Aqua themed A2 Restaurant & bar launched at The Park

Last Friday I attended the launch of A2 bar and restaurant at The Park hotel, Nungambakkam, Chennai. I am not a party person and do not frequent bars- but I had never been to The Park, one of Chennai's most popular hotels, till date, despite being in Chennai for over 9 years and having checked out most of the luxury hotels in town under the pretext of one event or the other. With nothing else planned for Friday night, I decided to check out the new A2 bar at The Park, as it would be a good opportunity to visit the hotel, say hi to few friends I had met during Zone Coimbatore launch last year and learn a bit about the newest outlet in town.

I reached the venue little ahead of time thanks to my excessive provisioning for traffic delays, spent some time around the pool in Level 8 and observed the preparations that were going on.  Soon I met the PR and other key staff from The Park and I got a brief overview of the concept behind the A2 bar.

As I entered A2, a look at the ceiling gave me a feeling that work is still incomplete. Looked like false ceiling wasn’t laid yet. When I asked about this, I was told that it is intentional. The A2 is designed to look rustic and retro. Besides the ceiling, there were GI pipes laid out with artificial rust sprayed on, the chairs had unique look and feel, with gunny bag feeling and protruding wooden sticks. It was night time and I didn’t have a proper camera, so am unable to bring a more realistic photo to you. Do visit the A2 at The Park in person to experience the ambiance yourself.

Next one hour, I had the honor of explaining to 3-4 other guests that roof is intentionally left that way and it is NOT because work is incomplete... One of the walls had fluid motion of water depicted using projector and other art work- gives a nice feel to sit around. Several reputed books related to water, river etc were placed in the racks to complement the theme.

A2 bar and restaurant is NOT targeted at young crowd. It doesn’t have a dance floor and isn’t designed as a party space. A2 targets more mature 30+ aged customers who need a relaxed, soothing place to unwind. A2 has seating capacity for about 40-50 pax. With the pool on one side, the views are great too. The uniform design for the staff was done by a local firm. A2 is open to customers from last Saturday and is open to both hotel guests and outsiders.

A2 bar serves a range of ala carte food as well, besides alcoholic options. The potato smash based dish was nice. I noticed that most food items were prepared one level below and supplied at A2. I don't drink, so can't comment much on drinks being served there. Had several back to back mocktails that were refreshing.

During the course of the evening, I had brief interactions with Sneha of Elle Décor, an interior design magazine, family running a prominent hospital chain in the town, Ashwin who was with us during Coimbatore visit and few others.

Evening was well spent.