Playboy Just Opened a Beer Garden in India

An atmosphere of Gemütlichkeit may make the 19th-century creation that is the biergarten distinctly Germanic, but that doesn't mean that Bavaria alone gets to have all the fun. And what better way to embrace the 21st century iteration of a global beer garden than by having the markedly retro American brand of Playboy open one up in modern-day India?

That's right: last week, the first Playboy Beer Garden opened—not in Beverly Hills or Berlin, but in Pune, India.

Playboy, the men's lifestyle brand founded by Hugh Hefner back in 1953—which of course started as a girlie mag featuring centerfolds of semi-nude women—has seen better days. It's not easy trying to peddle soft-porn in mainstream markets while women fight for equal rights (which somehow is still happening in 2016) and when one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States is the first woman who actually may win.

Just last month Playboy magazine relaunched in the US, after announcing that there would be no more photos of nude women featured in its pages. Scott Flanders, the company's chief executive, admitted to The New York Times that the centerfold had become passé in the eyes of American readers. So what to do? Diversify into other products and explore other markets.

"The beer garden is not just a beer café but will also have its own brewery. Our strategy globally has been focused on night clubs, but for India we came up with the idea of a beer garden. One of the reasons for this is [that] India is a 'young' market. We are designing a fantastic fusion of fine dining, entertainment, music and some freshly brewed beer," explains Parag Sanghavi, the chairman of PB Lifestyle.

Playboy has already started diversifying internationally: according to the Times, 40 percent of its business is in China. The products the brand is now hawking include "bath products, fragrances, clothing, liquor and jewelry among other merchandise."

And now we now have a beer garden in Pune, India emblazoned with the Playboy logo. The 8,000-square-foot bar offers dining and entertainment and celebrated its opening last week with a visit from former Playboy Bunny and Bollywood star Sunny Leone. According to the beer garden's Facebook page, you can drop by tomorrow, when they will be celebrating International Women's Day.

It looks like the aging men's lifestyle brand is going to be sticking around in the beer game for quite some time. That being said, whether or not beer itself will be the actual focus of the Playboy Beer Garden is another story entirely.