"You either love or hate a martini, there's no in-between," says Yeshwant Holkar to me, as he explains how the polarising drink is his newest experiment and the perfect vehicle for storytelling and expression.
Holkar, who runs Ahilya Fort Heritage Hotel in Maheshwar and Ahilya by the Sea in Goa, is a descendant of Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar and Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar II—and the public-facing custodian of the Indore royal family legacy. At his boutique hotel in North Goa, he is drawing from his rich heritage, favourite ingredients, memories and curiosities for his new Martini Bar, where the background score of soft, crashing waves is punctuated only by the swirling and pouring of eight variations of the martini.
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“I’m not a cocktail guy, like the whole fruit juice-agave-syrup thing is really not my scene. But I love a good martini. I started thinking about how it was an interesting platform from a cocktail perspective, because it’s a very standard base, but you can layer on interesting flavours, right? So how do you take something very simple and then layer ideas, concepts, flavours, memories onto it?”
Down this rabbit hole Holkar went and the result is Goa’s most unassuming bar, far from the pulsating beach parties and neon party lights. It doesn’t announce itself boldly but sits pretty in a corner of the hotel’s library. Flanked by a painted, wooden tiger artefact and other eclectic knickknacks from Holkar’s travels, the bar—all teak wood and brass—forgoes a bartender’s counter—a deliberate choice to extend the hotel's inviting, living-room feel.
“You know when you’re in the middle of a conversation, you don’t want to be interrupted by an origin story of an ingredient in your cocktail. At the Martini Bar, we want to keep the conversation and drinks flowing. We won’t bore you with other details. Unless you specifically ask,” Holkar says, blue eyes twinkling.
The martini is about sleek perfection—there is little room to hide, no juices and multiple ingredients to mask an unbalanced drink. Romanticised by writers and in film alike, it has earned its place in cultural lore. Ernest Hemingway is known to have made his with a splash of vermouth, gin and Spanish cocktail onions. MFK Fisher once wrote, “A well-made dry Martini or Gibson, correctly chilled and nicely served, has been more often my true friend than any two-legged creature.” James Bond gave us the famous phrase linked to the drink: “shaken, not stirred”. The ice-cold martini stands for all things elegant and understated, which is why, in the age of quiet luxury, it continues to have a moment.
With my Kindle for company, I make my way through the thoughtfully put-together menu, all items named after places of interest. One of my favourite backstories I hear about the menu is about The Gulmarg. With a hint of cardamom and saffron, it is reminiscent of Kashmiri kahwa, a drink young Holkar enjoyed in the Grand Bukhara Hall at Highlands Park, a hotel owned by a family friend in Gulmarg. “It’s one of my favourite places in the world—for nostalgic reasons, aesthetic reasons, for the smell of it, the way it’s laid out and the community it creates. I wanted to distil some of that into this drink.”
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As the candle on my table flickers with the cool sea breeze, I think to myself: ice-cold martinis in Goa’s sticky climate seem like a good idea. But as simple as it sounds, I can hardly imagine its execution to be easy. “For a martini to be a martini, it must be served chilled. Anything higher than seven degrees and it’s soup,” says Holkar. In order to ensure quality, he roped in ace mixologist Pankaj Balachandran and his team from Countertop India, who brought his vision to life. “We went back and forth on temperature for a while. If a guest sits outside, to listen to the waves, the martini would become a harsh shot of booze,” explains Balachandran, over the phone.
To counter this, the pre-batched cocktails and the glasses they are served in are stored in the freezer at a specific temperature—too warm and the drink is tepid, too cold and it’s frozen. All martinis are served as two sips and come with another serve in a sidecar on ice, to ensure the drink stays chilled.
“When Yeshwant came to me for a martini-only bar and showed me the space, I told him it wasn’t possible,” says Balachandran. Based on the latter’s recommendation, air conditioning was added to the library. The ideal room temperature—a pleasant 22 degrees—was set, along with the perfect number of candles to create an intimate atmosphere without affecting the temperature.
“The attention to detail Yeshwant brought to this was quite incredible. I joked that working with him on this was like when an unstoppable force meets an immoveable object!” Balachandran recounts.
For all the careful planning that went on behind the scenes, the partaking of libations is seamless through the evening, my drinks remain ice-cold, and the hospitality warm. As I watch the sun dissolve into the sea and work my way through the long list of martinis, I’m grateful for this little sliver of quiet amid the madness that Goa has become. Whether it involved an unstoppable force or an immoveable object seems irrelevant now. For now, it’s just me, the sea and my martini.
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Musts from the Menu
The Indore
A classic, crisp martini that uses the rind of fragrant seedless lemons developed in the early 19th century during the reign of Holkar’s great-great grandfather, Maharaja Shivajirao Holkar II of Indore.
The Bombay
The Bombay and the Kochi are variations of a wet-style martini, with guava chilli spiced gin and coconut water, respectively.
The Udaipur
Carries a kiss from Damask rose, a nod to a heritage liqueur Holkar’s father used to make when he was younger.
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