DINING WITH PIRATES

Cafe Pirates is north Kashmir’ first themed restaurant modelled on a Hollywood movie reports Aqib Nazir

- Aqib Nazir

It’s the vibes that make the diners leave or stay at any restaurant. The first themed-café inspired by the Holywood movie Pirates of the Caribbean in Baramulla town gives you those vibes.

The Cafe Pirates restaurant could be an option for dining out with family or friends, especially if you are from the town. The restaurant takes you for an exciting journey with its American-European foods, making it irresistible to try and unique from other cafés. This concept was self-built by its three founders, Faisal H Bhat, Irfan Bukhari, and Aabid Sheikh.

“We serve mostly continental dishes unlike Kashmiri Wazwan, Chinese, or Indian,” Bhat said while speaking about the unique concept of the restaurant. “You won’t find many cafés and restaurants with continental cuisine as it’s very challenging to find a chef for European-American Cuisine here in Kashmir”.

“We were making films and have been part of several projects together. It occurred to us that there should be something secondary back in hometown so that we stay connected with Kashmir. Something which should synchronize with our sense of film making and art and be in coherence with it. We thought of many ideas to start a business with and at the same time keeping it subordinate. Something like our secondary source of income and as an arm to our artwork,” Bhat said. “Our main focus is always filmmaking and video production. After brainstorming on different ideas, we finally got into this buccaneer theme. We were inspired by the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, we kind of stole our idea; I guess that’s what pirates do. We incorporated pirates theme, in general, in the café.”