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“Good evening, miss! May I have your phone?” says a burly man at the door. We have just been released from the coils of Marathahalli traffic, edging through the bustle of evening commuters into the sudden, conspiratorial hush of a dimly lit reception.

He confiscates my phone, tapes the camera shut and hands it back to me. This is Pablo, the custodian, party starter, secret keeper all rolled into one at One Floor Down by Helen’s, Bengaluru’s first Dionysian-themed bar. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine, drama, ecstasy and fertility, so you get the drift. And if you want to get in, Pablo is the man you have to impress.

The cocktails have cheeky names
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Like all good subversive spaces, (hello, 50 Shades of Grey) there are rules here. But Pablo insists that they also want you to feel liberated. To begin with, only those aged 27 and above are allowed entry (no loud college kids or Gen Z’s fiddling with selfie sticks. Hallelujah!). Stags are technically not allowed, but you can always try your luck at the door. Photography is forbidden. “Sometimes you don’t want to be seen in someone else’s video or be identified. It’s a safe space where you can reveal your bold, fun side, and where there are no inhibitions,” says, Pravesh Pandey, owner of One Floor Down, who also owns Roxie, and Helen’s Place. He adds, rather mysteriously, “We wanted to make it a women forward bar where they decide how the evening goes.”

Inside, the bar is bathed in intimate red light, making the whole evening seem rather theatrical. Staff in scarlet star-spangled uniforms take our orders for cocktails with cheeky names: Hickey, Blindfolded -You Taste Better In The Dark, That Lusty Night, My First Affair – But He Was Married… Put together by Sagar Sarki, they are spirit forward, and as adventurous as their titles. There are hits and misses — inevitable when you experiment in life, love, and cocktails.

I try Skinny Dipping (the drink, not the activity; given the tone of this story it was necessary to clarify that) which has rosé, is spicy with ginger and fragrant with rose, basil, curry leaf lillet; and Second Smoke — smooth with a smoky, sweet, and fruity flavour and features mezcal, tequila along with oregano, pineapple, and caramel yoghurt.

Between sips I look up and notice giant dragonflies hanging from the ceiling like art installations, their wings flapping ever so gently, while their bodies emit a soft red glow. My table holds a red lampshade and a placard that reads Curtain one side and Open To Be Entertained on the other. For complete privacy, choose Curtain. But I am feeling adventurous, so I flip the placard. Pablo appears with a chocolate they call LSD (Drug-free obviously, but what it really has is mint and an ingredient I am not allowed to disclose), chased with a sweet, heady cherry liqueur.

Next comes a game of cards. There are two decks: One holds the Nice cards and the other the Naughty ones. “If you complete a dare, you get a drink, and if you don’t, you buy me a drink,” Pablo laughs.

A cosy alcove
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I pick a card from the Naughty deck, and it reads: Crazy Talk. “This means, you have to call or send your ex a voice note and say something naughty,” grins Pablo. Do I do it? Well, let’s just keep that a secret.

As you have probably figured out by now, One Floor Down is not meant for families or kids. The music and menu are as eclectic as the space, no Bollywood music or butter chicken here. Expect Neo-Bistro and modern Indian food such as Sikandari lamb quesadillas with khejur tomato jam, lacy pork in Goan poee with pear chutney, tuna tarte phuchkas with yuzu dill creme fraiche — I enjoy the sushi. Despite the eclectic menu, some dishes are lacklustre.

This aims to be a space where you can take a walk on the wild side. And Pablo is always there making sure everything is under control. He moves from table to table talking to guests. “You can compliment men on other tables, or have a sparkling conversation. If a gentleman wants to buy a lady a drink, he has to route it through Pablo, who then asks the lady in question for her consent and takes it from there,” says Pravesh.

He adds that he held numerous brainstorming sessions before setting up the bar. “I spoke to 20 ladies over six months to understand what they feel or want when they step into a bar. Some said they don’t feel safe, some want to feel confident and also be complimented, few others said they want the bill to be given to them and not to the man at the table, another group did not want to be stared at when they are dressed up,” he says, adding that all these points were taken into consideration while conceptualising One Floor Down.

And how does Pravesh intent to appease the Instagrammers? He smiles, “They just have to capture the experience in their eyes. When we decide to go back to a place we go back for the experience, not for pictures we have taken.”

One Floor Down operated Wednesday to Saturday, 5.30pm onwards. There’s a cover charge of ₹1,000. Tel: 8088230721 Address: 3rd Floor, 90/3, Outer Ring Road, Service Road Balaji Layout, Chandra Layout, Marathahalli, Bangalore

| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Published – October 07, 2025 07:42 pm IST