Jingle your way to celebrations

December brings along with it the chill of the rather limited winter we see in the city, and the thrill of Christmas. With the combined spirit of winter and Christmas cheering people on, the entire month becomes a grand celebration of good food, better music and the best wine.

This Christmas celebration is awaited all year long, and as patrons get to make the most of the festive spirit in December, restaurants and bars in the city begin planning from early on.

From crafting December and Christmas-related cocktails and creating an entire menu out of delicacies to hosting little gatherings for patrons, restaurants begin to ready themselves up weeks in advance.

And the team behind Mondo Handcrafted Fine Dine has been doing just that. Keen on planning a Christmas that would give their patrons a homely feeling, the team at Mondo decided to keep it simple and warm. “We wanted to provide a platform that will give them a warm, homely feeling. So, we thought of keeping it simple by decorating our place in a minimal manner,” says Sagar Neve, director of Neve Hospitality that Mondo is a part of. For Sagar, the entire idea was to keep their celebrations of the season traditional.  “Our décor and vibe is both traditional. In fact, we have tried to be as traditional as possible — even the food options on offer are curated by taking suggestions from some of our regular Catholic patrons,” he adds.

Like Mondo, The Daily Bar and Kitchen also thought of asking their regulars for some help to make their gathering more special.

Dishant Pritamani, founder of the space, knows very well that the month that brings along Yuletide is special for a lot of his customers. “Christmas is like a homecoming of sorts for our patrons. We consider ourselves really lucky to have known as the home bar by a lot of people and it’s always nice to warm your home during the holiday, festive season,” he smiles.

And to make it as warm as possible, they took help from kind patrons. “Lauren Pereira (a regular patron of The Daily, a friend and a fellow Catholic) is in charge of sprucing the decor every Christmas. We could not have found a better person to help us get The Daily ready to the year on a good and happy note. We always try to work with friends or people who think out of the box and are all heart.”

Being social gatherings, these spaces have also organised interactive sessions, events, games, and performances. “There will be a lot of guest interactions happening on the event, we have planned on games, some surprises and some family events. We have also planned to invite an artiste who would be entertaining guests for the evening,” lists Sagar.

Mihir Shah, director at Kasino Bar, a casino-themed bar, has an entire itinerary planned when asked what the evening will comprise of. “There will be spectacular performances by our in-house magicians. There will be a round of roulette, which will offer a chance of winning cash-back prizes or a complimentary dish to go with, for our lucky table customers. We will have music playing through the evening to make it thrilling for our guests,” he says.

Looks like we are all in for a warm winter at Mumbai eateries!