The Permit Room is a bar that takes South Indian drinking seriously — the cocktail list is built around local and regional spirits, with toddy-inspired drinks, kokum-spiked negronis, and cocktails made with arrack, the palm-distilled spirit of coastal Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The name references the "permit rooms" of India's Prohibition-era dry states, where travelers could obtain a permit to drink legally — a reminder that India's relationship with alcohol is more complicated and more interesting than most bars acknowledge.
The food is Mangalorean: prawn ghee roast, fish curry, neer dosa, crab masala. It is among the best bar food in Bangalore, and the cocktails are creative without being overwrought. This is the kind of place that could only exist in a city where a sufficient number of people have both money and curiosity about their own culture — which, in its way, is a very Bangalore combination.