Mixologist Virender Singh Proves Everything Can Be A Cocktail Ingredient. Even Salmon.

What’s common between tomatoes, amaranth, salmon, and apple? They’re the star ingredients of the new bar menu at Red, a Delhi-based cocktail bar built around a single colour; it runs through the food, the drinks, the design, and the language of the space. The newest cocktails on the menu take a narrower cut of the theme and yield drinks creative enough to paint the town red, pun intended. 

The Concept

Every single drink from the signature menu should include the colour red, either in an ingredient or in the serve. One would think the cocktail programme is limited due to the theme. But mixologist Virender Singh introduces enough variety, in terms of spirits, styles, and ingredients, that makes you look at red in a whole new light. 

The cocktail programme progresses from highballs to experimental mixes that focus on what goes behind the bar, spotlighting cocktail-making techniques like “clarification, centrifuge, molecular mixology, etc.”, as per Singh. This is followed by after-dinner cocktails and the “Red Originals” (drinks developed for the bar’s first menu and still recognised by customers). 

The New Cocktail Menu

According to Singh, "each ingredient had to earn its place” on the new menu, doing the actual work and becoming the dominant taste. It wasn’t just an afterthought. 

Rouge indicates the shade of red, and Orchard is for the core ingredient - apples. Celery, mint, and citric acid (used to retain freshness of juices) round up the ingredient list. The juices are rested and filtered before use. The dehydrated celery is mixed with salt for the garnish. 

The base spirit is whisky, but not just any type. Much like the colour red, whisky also comes in many shades or tastes. And not all of them work the same way. The use of Johnnie Walker Blonde here, thus, was intentional. 

According to Singh, “Not everyone likes spirit-forward cocktails. This is for people who prefer a lighter side of whisky. We have to find which ingredient pairs well with celery and apple, which is a great combination in itself but goes really well with whisky too. Whisky is also tricky to balance. We have to be particular about the characteristics we want to introduce. With a different whisky, the apple would have been gone from the cocktail. We always have to choose a whisky which lets the ingredient shine.”

It looks deceptively simple, as if it’s just a whisky topped with bubbles. But the drink’s crisp, peppery finish proves this is anything but a simple highball. 

Singh’s favourite cocktail on the menu, Amaranth Blush was inspired by the classic Godfather, but leans towards a milk punch in style. It champions Amaranth because, as per Singh, “eight years (in mixology), I rarely see a cocktail with amaranth.”  

The drink, which feels pretty enough to preserve, leans more earthy and nutty than the highball. It’s a spirit-forward style, but whisky alone does not drive the flavour here. There’s nuttiness from the amaranth seeds, hazelnut, and even almond milk.

A take on the Martini cocktail, this is one of the most unusual cocktails (on most menus, not just here); it uses gin, pink salmon, elderflower, and a tobiko olive to finish. Savoury, umami, floral all at once, it was the drink that took Singh the most time to perfect. He experimented with various techniques and fish before arriving at the exact recipe. 

“We sous-vide smoked salmon, oranges, and gin for two hours. The flavours of salmon seep into the gin, and then we filter it with a coffee filter. It’s then mixed with in-house floral vermouth made with elderflower. It’s not a dry Martini cocktail, but floral and wet.”

Gin meets wine and pomegranate reduction, mandarin and ponzu to form a tart, sweet, tannic cocktail. Topped with a delicate white chocolate garnish (for colour contrast), this is a beautiful-looking drink, much like the Amaranth blush. The idea of the drink, as per Singh, came because “people are now drinking red wine cold; even in London. So, we thought why not use that in drinks.” 

Despite an ingredient as dominant as red wine, you never taste it in the drink. The cocktail remains subtle, slightly fruity, and delicate, almost like a well-flavoured, cold tea. 

Other Unexpected Combinations

It’s not just the new cocktails. The entire menu feels like a homage to the unexpected.

Take the case of Melon Coral, a tequila cocktail with a watermelon sphere on top. It makes the traditionally crisp and earthy tequila taste creamy and nutty. It includes almond-flavoured Italian liqueur, watermelon juice, and in-house syrup of pink peppercorns, but the nutty creaminess comes from washing tequila with peanut butter. The combination shouldn’t work, and yet it does. 

This is true for many drinks on the menu, including one of the Red Originals, Moh Maya, that combines the flavours of goat cheese (through clarification), tequila, and strawberry puree. It comes with a cheese cracker and is one of the most popular drinks on the menu. But if you’re a fan of theatrical presentations, give the Rose-tea cocktail a try. Made with London Dry Gin, rosewater, and chamomile tea, among other ingredients, it’s served from a teapot into a cup. 

A Red Take On Classics 

The menu also includes riffs on many classic cocktails that balance the bar’s theme with the traditional recipes. That’s how you end up with Scorched Chilli, a take on the Picante where agave syrup is replaced with yuzu and Gondhoraj lemon for citric sweetness, and sun-dried chillies (the red ingredient) instead of jalapeños. Or the Chocolate Cosmos, a crisp yet nutty version of the classic Espresso Martini cocktail, a classic that always gets ordered at the bar. 

There’s also Tomato, which is nothing like the Bloody Mary, though it shares the core ingredient. This is a highball, based on gin, basil, apricot brine, tomato water, and is as umami as its star ingredient. If you’re looking to sample tomato in a cocktail, this is worth trying. 

But if you had to pick one, it’s the Bittersweet Shimmer. It’s inspired by the Negroni cocktail, the drink that started Singh’s journey into cocktail-making. This particular riff introduces pandan to the original recipe. The sweet, fragrant ingredient tempers some of the drink’s sharp bitterness. It’s still spirit-forward but softer on the palate. Or as Singh puts it, “it’s not very opposite of Negroni, but just a little less bitter, with a little more flavour.”

With a theme like red, there are high chances of falling into gimmicks, repetitions, or, worst of all, imbalanced flavours. Singh’s expertly curated menu not only avoids these obvious pitfalls, but also introduces unexpectedly creative combinations. Red is a space that invites you to question the usual and walk away with a single thought - everything belongs in a cocktail. 

To Book A Spot: 

• Timing: 1 pm - 1 am every day

• Contact details: +91 85272 74562

• Food: Asian menu with an extensive vegetarian section. 

• Address: Red, 24, Community Centre, Main Market, Basant Lok, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, Delhi 110057

• Price for two: INR 2000+

*Drink Responsibly. This communication is for audiences above the age of 25.