The best of Indian restos in city

‘Heart Cup Coffee’ and ‘Glocal Junction’ emerge victorious at ‘India Nightlife Convention and Awards’
In a befitting honour, two restaurants from the city took spotlight at the first ‘India Nightlife Convention and Awards’, which were held in Mumbai recently.

• Best in the region
• Lounge - Air Cafe Lounge
• Bar Chain - 10 Downing Street
• Beer Bar - MOB- Belgian Beer House
• Dive Bar - Tiki Shack
• Bar Food - Tiki Shack
• Nightclub - Over The Moon
• Resto Bar - Heart Cup Coffee
• Sports Bar - Xtreme Sports Bar
• Open Air Bar - Over The Moon
• Cafe Bar - Heart Cup Coffee
• Bar In Hotel - Sky Lounge
• Cocktail Bar - Glocal Junction
• Bar Of The Year - Olive Bistro
• Wine Bar - Via Milano
• Debut Bar - Glocal Junction
• Venue Live Performance - Heart Cup Coffee
• Live Acts Bands - Threeory
• Artist Manager - Musifix
• Bar Interior - Olive Bistro
• DJ - Midnight Traffic
• Promoter - Musifix
• Pop Up - Olive Bistro

Glocal Junction bagged the award for ‘Best Cocktail Bar’ and Heart Cup Coffee took the ‘Best Café Bar’ title, both at the national level. Speaking on the win, Heart Cup Café founder Dheeraj Keswani, who also owns Xtreme Sports Bar shared, “After Xtreme Sports Bar, we wanted a place for all-day dining, where people would walk in for lunch or coffee. And during our journey with Heart Cup, we realised that there aren’t many venues that focus rightly on live performances and lack in infrastructure suitable for all genres. We have the first outlet in Kondapur and a bigger one at Jubilee Hills.

“We have live performances on a daily basis at Heart Cup Cafe. We have bands coming in from outside, but we also have a lot of local talent. We have a big stage and acoustics suitable for a live show. We even have a green room that accommodates 15 models at a time in case we hold a fashion show. We have standup comedy shows happening and the open-mic comedy, now, happens almost every day,” he said.

Dheeraj has expanded Xtreme Sports bar to other cities (that won the regional award for the sports bar in Bengaluru and Hyderabad), but is not too keen to take Heart Cup to other cities, “We want to take it slow. We want to ensure we stay true to the brand,” he said. Heart Cup Café also won the award for Best Live Performance, Best Café Bar and Best Resto Bar at Re-gional level.

The event was organised by Kickstart Entertainment through an initiative by National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). Speaking about the awards, Aman Anand, Director of Kickstart Entertainment said, “We are proud to present a huge prospect to the industry enthusiasts to gain insights and the personal experiences of International renowned speakers as well as to felicitate the best in the bar and nightlife industry. The event is a key forum for vendors to connect and develop a social network thereby helping them build their customer base”.

“At present, India has the youngest population in the world with major metros having numerous bars and nightclubs in each city. The nightlife industry needs recognition within the fraternity and what bet-ter way to do it other than to launch a property like these Awards,” he said.