= For years, I've called and considered Bangalore to be a town that grew to fast in wealth and importance without ever really making itself into a city. What I mean by this is the city is sprawling in every direction but didn't have the infrastructure (highways, public transport, sidewalks) to support it. Bangalore has made some significant, meaningful strides. Partocularly their metro system is quite effective and expansive, and their roads leading to important destinations (e.g. the Airport) are better. But in so many ways it still is an oversized town.
= In that sense, I just don't understand how there is traffic in every direction at nearly all times until about 10pm. How are there this many people, this many neighborhoods, this much just maw. There are umpteen different neighborhoods in Bangalore that all have just so many people. The metro needs to get finished quick but even then I can't foresee them getting a significant number of people away from the roads. It's just an endless sprawl.
= That said, one of the pleasant parts of the trip were going further afield. First to an area called Rajajinagar in Eastern Bangalore, where lies the beautiful Orion Mall, with a man-made lake in the back, and a series of fairly nice looking residential buildings in various stages of growth. Of course, like all things Bangalore the street in front of it is a crazy mess, but this tranquil pond behind it is really, really nice. Someday more and more of these types of set-ups will be there.
= I felt similarly about Whitefield, visiting the much ballyhooed enclave of Western companies to the Northeast of Bangalore. Again, the industrial parks and commercial buildings are beaming, but the roads and areas outside the high security gates and checkpoints, are classic Bangalore (messy, high degree of variance of infrastructural investment, etc.). Within Whitefield though were some really nice malls, nice breweries (more on those to come), and a lot of pleasantness - you just have to leave the road.
= On the brewery front.... 9 years ago on my trip in 2015 I ranked six breweries that I went to on that trip. All six to my knowledge are still open - hell I went to two of them on this trip. But in the nine years in between so many more have opened, all have largely upped their beer-making game, and Breweries have basically over-run Bangalore - in a great way. The most bizarre part is how big, spacious and stunning they all are. More on that next, but I will say the most positive development in teh nine intervening years is how much better the beer has become. Both better and more varied. The IPA revolution took a while to reach India (ironically), but has very much arrived. The ABVs are higher. The beers are crisper. Given these places are selling ambience and decor and space as much as beer, I'm glad they've all invested in having good beer as well.
= The size of these places are just bonkers. The two big ones we went to on this trip were Iron Hill, which calls itself the biggest microbrewery (space wise) in the world (probably a refutable claim), and Byg Brewski - one of a few of their locations, this one being different to the one I went to in 2015. Both of these two were similar in their audaciousness. They easily take up the floorpsace of what could be an office building or high rise residential space. Both are 2-3 floors themselves, with the lower floor having a large (and I mean large) outdoor area, with a pond, seating all aroudn it, open balconies, and so much more. I don't understand how all of these can stay in business. They must have ridiculous rents. There's so many of them, and all are fairly good on beer and food as well. Overtime you think some would just lose thsi competition for share of wallet, but seemingly not yet.
= On the food side, it is impressive how generally good these breweries are with food. Some of the best dishes I had were at Iron Hill, like their various chili fried / grilled meat starters with copious amounts of curry leaf, spices, coconut and other south indian delicacies. I intentionally delayed my curry and biryani eating to later in the trip when I travel to places more known for that stuff, but the chicken chili fry and mutton podi's and masala prawns and all the like were fabulous anyway.
= I finally ate at the Catholic Club. My family in India is members of two clubs in the heart of Bangalore - the Bangalore Club and the Catholic Club. I've been to the Bangalore Club for food a handful of times (including once on this trip as well), but never to the Catholic Club aside from going there for a New Year's Eve event in 2015/16. Well, finally went there and man was it great - maybe one of the best things I ate in my time in Bangalore was a Kerala Paratha (to be honest, not sure waht makes it "Kerala") and Kerala Beef (buffalo). They also had a super smooth nitro stout on draft from Geist brewing. About as good a combo as you can ask for.
= Overall, Bangalore is a very vexing city. I will never stop going there as long as I have close family living there. I did see a marked return on the infrastructure investment of things like the metro. As always, once you get inside a building it is generally pleasant and modern. But the city remains so maddening with its overlooked sidewalks, and the urban sprawl. It is still an oversized town - few skyscrapers of any note. You can argue there are six city centers, but if you can argue tehre are six city centers that really means there are none. As nice as the breweries are, I still don't know if the answer to the question of "Would you come here if you didn't have family here?" is a "yes".
