The Sahib Room & Kipling Bar at The St. Regis Mumbai signifies Indian food at its best and is an ode to the good ol’ times when oil lamps, ink pens and silver cutlery were common features on dinner tables in India, find out Jyoti Balani.
A gramophone along with various authentic artifacts such as a magnifying glass, a pipe, a quill pen, some scrolls and old books placed on a community table right in the centre of the bar give The Sahib Room & Kipling Bar an unmistakable feel of the colonial times. An empty seat is always reserved for the literary genius Rudyard Kipling in the bar which is named after him. The prolific colonial novelist and poet spent many a years in hill stations observing the country life. The inspiration for the Sahib Room is the lives and times of the ‘Sahibs’ in the colonial-era; a time when the Sahibs relished rich, flavourful food and traditional Indian hospitality. Elements of vintage oldworld décor in this restaurant and bar consist of antique features of the telephone and prints dating back to the late 17th century to mid-1800s. Water colour paintings from this period showcased in the Sahib Room depict the colonial past of India when writers and poets romanticised the Indian countryside and its people. The British colonial setting of this restaurant manages to evoke a feeling of nostalgia when a diner visit it.
