You were lovely last year. And just for that, we bring you this in 2013.

Brown paper bag in partnership with Poppy Fields is all set to launch The Coup Card (www.coupcard.in), an exclusive card that gets you a 15% discount on food and alcohol, including happy hours, brunch and set meals, at our favourite 15 restaurants in Mumbai! What’s that? We’re lovely too? We thought you’d think so.

So where can you use your Coup Card? Our partner vendors includes a list of carefully curated restaurants, bars and gourmet stores in the city including Blue Frog, Busaba, Godrej Nature’s Basket outlets, Indigo Deli, JamJar, Le Pain Quotidien, Neel, Olive Bar & Kitchen, Sancho’s, Serafina, Cafe Sundance, Suzette, The Table, The Yoga House and Veda. Yum!

The card is priced at Rs 400 a month - seriously! - and is valid over a period of six months starting February 15, 2013. And during this period, the card can be used an unlimited number of times! The conditions are few: cardholders must carry photo ID; one card per table can be used and discount extends to a maximum of four people.

What: Homemade liqueurs at Gostana, in the garage behind Café Goa, Prabhat Kunj, 24th Road, Bandra (W), call 64533359, Rs 180 for 90 ml.

Why: Your favourite burger joint is now doing homemade liqueurs, starting with Gostana Coffee Cream. Drop by for a glass of creamy yum and hear about the next boozy flavours to come – pineapple, orange and chocolate.

When: Now. Keep your Bailey money ready.

What: Shockk, Crystal Shoppers Paradise, 5th Floor, Off Linking Road, in the KFC lane, Bandra (W).

Why: The noisy Mumbai Times Café shuts (yay!) to be replaced by Shockk, a new restaurant and nightclub that’s all set to open on January 24. With European food (they will have open kitchens and a wood fired oven) and occasional live acts on the menu, we hope this new tenant will be more fun than its predecessor. Also coming soon: a sports bar on the rooftop.

When: Shock circuit starts on January 24.

The Big Bang opened rather quietly in Bandra, a new bar and restaurant that’s created its own universe on a rooftop above Kofuku, one that’s made up of heritage tiles, glass cases and bands from our cosmically happy college days. Sigh.

Housed in the same building as KFC, this space is nicely designed – we didn’t care for the seen-before beer bottle bar – with its inside section in the middle, and two alfresco areas on either side. This is all glass so you can see each section no matter where you’re sitting. The wooden bar and chairs, the Linking Road view with billboards, will remind you a little of Bandra club Escobar.

Minimum Sages

We took a seat on one of the high tables – there’s also one with a plant coming out of its centre – and went through the well-priced bar menu (see list below), distracted by the bands on the speakers that evoked many different memories. Hoobastank, Incubus, Third Eye Blind, Coldplay, Lighthouse Family, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd. BB Spice, Apple and Date Martini, Whisky Plum Sage, Golden Dawn.

Most of the special cocktails weren’t available – they seemed to be out of liqueurs – so we settled for what they had: the BB Spice and Screwdriver. Considering all the confusion over missing ingredients, these were surprisingly tasty. The BB Spice, a deliciously fresh concoction of whisky, ginger, lemon juice and green chilli, didn’t startle the throat and would make for a great day drink as well. The classic Screwdriver, made with malta orange juice, was well-mixed.

True Fries

The list of bar snacks here is long, and is supported by pizza, burgers and pasta. We got the chicken quesadillas, hummus-pita, fries and when the lamb burger disappointed, the special Big Bang pasta.

The quesadillas, generously stuffed with fresh veggies, chicken, beans and cheese, is a good snack option, as are the crisp fries that you can add cheese to. In contrast, the pita platter featured a tiny bowl of hummus (order only if you like your hummus on the garlicky side) and pita triangles that should have been fresher. Although you will be tempted, avoid the lamb burger, which featured dry, flavourless meat. Still hungry, we ended with the Big Bang Masala Mafia pasta featuring a desi concoction of white and red sauce, which is tasty if you don’t condemn fusion food.

Ultimately what matters is that in the age of the Rs 1,000 cocktail, The Big Bang has a terrace bar – although not robustly stocked yet – with well-priced alcohol. We’ll drink to that.

Getting there: The Big Bang, 3^rd floor, Kenilworth Building, above KFC, Linking Road, Bandra (W), call 26008833/77. Rs 1,500 for two with food and one drink each; Rs 250 for a Teacher's Highland Cream, Rs 300 for a Glenfiddich, Rs 300 for Grey Goose, Rs 200 for Old Monk (all small drinks), Rs 375 for a cocktail.

bpb reviews anonymously and pays for its own meals.

Bandra Bulletin

Bandra brie lovers, you should know that Nature's Basket now has a new address at Hill Road, a store with a lot more square feet with merchandise that will make you a lot more round. In addition to the usual stock of yummies, the 8,000 square feet store also features a gift shop, and we're told that they have the "widest range of cheese and meat products anywhere in the country".  Carnivores, you be the judge of that. There's even a dedicated section for in-store workshops.

This Scouter's friend always says, "Nature's Basket is evil". "It makes you want things that you never knew you wanted," he goes on to explain. We pre-empt plenty of tempt at this bigger, more attractive space.

Happy shopping! 

Getting there: 56, Hill Road, Bandra, open from  8 am  to 10 pm, call 26425050 for home delivery.

Indian coffee is routinely bartered for Russian arms; the Ethiopian Coffee Exchange is antiquated but yields a flavorful bean; The Atlantic extols you to drink as much coffee as you like. And here's a cup of freshly-roasted, custom-ground Arabica to go with all your new reading. Dear Blue Tokai, we like you already. 

Black is the New Black

Founded late last year (they got their first batch of coffee in December 2012) by Matt Chithiranjan, an "economist turned coffee roaster in New Delhi", Blue Tokai is a new service that offers to deliver freshly roasted - twice a week by order - Arabica coffee from select Indian plantations, right to your doorstep. Added bonus: they can custom grind the beans based on the equipment you use, including South Indian Coffee Filter, French Press and Moka Pot. 

Regular Perks

Currently on sale are three different beans, including aa Arabica beans from Attikan Estate in Bilgiri Hills, Karnataka, and two varieties of Arabica from M.S. Estate in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. All three, the owners assure, are vetted and approved by seasoned coffee-swilling palates. The beans can be bought in batches of 250 gms and up, and you can even sign up for better-priced regular subscriptions of three, six and twelve months. 

Time for a change in brew-tine?

Getting there: Visit www.bluetokaicoffee.com, start at Rs 270 for 250 gms excluding shipping charges.

What: Jack’s Pizza delivery service, call 23088444/5/8, delivery in Tardeo, Chowpatty, Peddar Road, Kemp’s Corner, Altamount Road, Breach Candy, Napean Sea Road, Rs 175 for 9 inch plain cheese pizza.

Why: This is no gourmet pie, but it’s cheap and cheesy, which is not always a bad thing. If you live in the area or are passing through, Jack’s Pizza – we love the ‘no box can contain this Jack’ tag line - a new delivery/take-away pizza service in town is a decent alternative to the big chains.  Get the simple thin crust Margherita or the Lamb Bolognese, but request that they make the latter slightly less oily.

When: You’re Jonesing for Jack.

Return of the Mac(aroon)

Paint your pans purple this month as Bombay’s favourite food blogger and baker, the Purple Foodie, returns from Paris and London with all kinds of treats and tips. Now the lovely Shaheen Kiswani is in town only until the end of January, but she hasn’t forgotten to accommodate you into her schedule.

In a cute Bandra bungalow, above a beauty parlour, Shaheen will hold baking workshops next weekend (sign up now, limited seats!) teaching you a bunch of tricks she learned at Le Cordon Bleu London and Paris. At the Saturday class, Tea Time Treats, Shaheen will demonstrate how to bake  strawberry and roasted almond cake, cinnamon sugar pull apart bread, fig and hazelnut bars, caramel apple upside down cake and intensely chocolatey brownies. Sigh with your chai!

The Sunday class, titled Chocoholics Anonymous, features triple chocolate cookies, chocolate chip pound cake, banana nutella cupcakes, chocolate mud cake and Parisian hot chocolate.

A bientôt!

Getting there: Tea Time treats on Saturday January 19 from 11 am to 2 pm and Chocoholics Anonymous on Sunday January 20 from 11 am to 2 pm . At Nargis Villa, Sherly Rajan Road, opposite ICICI Bank, Bandra (W), to register email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (limited seating, first  come first serve), call 9167043935Rs 2,800 per class.

Recipe: In you can’t make it, here’s a leaf out of Shaheen’s recipe book.

Upside-down Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

Ingredients
3-4 apples, peeled and cut lengthwise
1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
100g butter, softened
200g sugar, plus a little more for sprinkling
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
200g flour
2 tsp baking powder
80ml milk

Topping: Caramel Sauce (recipe below)

Method
Preheat the oven to 190ºC. Grease and flour the baking pan.
Arrange the apples into the pan so that they sit tightly. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
In a bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar and vanilla, followed by the egg. Mixing them in one at a time, until the mixture is soft and fluffy.
Whisk together the flour and baking powder and fold it into the egg and butter mixture. Finally, stir in the milk until it forms a consistent batter.
Pour the cake batter over the apples and smooth out the surface.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Let the cake cool down for ten minutes. First, run a knife along the edges of the cake and then place a plate on the pan and turn the cake over. Tap it gently, and the cake will fall into the plate.
Spoon the caramel sauce over it.

For the Caramel Sauce

Ingredients
200g white sugar
90g unsalted butter
120g cream
1 tsp Fleur de Sel

Method
Add the sugar in a thick bottomed pan and cook it until it melts. Keep swirling the pan so that the sugar can cook evenly.
Once the sugar has reached a deep brown colour, pull it off the heat and add all the butter. It will foam up, so make sure you're using a pan with high sides. Stir until it's completely melted into the sugar.
Next, pour in the cream (more foaming) and whisk in until you have a consistent sauce.
Stir in half the salt. Let it cool completely. Stir in the remaining salt. Bottle it.

Enigma, JW Marriott’s nightclub is back from hibernation with an all-new avatar.

It will re-open on Saturday, January 12 as a multi-functional space that the folks at Marriott call “a living room concept”. Which means you can book it out and do what you usually do in your living room – host a birthday party, celebrate your parents’ anniversary, hang family portraits or return from work and lounge around in your shorts? It can also be booked by your firm for client meetings and high tea during the day.

At night, Enigma will host club nights featuring deejays (for a glimpse of the old) and a Diageo bar, but will also open up a platform for live musicians, artists, theatre actors and stand-up comics. So you could be chuckling at Enigma soon. In a good way.

Getting there: Enigma, JW Marriott, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, call 66933000, opens on January 12.

In Bombay’s noisy nightscape of limited options, there’s a new shhh in town. Enter the Secret Supper Project, a supper club that was born quietly a couple of months ago, and continues to live among whispers.

Chamber of Secrets

Started by four founders who prefer to remain anonymous, and supported by a host of others, The Secret Supper Project holds one dinner a month at undisclosed Mumbai locations; the first was at an apartment overlooking Haji Ali, the second and third at a Worli flat. “We hope to host the next few at unusual locations like libraries and art galleries,” says co-founder K, who has attended a slew of supper clubs in Hong Kong and New York, and has been cooking for ten years including a quick stint at a Goa restaurant. “

From this kitchen come inventive treats, typically six to eight courses, focusing on dishes that aren’t easily available in Mumbai. Like foie gras for instance, or Aysh el Saraya (Lebanese bread pudding). The last dinner also featured pepper pomegranate sake and pork spare ribs with maple syrup, among other dishes. While K heads the cooking supported by co-founders, he would love for chefs and other people from the culinary industry to come forward and contribute.