Hearsay: Woodside Inn, Mumbai

Ever walk into a restaurant or a clothes shop or a shoe store only to leave after a minute because you’d rather be hungry/naked/barefoot than listen to ‘Summer of ’69′ over a PA? We know that feeling. Hearsay brings you an inside listen to the tunes played in everything from restaurants to restrooms, all over the country. That’s a lot of restrooms.

Woodside Inn
What: Bar/Restaurant
Where: Colaba, Mumbai

Woodside Inn’s been one of our favourite watering holes in Mumbai since Leopold decided to go Bollywood. It also helps that their one-two of a pint of Stella and the barbecue chicken burger makes for an evening. Add to all this free Wi-Fi and you’re stuck explaining to your friends why Colaba is a great place to meet, and get a beer, and just hang.

Woodside’s playlist has evolved over the past year. Where earlier one would hear predominantly mainstream, radio-friendly alt-rock staple (think Coldplay, Nickelback), one can now catch the occassional Modest Mouse single (‘Float On’) and some of Death Cab For Cutie’s more accessible material (think ‘The New Year’, not ‘President Of What?’) thrown in the mix. This is interspersed with more ’90s alternative a la Matchbox Twenty, Counting Crows and Train. Luckily, the random shuffle keeps it fresh (some places *cough*Hawaiian Shack*cough* haven’t changed their playlists since the turn of the century).

We’re yet to find a place in Mumbai where the ambience and ambient music meet at the perfect spot, but you’d be hard pressed to find a closer match in the city than at Woodside Inn. Move over Ghetto.

Hearsay: B