There is a bittersweet paradox underlining the story that Yash Bhanage, partner at The Bombay Canteen (TBC), is reiterating. He's explaining how a Canteen Cocktail Takeover at his freshly redone restaurant transpired. The seeds for a collaboration with trendy San Francisco-based bar Trick Dog were planted two years ago, shortly after Bhanage found out about the founders through a common friend. But their virtual interactions will finally find meaning tomorrow, when Morgan Schick, Josh Harris and Caitie Connolly, founders and bartenders of the drinkery, which is listed on the World's 50 Best Bars, take over the bar at the Lower Parel diner.

"This has been in the works for some time now, but the dates kept changing. The general elections further pushed it, because we knew there would be a dry day and we didn't want to take the risk, considering they would be flying all the way down," Bhanage shares. And here's the paradox — on one hand, we have a growing community of industry folks and patrons who're open-minded enough to try, say, a kokum-infused rum, and on the other, well, we have dry days.