bangalore’s beloved bars shutting down, one after another. “When places like Guzzlers and such close down, it feels like a bit of the city’s legacy is being lost as well,” he says. So instead of adding to the chorus of citizens who say, I would have done something had I known earlier, they decided to step up. “These are iconic places; it’s up to us to see that they don’t close,” he said matter-of-factly.

After 47 years, Anand Shetty, the founder, was done with running this neighbourhood bar. In his time, Dolphins had morphed from a single-floor eatery serving egg pakoda and dal khichdi, to a three-storied restaurant with an outrageously popular Chinese section. Amit and Neil were given ten days to make their business pitch. “Otherwise, it would have gone from Dolphins to a darshini.”

Kanthari Chicken

Prawn ghee roast

2. Dreams come true With a Little Help from My Friends. Okay, more than a little

Neil called Amit, who brought in his liquor licensing and expertise in running bars, to dust up operations, and get things up and running smoothly again. Amit called Ratnakar, another friend and investor, with civil engineering expertise. “Ratnakar usually builds flyovers; he brought in his team to spruce up the space.” And through that single most powerful marketing tool, word of mouth — a phone-tree of friends and friends of friends — the tipplers of the neighbourhood trickled back to their favourite haunt.

3. Keep it easy. Easy like Sunday Morning

“You need to do right by your neighbourhood bar,” says Neil. “Every place has to be its own thing, otherwise it’ll become a template,” he cautions. They were certain they didn’t want to change too much of Dolphins’ original design, and didn’t want to drive away the regular patrons. So quite sensitively, they have continued to keep the prices lowest on the ground floor of this three-storey establishment. 

“We focussed on the first and second floors — we opened it up to feel bigger, made it more airy. We changed up the seating — a little more comfortable — but have kept most of the original tables. We didn’t do any major renovations on the ground floor, we just reorganised the table configurations to make it optimal,” Amit explains. “We didn’t want to over-design, or make it super Instagrammable — just keep it easy. Like getting a drink at a friend’s terrace in the neighbourhood.”

Or like an infamous history teacher in my all-boys’ high school would say, “Open it all up, let the cool Bangalore atmosphere in. That’s enough to make everything better”.

4. Create a bubble to live a Semi-Charmed Life

Since their relaunch, they haven’t had to do much marketing. “It has all been very word-of-mouth,” the duo chorus. “Our patrons did the marketing for us, they were the ones bringing people along with them to check out the new additions,” says Neil. “It’s because Dolphins is buzzing with people’s memories. My elder brother’s favourite professor had his last drink here. We are constantly meeting couples who met here. And now, their children and grandchildren frequent here too,” adds Amit.

Kabir Husain, a physics professor currently living in London, and previously a Cooke Town resident, was a Dolphins regular. He remembers taking the railway overpass to reach Dolphins’ for endless plates of black pepper pork dry, washed down with mugs of chilled beer. He recalls a particularly riveting evening with beer-brewer buddies watching a bewildered cow trying to navigate the flyover at night.

Hollis Coats, a brewer, simplifies it. “It’s closest to home.” But this brevity belies his regular attendance and love for the silverfish fry.

“I’ve spent glorious days there, drinking white rum and eating prawn chilli fry. In those days, it was a dark, unpretentious dive; only men, noisy but nice. It was super cheap, great for end-of-the-month activities when I had no auto fare but drinkages were calling,” says Arul Mani, quizzer and English professor, who discovered Dolphins in the 90s. And then, in the 2000s, it changed. “There were more family units, very uncomfortable furniture, brightly-lit but straitlaced,” and he never went back.

“We approached this place as patrons. We wanted a place with drinks, good food, retro music — but also allows for great conversation,” Neil emphasises, speaking to their absolute choice to avoid the pitfalls and profits of social media marketing.

5. Remember, it’s never a Sure Shot

The success of Dolphins since its revival, with the return of its regulars, has pleasantly surprised Amit and Neil, and has even secured them another revival gig. They’re working on bringing back this elusive ‘old Bangalore bar feels’ to The Denny’s in JP Nagar, which opened in 1991.

“Old Bangaloreans want more places like this — bang for your buck, you don’t have to get decked up, it’s casual and you know everybody,” says Neil. “We don’t know what’s going to happen — we’re going to refine some of the ideas that work here, and test the ones we wanted to but didn’t. Let’s see,” says Amit, with a hopeful smile.

Joshua Muyiwa is a Bangalore-based poet and writer. 

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