It’s always aperitivo hour at this Bandra bar

Early on a weeknight, a woman and her partner walked up to Olive Bandra. She smiled at the doorman and said, “Call me Sofia.” Then, they walked right past the blue door, to the next bend in the road. Another group just behind walked right into Olive’s pebbled courtyard. One girl among them asked a server, “Call me Sofia?” Following the jut of his chin, they went to the back of the patio and turned left into a small section, running into the same couple that passed by them a minute earlier.

All this is to say there are two ways to arrive at Call Me Sofia, a new bar behind Olive, which seats about 20 people and serves sessionable, easy-drinking, pre-dinner tipples, with bites to match. Launched by the team behind Olive, this new space is separated by a bamboo screen and drapes from the iconic 25-year-old Bandra restaurant, whose OG loyalists are beginning to go silver as well.

Over the decades, as the Mumbai neighbourhood went from slow suburb to hipster central, an unruffled, steady Olive Bar & Kitchen has shown a few generations how to do a sexy, stylish, languorous Italian night out. Now Call Me Sofia informs a new mindfully drinking next generation how to aperitivo, with slow, sippable drinks, good conversation, and appetite-opening bites. “Our goal was to bring the essence of the aperitivo ritual—the magical in-between moment—to Mumbai in a way that feels playful, stylish, and unmistakably at home in Bandra,” says AD Singh, founder and MD of Olive Group. “It’s where old faces, new faces, and a new vibe all come together, with everyone finding their own version of the story.”

Like Indian Accent’s new bar, Upstairs in Delhi and Izumi’s Idoru in Mumbai, Sofia takes three burgeoning trends—micro bars attached to famed restaurants, low-ABV drinks, and third space—and matches them with an idea that is brand new to Mumbai: aperitivo hour. The inspiration may be sipping Aperol on the edge of Lake Como, but the vibe is definitely friend’s terrace garden: wooden flooring, lined with cosy couches for groups, bartender-facing benches around a low corner-bar counter, and a couple of tucked-away high tables to slip away to for one-on-one connections. Punters can enter via Olive or through the dedicated door in the adjacent lane. Olive’s OG tree is still there, anchoring the room. It’s the sort of spot where you can start a quiet evening and also end a gregarious, chatty night.

To set that mood in place, order Caprese on Sofia’s menu. Yes, it’s a savoury cocktail, and no, it doesn’t taste like a meal in a glass. Lead mixologist Harish Chhimwal’s Caprese-tini looks like a martini but is a delicate, fragrant little light libation with gin, basil-infused vermouth, tomato water, cherry tomato shrub, and a dash of saline. It’s served with capers and wee bits of cheese that pair so beautifully they make a compelling reason to call for round two.

To munch with, we get chef Alessandro Piso’s mini montanara, an airy, fried-dough pizza that originated in the hills around Naples. Next up, four two-bite grilled lamb skewers zig-zagged with a scallion mayo that’s so piquant, we pick some of the condiment up with a fingertip for a shot of tang in between bites and wonder if the chef might part with his recipe.

Piso, who has recently joined the team as executive chef, is walking around the room, checking to see what everyone’s liking (or not). He sounds 100 per cent Italian and looks fully Indian. This is because he’s both, and then some. On his mom’s side, he has a Malaysian Indian grandfather and a Sri Lankan grandmother. His father’s side is Sardinian and Genoese. From one side of the family comes a sense of spice, from the other an appreciation for fresh produce, and from both big comforting family feasts.

At Sofia, this translates to plates that are small bites of full flavour, like Piso’s artichoke hearts. These are laid on a plate like striped bolsters, blanketed with a very white parmesan cream sauce, and streaked with monsoon-grey aged garlic sauce. More savouriness is to be found in mushroom meatballs, crunchy on the outside, crumbly and creamy on the inside, set in a pool of sauce that is petrichor on the palate. Or in the chef’s intense, rich, snack-sized sundried tomato risotto that meets main-sized cravings.

Piso says that it’s every chef’s bane when a diner asks for Tabasco with their plate, effectively murdering any nuance or balance the chef may have tried to convey through a dish. And yet, there is Tabasco to be had at Sofia, except here it is intentional—in marinated slats of watermelon topped with nubs of crumbled feta, laid on a glisten of mint oil. This dish is designed to balance bittersweet drinks, like the Amore that we sip on alongside. It has Earl Grey-infused gin, amaro, mixed berry saccharum, and lemon juice. The Xmas-ey red drink is wreathed with baby’s breath and lemon peel.

Aperitivo may be about low-ABV twilight drinks, but Chhimwal and team also make excellent classics. Our dining companion calls for a dry-ish martini with three olives to close the night and it’s just right. We make our way out to Olive’s blue door, two regulars who did a little growing up in this courtyard. And someone asks us on our way out, “Call me Sofia?” like we are in on some secret.

Address: 14 Union Park Rd, Union Park, Khar West, Mumbai - 400052
Reservations: Call +91 9892633677
Price: Approximately ₹ 4,000 for two with drinks
Hours: Daily, 6 pm to 1 am