Inside Dr. Drunk with Karan Bhalla and Saajan Ghogar

Liquid courage is a superpower. A shot can make all the difference in the world, taking a wallflower and turning them into the life of the party. Too many, and you’ll be upchucking in the streets, bundled into a cab, and wake up in the morning with no memory of the night before.

As for cocktails, they’re more telling than you think. A margarita indicates you’re someone who might get up and dance on the tables. A spicy margarita…? Well, we think that one speaks for itself.

A Negroni is for those who love to unwind with slow jazz (and those who just want to say they drink Negronis for cool points). A cosmopolitan is the fun, fruity, and flirty friend who makes every night one to remember.

In some ways, these drinks are a personality test, and the people evaluating you are the mixologists.

As we took our first steps into the elusive world behind the bar counter, our guides were the creative minds who established Dr. Drunk, Karan Bhalla and Saajan Ghogar.

Before the interview took place, we were treated to some of their concoctions. In a tall-stemmed glass, we tasted the Thai classic, mango sticky rice, in an inspired liquid form.

The healthy dose of rum in the drink loosened everyone’s limbs as we settled into their cosy office, which doubles as a tasting room where they host prospective clients.

The hallmark of an excellent entertainer is one who makes their clientele feel right at home, a skill which both halves of Dr. Drunk possess in oodles.

Between giggles, ad-libs, and anecdotes, Masala discovered the secret to what keeps a vibe afloat.

Karan: Saajan had already been bartending in London while I was doing events here. When Saajan came back during the pandemic, we thought… Hey, let’s do something together.

Saajan: Plus, everything was shut. And I think, yeah, we knew that we were going to do something in the entertainment sector. We basically started off making videos for Instagram, teaching people how to make basic cocktails.

Then someone Karan’s worked with in the past contacted us asking, “Hey, do you guys do weddings? We’ve got a small one.” And we were like, “Yeah!”

Thanks to that, we went ahead and learned things like what to do, how to price people, and so forth.

We settled on the name Dr. Drunk after two days of mixing drinks for our families and leaving them, well, drunk. Our parents had always wanted for us to be doctors and “Lawyer Drunk” didn’t exactly have the same ring to it. [Laughing.]

It was only once we had participated in enough events, we began calling ourselves a company and left our nine-to-five jobs. Before we knew it, Dr. Drunk became our full-time gig.

Karan: I was selling IT software.

Saajan: I was a teacher and worked in real estate. Before that, I was a bartender in London for around five years. I had a certain level of mixology knowledge that I had hoped would eventually be of use somehow.

Saajan: We make one called The Bounty that’s quite strong. It takes inspiration from its namesake, the Bounty chocolate bar. It’s made up of three liquors, not unlike a Negroni: chocolate liqueur, Malibu, and vodka.

It’s one of the cocktails we designed for Aviyana Hua Hin’s drinks menu.

Karan: I’d say another is our Jägerita. It’s tequila, Jägermeister, and triple sec.

Saajan: I wanna start off by saying that preferences are very subjective.

Karan: For sure. Some of our more unconventional drinks which I might not prefer, Saajan really likes. An example of this was a cocktail we’d mixed called the Passion Fruit Rayu.

Saajan: It’s like a ramen cocktail that a lot of guests enjoy. I love it. It has passion fruit, vodka, sesame oil, and a bit of chilli.

The drink was loosely inspired by the creativity of the Chicken Soup Martini from Analogue NYC and a passion fruit pork stew I had at a Chinese restaurant.

Karan: Our families were like, “let’s see where this goes.” I think they were pretty certain that, ‘hey, these guys will do it for a little bit, and then they’ll get back to their jobs’.

Saajan: At times, we found their reactions to our job quite funny. They would get stressed on our behalf. [Laughs.]

But then, a year or so later, people were like, “oh, your kids are doing well.” So our parents were like, “oh, I’m proud of you.” (We always knew they’d be.)

Karan: But also, I don’t think they were too stressed about the whole mixology thing itself. In my case, it was more like, “Hey, when you go to this wedding, can you not wear the Spider-Man outfit?”

Saajan: Before meeting us, we find that couples have already gone through our Instagram. After they reach out, we meet with them in person at our tasting room, where we discuss their preferences, stories, and how we can weave each aspect into one cohesive menu.

Karan: Let’s say, for example, they met at The Cheesecake Factory. Then we’d curate a cocktail that tastes like cheesecake.

For other couples, we sometimes turn the menu into the timeline of their love story, from the day they met to the big proposal, with descriptions under each drink.

Saajan: On the day of the event, we sometimes also dress up in costume as the couples’ favourite characters from shows or movies to add to the entertainment.

Karan: Absolutely, we’re mixologists. We mix more than just alcohol. Don’t be fooled by the name. [Chuckles.]

We’ve done sober weddings, kids’ parties, baby showers, and even celebrations of life.

Saajan: A little chat with the bartender could put you in a good mood, you know, even if you are just getting a soda.

Saajan: We like them all. Whoever is willing to sponsor us, we like them most. [Winks.] Thank you.

Saajan: We don’t. Next question.

Karan: Jokes aside, we try not to drink while working. In the rare case that we do, it’s usually 2 AM, and just a straight glass of tequila. So we don’t overdo it.

But generally, we don’t drink at work.

Karan: Nowadays, it’s lovely. The planners do it all. They’ll have coordinators taking care of the night shift.

And mostly, people are not there to create any problems. They’re there to have a good time.

Saajan: But if someone’s clearly wasted, we call our Point of Contact (POC), and then they can take it from there.

If they’re like, ‘hey, keep serving, we’ll keep serving. They might pass out in the lobby, but with permission, so it’s okay.

Karan: Most of our events are in Hua Hin. We just drive down, drop things off at the hotel, let the F&B managers know, set up, and it’s smooth sailing.

Saajan: Also, since we’ve done it so many times, the whole process is really efficient when it comes to hotels and venues.

It takes us 60–80 minutes to set up a bar. If the event requires air travel, we send any themed décor we have directly to the hotel.

F&B managers are very familiar with this process, which makes it very easy.

Karan: In terms of fresh ingredients, we just hit up their local grocers before the event.

Saajan: First, couples reach out and give us the run-down. For example, whether it’s a one-day wedding or a two-day wedding and if they require us throughout.

Karan: We need to know what events you need us at, and how many guests are attending.

Based on the number of guests, we’ll allocate the number of bartenders we need for each function. Once that’s sorted, we talk figures, and pick a date for the cocktail tasting.

Saajan: It’s like a trust-building exercise. We talk about concepts and make sure the couple likes the menu.

Then, we sort through our schedules and see which person from our team can attend the event. During peak wedding season, we sometimes get a rush of four events a day, so we need to allocate our team members, but Karan and I always try to attend some time during the big day to see the happy couple.

Saajan: I’m sometimes bothered when people drink cocktails like negronis and think they taste like cough medicine.

Still, I understand. It’s an acquired taste like coffee and beer, or anything that requires time to appreciate the flavour profiles.

Another one is how people should understand that sometimes the THB 2,000 bottle of vodka isn’t better than the THB 900 one, they’re just better at positioning themselves as a luxury.

Karan: Beverage trends come and go, but right now I’ve noticed a surge in orders for tequila sodas and picantes.

We also see a lot of entertainment trends for the mixologists at weddings. For example, somebody does a ‘ring a bell’ sign, then we’ll see that at the next few weddings.

The same goes for gorilla costumes. [Laughs.] Basically, anything that takes off on Instagram dominates wedding circles for at least two to three months.

Karan: We’re not merely bartenders, we’re mixologists. So if they don’t drink alcohol, I’m sure we have the flexibility to adapt to whatever the next trend is.

Saajan: We understand that Gen Z is not particularly drinking as much as the previous generations, but at a wedding, everybody’s drinking. I mean, weddings are multiple-day events, right? They’re like festivals. Even if you aren’t a drinker, you’ll find yourself with a few drinks throughout the festivities.

Karan: I think it’s best we tell each other. So this one time in Khaosan, Saajan, this was long ago, even before he went to London, and I were at this spot, just drinking.

I still don’t know why, but he got really drunk and just started running away from everyone in the group. He actually ran all of Khaosan front and back.

We spent the rest of the night playing chase, trying to catch up to him.

Saajan: Okay. So when I came back from London, I hadn’t spent time with Karan in five years. I wasn’t entirely sure of what his new “grown-up” personality would be like.

We went out drinking to this spot that Karan was rather familiar with, having spent a lot of time there during his university days.

In the middle of the night, I’d stepped out to meet some of my other friends. When I came back, he was wasted—like lights-out wasted—and hugging an older bald man real tight.

The guy had like four strands of hair on his head. Karan looks at him and goes, “I would have just cut it off, man.”

See, at that point, I felt mortified. I had no clue they were acquainted, so I told him to “pack it up” and we left.