A New Era of Mixology at Paradox
Paradox, a cocktail-forward bar that opened early this year in Mumbai, India, is led by Ankush Gamre. The bar is part of the same team that created Masque, India’s No.1 restaurant on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 list. Gamre is also responsible for the cocktails and cocktail pairings at Masque.
The ground floor of the bar features an open kitchen and a dining room. Gamre’s menu at Paradox is a study in contrasts: structured yet fluid, familiar yet strange. This is the stage for his boldest, most audacious cocktails with some daring pairings bursting with flavor and technique. Drinks at Paradox are built to shift, not settle. They’re poured with technique and layered with flavor, designed to evoke questions, not answer them.
How Did You Get Into Bartending and Mixology?
Though not a trained chef, Gamre enjoys cooking a lot. Everything he knows about cooking has been passed on from his mother. He first got into hospitality as a bar back for different restaurants. This generated a lot of interest in bartending and everything that came with it. Enough to sign up for Diageo’s Bar Academy programme, which he completed alongside his job.
Once he was done with that, he landed a full-time gig at Please Don’t Tell, a Mumbai bar. One of his seniors joined Masque and called him over to work with him. He joined Masque in 2017 as assistant bartender. He worked his way up the ranks and today he heads the beverage programmes at Masque and cocktail bar Paradox, which opened earlier this year.
The Concept Behind Paradox
When Gamre first heard the word “paradox,” what struck him was the idea of “no rules.” This was also the brief that Aditya [Dugar] gave Varun [Totlani] and him. A paradox doesn’t have a straight explanation, does it? And that’s exactly how their cocktails are. They take the spirit of experimentation they’re known for and turn it on its head. The flavors and techniques are fresh, unpredictable; what’s in your glass might have taken two hours or two months to craft. No one will tell you this, but you’ll subconsciously feel that complexity and technique with every sip. That’s what Paradox is about: pushing boundaries, breaking limits.
Exploring the Menu
There is a beautiful harmony in the drinks menu, where there is everything from sweet to savory to umami-based drinks. First off, they have a special zine menu – Revelations – which feels like it has a life of its own. It’s the start of an evolving series that changes with the seasons, based on what the team’s been tinkering with in the lab. The zine format made sense because it gave them space to be playful, raw and instinctive. Think of it as the problem child of Paradox that doesn’t follow the rules, but is still very much part of the bloodline.
Then there’s their regular drinks menu; you open it and you have 10 house cocktails (and one ‘Cheap Date’ that has Johnnie Walker Blue Label and caviar!), followed by four cocktails on tap. Then you come to their selection of wines and straight pours, rounded off with zero-proof beverages.
Tap Cocktails: A Unique Experience
Paradox is the first bar in the city to offer tap cocktails. It’s a great customer experience to walk into a bar, make your way to a table and order a tap cocktail that appears quickly, within minutes. Sipping on a drink while you decide what to eat makes the experience even more fun. They set the tone for what to expect from the evening.
Catering to the Indian Palate
Paradox is from the same family that has brought Masque to India, so at heart, they will always have local, seasonal Indian ingredients in mind. But it’s also catering to an audience which loves global experiences and flavors. Nothing at Paradox can be boxed into one thing conceptually, whether it’s the food or the drinks.
The Secret Snack at the Bar
You’re making me give away my best-kept secret! If you’re a friend of the bartender or a Paradox regular sitting at the bar, they have a small mushroom bite that’s an umami flavor bomb. You’ll never see this anywhere but at the bar. They’ve made it in a way that it complements a drink’s acidity, so take a bite, sip your drink, rinse and repeat. It’s totally worth becoming a regular for!
Pairing the Menu
The food menu in the dining room and the bar is the same, save for two dishes – the Thai Steam Boat and the Kakigori. Those two are dining room exclusives; the rest of the food and drinks menu is available wherever you might be seated at Paradox.
Paradox vs. Masque
Masque will always celebrate Indian ingredients through its food and drinks; that’ll pretty much never change. But Paradox isn’t bound by any particular rules or format in terms of the flavors they offer. Which is why you see squid and caviar in the food and drinks, because it just made sense to put it on the Paradox menu. Overall, Paradox is designed to give guests an international experience right here in Mumbai. The drinks and food are all designed to reflect the kind of space Paradox is, which is very different from Masque in its inherent offering.
What’s Next for Ankush Gamre?
Gamre says he’s only gotten started at Paradox. It’s his playground and the chance to be cheeky, fun and wild. So, the next bit is to keep upping his game at Masque and Paradox, because you’re only as good as the last cocktail he mixed!
