Chennai bars reopen after five months

Shalabh Verma, director of sales and marketing at Park Hyatt, said that they were ecstatic to start serving liquor to their guests again. “It felt like an eternity since the liquor ban came into place. It was especially tough to explain it to our expat guests and regulars who are not too familiar with the local environment and political background.”

He added, “We celebrated this occasion by throwing a cocktail party for our in-house guests and we are serving drinks at Rs 500 on Friday and Saturday too.”

Simao Conceicao, an expat from Portugal working in the automotive industry here, said that he’s happy that the liquor ban is out of the way. “I had stopped going to the restaurants that didn’t serve alcohol. My evenings out had reduced drastically. Now, I’m happy that I won’t have too many problems before heading out for a few drinks,” he said.