Mumbais new listening bar, Nami, wants you to hear things differently

There was a time when going to a bar meant shouting over the music so your friend could hear the end of your sentence. Increasingly, India’s drinking culture is making room for something more considered. Listening bars, where music is not merely background noise but the reason to walk through the door, are bringing audiophile culture out of private collections and into public spaces. Nami, a new 25-seater listening bar in Bandra West by Aditya Birla New Age Hospitality (ABNAH), is Mumbai’s latest attempt to turn down the volume on the usual night out.

Named after the Japanese word for a wave or ripple, Nami is built around the idea that sound can be experienced physically, not just heard. There is a wave-shaped bar, acoustic panelling inspired by sound waves, and programmable lighting that ripples across the ceiling. Japanese minimalism and calligraphic forms meet Indian references such as rangoli and kolam, while wood and brass lend warmth to a space that could otherwise feel like an elaborate audio laboratory.

Designed by Mumbai’s Patch Design Studio, the 600 square-foot room features a multicell horn setup, refurbished Technics SL-1210 MK2 turntables and a Resør rotary mixer hand-built in Berlin. The speakers are handmade in Indonesia, while Munro Acoustics has worked on the room’s acoustics. It is a formidable amount of thought to put into a space where you could, technically, just order a drink and chat.

For Sumit Vaswani, head of experiences at ABNAH, the idea grew out of four years of collecting vinyl and a career spent curating members’ clubs and programming events. Having worked with Social and antiSOCIAL, Sumit wanted to take his interest in curation beyond putting together a good line-up and build a place that reflected his own relationship with music.

“The world is moving towards intimate spaces,” Sumit says. “Nami is an attempt at activating counter cultures: a room where music sits at the centre of the hospitality experience.”

The music unfolds through the evening, beginning with jazz fusion and spiritual jazz before moving through soul, world disco and trip-hop, eventually making way for house and electronica. Resident selector Owlist, a hip-hop and lo-fi producer from Jaipur, brings a background in beat-making and vinyl sampling. He will be joined by Indian and international selectors, including Mumbai favourites Dreamstates, Sindhi Curry and Zokhuma, Jitwam and Japanese vinyl DJ Que Sakamoto. Dedicated listening sessions, meanwhile, will see records played from beginning to end, side A followed by side B.

The pours

Created by Singapore’s Sago House, The Frequency Menu moves from lower-alcohol serves to stronger cocktails, with each drink assigned a frequency and corresponding visual identity. It’s an interesting concept, though the drinks don’t always feel as distinctive as the idea behind them.

Springleaf pairs gin with shiso and curry leaf in a refreshing highball, while Hirajoshi takes the Martini in an umami-rich direction with gin, vodka, kombu, junmai sake and house-made pickles. Raga combines reposado tequila with Alphonso mango and black cardamom, bringing a distinctly Indian touch to the menu. While the flavour combinations show an appetite for experimentation, the frequency-led approach sometimes feels more for optics. Still, there is enough to explore here, particularly if you enjoy drinks that venture beyond the familiar.

My favourite drink of the evening was Brainwave, a mix of Rémy Martin VSOP, Havana Club 3 Year, matcha cream, wasabi, white chocolate, fresh lemon and soda. The combination made for an intriguing interplay of flavours, with the matcha and wasabi adding an unexpected edge, though the sweetness from the white chocolate could do with a lighter hand.

The thinking is intriguing, although the conceptual framework occasionally threatens to overshadow the drinks themselves. Assigning cocktails frequencies is a clever extension of Nami’s central idea, but ultimately, the liquid has to deliver. The highballs make a convincing case for taking your time, while the more elaborate flavour combinations will appeal to those who enjoy savoury, botanical and umami-led drinks. Each cocktail also comes with a printed cymatic pattern on butter paper; collect several and layer them to reveal a larger psychedelic design. It is a playful touch.

Chef Akanksha’s Itameshi menu brings together Italian techniques and Japanese flavours. Fried pasta with whipped ricotta, wasabi and chilli honey, and chashu croquettes with chicken-fondo crema work as nibbles between records, without turning dinner into the main event. I would not, however, visit Nami for the food.

There are practical considerations, too. Tucked away within the new Supa San outlet in Bandra, Nami is not the easiest space to find. I struggled to locate it, although the staff and people around were helpful in pointing me in the right direction. Inside, the low lighting adds to the atmosphere, but watch your step, particularly on your way out after a few drinks.

Whether Nami’s proposition catches on beyond the audiophile crowd remains to be seen. Will diners and drinkers who care more about their cocktails and conversations than the records playing in the background embrace the format? Perhaps that is precisely the point: to create a space where people can learn to listen differently. If the right record comes on, you might just find yourself staying for the whole side.

Published – November 03, 2026 04:09 pm IST