The Mumbai agency drew on the tradition of Indian miniature paintings to create an atmosphere that is at once notorious and hypnotic.
Inspired by the tradition of making a perfect cocktail, Pass Code Only (aka PCO) is a one-of-a-kind cocktail bar located in Vasant Vihar, D-Block Market, in South Delhi, India. True to its cryptic name, the speakeasy-style bar grants entry only through a carefully guarded passcode.
PCO has garnered much acclaim and awards over the last five years from around the world… but it’s determined not to sit on its laurels. Hence, it’s just launched with a new, tantalising menu that defies conventional mixology. This includes 12 cocktails crafted with unconventional ingredients, including apple, coconut, bubble gum, raw milk and the highly controversial) MSG.
To design the menu, they turned to Naughty Naughty studio, a multidisciplinary design studio based in Mumbai.
Research and concept
To represent the menu in its true nature, the studio dived into the history of storytelling. Around the world, the idea of history and folklore has mostly been represented through scripts and paintings. In India especially, paintings have been the most powerful medium for telling kids about mythology and adults about wisdom.
Naughty Naughty’s research with the team led them to discover the importance of Indian miniature paintings from 999 AD to the 16th Century. “We found that war, laughter, community gatherings and physical intimacy are some of the most common themes explored,” explains founder Rushil Bhatnagar. “They pull you close and bring you into a world that is simply notorious and hypnotic.”
To celebrate the importance of craft at PCO, the team settled on the idea of developing a forbidden Royal Mela (a mela is basically a village fair) in a modern version of an Indian miniature style.
“A village fair carries a sense of mystery and excitement at each spotting, and our aim was to bring that out loud,” says Rushil. “Each guest in the painting is on a quest to discover a new ingredient.”
Details to discover
The menu comes complete with a magnifying glass, encouraging guests to delve deeper into the stories behind each concoction. “On the left, there’s craziness in love through a poppy seed field, and on one side, Eve, the first woman, is discovering apples,” relates Rushil. “There’s an Indian version of Popeye in a traditional attire, consuming chyawanprash. And there’s a boomar bubble gum hot air balloon.”
It all might sound a bit crazy, but that’s no accident. “A village fair is made up of chaotic stories, yet you leave the fair with a souvenir and a happy face,” reasons Rushil. “We feel bars are the same.”
Each story is marked with a number so the guests can discover more about the cocktails. “The best story we came across was that coconut is not allowed on planes,” says Rushil. “That’s now a mental note for us.”
Quite simply, we love these visuals, illustrated by Shweta Mulekar and developed by Rushil and Deepti Kapadia. Harnessing a refreshing spirit of creative chaos, they help prove that a bar can be far more than a place to drink—it’s a storytelling platform where art, culture, and mixology intersect. For those daring enough to uncover the forbidden, the passcode awaits.
