Will you take the pizza challenge in Sopore?

The menu at the three outlets comprise a wide-range of dishes, including butter chicken and different kinds of fast-food eats

The town of Sopore in northern Kashmir may have witnessed many an insurgency and conflict in the last three decades, but food has always, in some way, healed its wounded spirit. Sopore, which is around 45 km north-west of Srinagar, is also known as the Apple Town of Jammu and Kashmir, boasting Asia's second largest fruit mandi. But, despite being bountiful, the food experiments here have been limited to regional meals.

The wazwan - a multi-course Kashmiri cuisine, comprising nearly 20-odd decadent dishes from rogan josh to aab gosh, kebabs and the meatball gravy rista - continues to be a part of every feast and celebration. "During weddings, everyone participates in making the wazwan. Many of the dishes are cooked overnight," says Kashmiri entrepreneur Jibran Khan. The wazwan is so popular that it can be found in every nook and cranny of the region, be it a roadside stall or restaurant. Having lived a peripatetic life, working in Chandigarh, Delhi and Dubai, he wanted the locals to enjoy foods and flavours that he had been exposed to during his travels.

That's when the idea of a fast food eatery came to him. Khan, who had been running a travel company that took tourists to Gurez Valley since 2015, decided to spend the next few months training at a friend's restaurant at Defence Colony in Delhi. Here, he did everything from front of the house tasks to working in the kitchen. Finally, in August 2018, exactly a year before the special status granted under Article 370 was abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir, Khan along with his business partner Javid Mahroo launched a first-of-its-kind restaurant, Zero Miles Grills and Café in Sopore.

Jibran Khan, 31, who launched Zero Miles Grills and Cafe with business partner Javid Mahroo, seen along with his staff

On the menu is an exhaustive roster of dishes, boasting the best of different worlds, including Indian, Italian, Chinese, and the more popular Continental fare. Though butter chicken, seekh kebabs and mutton kanti are still hot favourites, unfamiliar treats like Mexican and barbeque pizzas, grill steak, French fries, chow mein, Alfredo pasta and aglio e olio, are now close competition. A chef from Delhi helped him curate the menu, he says, adding that later, his local staff was trained to prepare these meals. "This kind of menu might seem ordinary for those living in big cities and towns. But here in Sopore, most residents have never even eaten pizza or pasta," he shares, in a telephonic interview. "Sopore is a small town," he says, adding that it has been in the news mostly for wrong reasons. "Since the 1990s it has suffered greatly, especially due to uprisings. So, starting something here was definitely challenging," he remembers. However, within a few months of opening, he says, residents embraced his restaurant. "By the following year, I was employing almost eight people," adds Khan.

Khan and his team recently created a 20-inch round Mexican chicken pizza, which he says is the largest in Jammu and Kashmir. "Anyone who eats it in 20 minutes will get a cash reward of Rs 5,000. So far, two people have attempted the challenge," he says

It's around this time that Article 370 was revoked; the curfew and looming crisis put J&K in a state of uncertainty. "Our restaurant was shut during this time, but I had to still find a way to pay my staff at least 25 per cent of the salary, so that they could run their homes," recalls Khan. "[When things started opening up] I flew out of Kashmir, and posted on social media, requesting for a job. To my surprise, a lot of help and support came my way." Khan eventually took up a job on contract basis in Dubai to help tide through those difficult months. He returned three months later to start a new franchise outlet, along with another entrepreneur Tahir Hussain, in his hometown Bandipora, around 40 km from Sopore.

The COVID-induced lockdown that hit a month later, once again saw Khan scrambling - this time with two branches, and double the number of employees. "All we could do was wait. Eventually, a few weeks on, we were allowed to do deliveries, and since I already had a system in place, we managed to get going."

The interiors of the outlets are inspired by the rich legacy and history of the towns they are located in. For instance, one of the walls at the Sopore outlet has been designed in such a way that it looks like a pile of apple boxes

Not one to give up, the 31-year-old gamely overcame the business setbacks, only to last month open a third outlet in Baramulla, which is being run by Aarmir Maqbool. Khan spends two days a week in each outlet, sometimes also joining the waiting staff or cooking up a meal in the kitchen. "At present, we have around 24 employees." His hope, he says, is to draw in more youth into the food and beverage industry, which he says, except for a handful of cities like Srinagar, is still very nascent. "We also had specially-abled staff, and that's our way of giving back to society." The plan is to soon expand to the North, Central and South of Kashmir.

All the three outlets are home to small libraries, where readers can borrow, read and donate books. "When things get better, we hope to have book launches, and other cultural, open-mic and educational events to draw more youth."

Graphic/ Uday Mohite

The interiors of the outlets are inspired by these small towns' rich legacies and history. For instance, one of the walls at the Sopore outlet has been designed in such a way that it looks like a pile of apple boxes. This, says Khan, is a tribute to the town's most delicious fruit. "We kept another wall for the local youth of Sopore to showcase their work, which is why you will see so many photographs, sketches and calligraphy work around." Since Sopore is famous for horse carts, Khan also hung a wheel at the entrance of the cafe.

Where pizza parties are now becoming commonplace in the neighbourhood, Khan has added a new twist to it with a pizza-eating challenge. "We recently created a 20-inch round Mexican chicken pizza, which I think is the largest in J&K. Anyone who eats it in 20 minutes will get a cash reward of R5,000. So far, two people have attempted the challenge, but failed." But, with how quickly locals are warming to the Italian dish, that goal, he says, is not too far away.