In past few years, the trend of cafes and restaurants has caught up in Srinagar with many youngsters taking up to entrepreneurship to open new food outlets.
Besides food business, these ventures also try to promote culture and tourism, and provide employment.
Most of the times these youngsters while opening food ventures hunt for a place in the busy city centre, where chances of more people turning up are higher.
Mudasir Bhat, a young entrepreneur from downtown, chose a different location and style to present food, culture and nature on a single platter at his ‘Milestones Restaurant’.
Located at picturesque Hari Parbat hill, ‘Milestones’ restaurant gives a bird’s eye view of Srinagar city along with it major spots including Dal and Nigeen lakes and other landmarks. Located around 900 meters from famous Badmwari, the restaurant due to its breath-taking location and food with cultural touch has received an overwhelming response from the people since its opening last month.
“There are so many restaurants in the valley and everyone is trying to go an extra mile to do better. In Milestones, we want to give people a different feel altogether by keeping our culture alive through the appearance and food of our place,” says Mudasir, who is the main promoter of the restaurant.
In his restaurant, Mudasir has dedicated a part of restaurant to culture where one will find traditional sitting arrangement like ‘wagu’ with the sitting area decorated with handicrafts and traditional things like ‘Tashnari’ ‘Tumbaknari’ etc.
In food they are trying their best to provide authentic Afghani, Kashmiri, Chinese and Indian cuisine so that locals as well as outside tourists will feel some difference. Apart from that the restaurant focuses on the fusion food, which adds to their variety.
Being a scenic spot and hillock, Mudasir says, while the location of the restaurant is attractive but at the same time it presents multiple challenges for smooth running and flow of people.
Mudasir along with his two partners decided to venture into the restaurant sector as they saw a good business opportunity in it. They also see it an opportunity to promote the Kashmir culture and tourism and help providing jobs to youngsters.
“Currently we have a staff strength of around 10 people and there are some future ventures in the pipeline which will help us in providing jobs to more people. We want to make Milestones a full-fledged restaurant chain, and this restaurant is the first outlet of that,” says Mudasir.
The owners are trying to make the place more than an eating outlet. They are trying to involve young children and people from other age groups in various educational and recreational activities. These activities, which are already in place and in pipeline include bird watching, site seeing, book reading, Games and educational activities like painting and quiz competitions.
Last month, when the restaurant started functioning, the inaugural ceremony was attended by around two dozen children from a Srinagar orphanage. These kids were later made to participate in these recreational activities.
Mudasir says from Milestones he wants to contribute to the tourism sector as the place gives best opportunity to have tourists from outside state on board.
Through the Milestones Restaurant, Mudasir is going an extra mile to provide something new to the sector and at the same time paving way for young entrepreneurs to do something unorthodox in the sector.
