New hidden lounge Bagheera launches in Vancouver’s Chinatown
Place a wager on “King Louie” to access the speakeasy from the same team behind Canada’s Best New Bar of 2022
Bagheera.
THE TEAM BEHIND Laowai, named Canada’s Best New Bar of 2022 by Canada’s 100 Best, has opened a new hidden lounge in Chinatown. Taking its name from the sleek black panther in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Bagheera is concealed behind an unassuming off-track betting shop called Happy Valley Turf Club (518 Main Street).
Bagheera.
By placing a wager on “King Louie”, people are granted access through a vestibule papered in original late-19th and early-20th century postcards to an opulent 60-seat cocktail lounge.
Bagheera co-owners Lewis Hart and Brij Rathi, co-founders of Three Kingdoms Hospitality, drew from their cultural heritage to create the space, which pays homage to the adventurous spirit of the Indian subcontinent as the 19th century gave way to the next.
“When we were brainstorming ideas, I said: ‘Why don’t we go where our own family histories intersect?’” Rathi says in a release.
Hart adds: “Both our families have roots in India, so we looked for an intersection and realized we both appreciated Rudyard Kipling and his storytelling. Everything flowed from there.”
The theatrical design by London, England’s Bergman Interiors is inspired by a train car, shimmering with more than 1,000 coins and bangles sourced from antique bazaars in Delhi and Jaipur. A 45-foot hand-painted jungle mural spans the entire wall across from the bar, leading to the semi-private drawing room, which houses a low-lit Cabinet of Curiosities that includes rare whiskeys. Blase, an artist who creates new paintings out of old, damaged artworks, has added modern stylings to Gothic canvases.
Behind the 42-foot bar—which has a reclaimed-teak frontage, an illuminated top, and backsplash of polished tiger-eye-blue onyx—operating partner Alex Black heads a drinks program of era-inspired cocktails with inventive flavours named after Kipling works. Man’s Red Flower, for instance, features saffron-infused gin; All One Vine incorporates smoked paprika; and the Anvil has cinnamon tincture.
Bagheera.
Chef Phong Vo (who’s also at Laowai) has designed a menu of Indian subcontinental cuisine anchored by a pakora selection (with a variety of meat, seafood, vegetarian, and vegan fillings) and share plates, including carrot daal, saag aloo pave, Goan tamarind fish curry, and coconut lamb koftas.
Bagheera.
Phong Vo.
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