Rahul's Post

The Classics, Reimagined There's a certain smugness that pervades the cocktail scene these days. Everyone, it seems, is obsessed with provenance, with small-batch this and artisanal that, with smoke and foam and elaborate garnishes that require tweezers to place. It's all very impressive, of course, but somewhere along the way, we seem to have forgotten that a great cocktail doesn't need to announce itself with theatrics. It just needs to taste bloody good. Which brings me to Iki & Gai, a bar that has decided to do something rather clever. Instead of chasing the latest trend or inventing ever-more-baroque combinations, they've gone back to basics. Well, sort of. The concept is deceptively simple. The bar world generally acknowledges six essential cocktails as foundational to understanding mixology: the Old Fashioned, Martini, Daiquiri, Sidecar, Manhattan, and Whiskey Highball. While the International Bartenders Association now recognizes 102 official cocktails (though the actual number in existence is anyone's guess), Iki & Gai has chosen to play with thirteen classics, categorizing them rather cleverly into Pre-War, The 90's, and Post-Covid eras. It's a timeline of drinking culture, really, and it tells you something about how our palates and our priorities have evolved. What I particularly appreciated was their lack of pretension about the whole thing. Yes, they have their creative riffs on classics, but they'll also happily serve you your favorite spirit straight up or with a mixer of your choice. And if you have something specific in mind, the bar team will make it for you without the sort of theatrical sighing that some mixologists employ when you dare to order off-menu. Now, to the drinks. The Dadi Issues caught my attention immediately, and not just because of the name. This was a riff on a margarita, made with Las Maracas Reposado, green chili, jalapeño, amchoor, jaggery, lime, and pickled onion. On paper, it sounds like it might be trying too hard. In practice, it was a revelation. The green chili and jalapeño provided a slow-building heat that the jaggery tempered beautifully, while the amchoor added that distinctly Indian tang.

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This post was published on 10th February, 2026 by Rahul on his Instagram handle "@rahulprabhakar (Rahul Prabhakar)". Rahul has total 69.6K followers on Instagram and has a total of 2.4K post.This post has received 72 Likes which are lower than the average likes that Rahul gets. Rahul receives an average engagement rate of 0.3% per post on Instagram. This post has received 99 comments which are lower than the average comments that Rahul gets. Overall the engagement rate for this post was lower than the average for the profile.