A Cafe that will Remind you of 1990’s – ‘Northern Cafe Kupwara’ 

After working in the corporate sector for sometime Khan Rayees joined the Hotel Management Institute for Bachelors in Hotel Management and Masters in Tourism. With his knack Rayees soon went on to join several reputed hotels in Kashmir including Taj Vivanta, Lalit and other prominent hotels where he mainly worked as front office manager. Rayees has also worked as Manager at Amigos Srinagar but as destiny had it, he finally has settled at his native district to serve the people and seemingly has been much satisfied as he would have been otherwise in his past job avenues.

Rayees had a long yearning to start a venture somewhere at his home district but with little resources at his disposal had to wait for a considerable time but then the dreams do come true when one positively works to achieve them and Rayees’ dream finally met an end the day he threw open his hotel at Kralpora with the name ‘Northern Cafe Kralpora’. Rayees says he started his restaurant career with zero base budgeting as several relatives, friends and even some family members went against his decision of opening a cafe in a far flung area of Kralpora where people hardly had a habit of going to restaurants. But with his hard work, drudgery and patience, he tried his best to provide quality and tasty cuisines to win over the customers and with this he gained much fame within less time and the name Northern Café has become famous for hanging out with friends and family. Known to provide the best Wazwan, Pizza and other delicacies, people love to visit the Northern Cafe with the hotel having introduced new dishes and added new cuisines to the Cafe which are almost new to the area.

Inaugurated in 2018, Rayees says he got a very good response but faced several ups and downs due volatile situation in Kashmir coupled with COVID-19 pandemic – when almost all the establishments went down into recession. But Rayees never lost his hope and kept working hard with catering services, online delivery and much more to continue with his pursuit. Working with much dedication, consistency and patience he was appreciated at Republic Day by the Kupwara administration, which gave him a new hope to work much qualitatively.

To merely observe your culture without contributing to it seems very close to existing as a ghost, remarks Rayees. Mud made cabins have been built with an aim to preserve Kashmiri culture so that coming generations can know about it is coming up at Kupwara under the name ‘Northern Cafe Kupwara’.

Khan Rayees says that finally after oodles of hardwork and months of perseverance we are now at the final stage and opening a Cafe after Eid at Kupwara. “You will experience a different ambience and aesthetics at our Café and I vouch it will be your favourite place to hangout with friends and family with availability of affordable delicious, nourishing food and beverages available to tingle your taste buds. Known to you, we serve the best wazwan Thali in the Kralpora area, and now the same will be available at Kupwara, says Rayees.

This cafe has been designed to keep in mind the already rush over opening of restaurants in Kupwara and we came up with a brilliant and different idea of preservation of our Kashmiri culture and art. Introducing the old Kashmiri tradition of using accessories at cafes, we want our young generation to come and experience the culture of Kashmir which is almost forgotten by everyone. Cafe is completely old fashioned with Kashmiri cultural touch to keep our tradition alive.

“Further to provide you with the best quality and taste, we firmly believe in making customers happy and their payment at the cafe should be worth it. For that we have introduced some international level highly experienced chefs for you. Our head chef is a Dubai returnee who knows the skills of quality and taste as well. So we will not let you down anyhow. Inshallah you’ll love to be here at the Cafe.”

We request the youngsters and youth of Kupwara to come and visit us with their family and friends and have a look at the Kashmiri art and culture and provide us with a chance to serve in the best possible way.