“We send the cheapest of these sarees,” he says, pointing to some that are hanging at his by-appointments-only set up on the ground floor of his Defence Colony home, to places down south like Chennai and “they are unable to sell them”. Then, there’s a friend, he says, who had opened an ambitious outlet in Chandigarh. A stylish Bollywood star had been called in for the launch and the entire city, it seemed, turned up. But the store had to shut just a couple of months down the line. There were, apparently, no buye.
The aim of this meeting has been to talk about Bajaj’s attempts at setting up a wine bar in New Delhi, in conjunction with his existing café in GK that was set up in consultation with restaurateur Ritu Dalmia. The bar aims at selling wines exclusively; maybe a single malt or two but nothing beyond. It will have a big selection of wines by the glass, most of them imported, “just one Indian because, I know, when expats or foreigners come to India, they look for Indian wine,” says Bajaj, who is more a champion of Italian wine than Indian wine...
