Chennai's new beachfront lounge Soak serves cocktails with a side of sea breeze

From pickle-brine tequila cocktails and edamame sundal to sushi, mutton chukka and Kahlúa tiramisu, Soak is not a place to arrive with a small appetite -- both for food and for the views

First order of business: A salty, spicy tequila cocktail paired with unobstructed views of the East coast.

I have made my way to the city's latest beachfront cocktail lounge, Soak, located right on Palavakkam beach. A late-October sea breeze greets me before restaurateur Bhavesh Shah ushers me in through the boxes, scaffolding and other telltale signs of a space readying itself to become the city's comfort beach bar.

Soak shares its DNA with Bask by Coffee?, an existing city favourite, synonymous with good coffee, a laidback setting and food that rarely disappoints. A haunt for everyone from celebrities to college students and even Chief Minister Joseph Vijay and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Bask has built its following on the simple promise of a place where you can settle in and stay awhile. Soak carries that same philosophy to the coast, trading the familiar cafe for a space where cocktails take centre stage.

There is room to wander, settle in with a drink, and let the evening unfold at its own pace. That is exactly what I do. My Tequila Sonic, a mixed pickle brine and in-house carbonated soda cocktail, is the perfect companion to the edamame sundal. Crunchy bits of fried dal and fresh coconut tossed with chickpeas and edamame is a flavour and protein-packed beginning.

Appropriate for a cocktail lounge, the bar-bites and starters take up a majority of the menu running across cuisines from Japanese to Western, Asian, and Indian. The imported lotus stem, each slice, the size of my palm, is fried and generously coated in savoury togarashi spice dust. A bite of that, and a sip of the Spicy Southside, a gin and sweetlime cocktail, is a game I could play all evening.

Begrudgingly, I move on to the Sichuan chilli chicken. Do not let the charred dried red chillies scare you. The crispy chicken, flavoured with numbing Sichuan peppercorns, soy and ginger is a delight to pop in-between sips of the Picanthai, a tequila, passionfruit, Thai chilli and lemongrass cocktail that is sweet and spicy. Try the the Kung Pao water chestnut and lotus stem as well. Ask for extra peanuts.

On the Indian side of the menu, we sample the Syrian mutton chukka with coin parotta. Best eaten when served hot, the parotta is pliable, and wraps in the heat of the mutton. A squeeze of lemon helps, but the spice lingers on your tongue long after the last bite, so I quickly move on to my next victim. A pineapple daiquiri made with coconut, kaffir lime, pineapple, and rum. Classic and sweet.

"While we have figured out the coffee side of things over the last many years, we wanted someone to help us out with the cocktails. So we spoke to Pankaj (Balachandran) who runs Boilermaker and a few other bars in Goa and he helped us put together the signature cocktails and gave staff training for the classic cocktails as well," says Managing Partner Nanda Shah, adding that they spent over three weeks in Chennai training the staff.

After having put my taste buds through their paces, I move on to a different kind of indulgence: sushi and dimsum. I try the sweet shiitake hoso maki roll, while the rest of the table oohs and aahs over the nigiri aburi, a flame-seared aburi style Atalntic fresh salmon belly sushi.

It is hard to keep track of how many chicken and bok choy siu mai dumplings you can eat when paired with the house-made chilli crisp. Sharing is not a virtue in this case. The edamame, cream cheese and truffle dumplings are pleasing, though not out of the ordinary. .

By the time the mains arrive, I am running on curiosity rather than appetite. I sample one bite of the caramalised onion red wine pasta, which is on the sweeter side for my taste. Some more parmesan, a crack of black pepper might help. The broccoli mutter curry, served with a truffle cheese kulcha is tied for first place with the peppery coconut kozhi mappas served with a flaky parotta.

With almost no real estate left, we march on to the desserts. A bite of the matcha ivorie cake, a spoonful of the cafe nougatine, both are well-done desserts by themselves so skip the ice creams. The Kahlua tiramisu though, must be kept away from children.

By the time I leave, Soak has made a convincing case for itself as more than just a pretty beachfront address. It has the makings of the kind of place where you can settle in for hours, working your way through the menu as the sea breeze rolls in.

I am just glad I made it there before the sitting Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did.