India’s first igloo cafe comes up in Kashmir’s Gulmarg

Gulmarg has become home to India's first and Asia’s biggest Igloo Café, started by the Kolahoi Green Group of Hotels and Resorts in Gulmarg.

Reportedly, Hotelier Waseem Shah conceived the idea to build this igloo to give a new experience to the locals and tourists. Igloos are commonly found in colder destinations like Finland, Switzerland, and Canada, but the concept is new to India, with Manali being the first destination to have an igloo hotel.
However, Waseem Shah has built an igloo cafe outside his Gulmarg-based hotel. Reportedly, it took the owner 300 days in terms of labour and 15 days in particular to construct the igloo café.

What can the guests expect?
Inside the igloo café, the tables and benches have been made of ice. The traditional décor is quite a show-stopper, and every snow slab has a sheepskin over it to offer warmth and comfort to the guests. The café has been given small side tables, crafted in snow to hold the lighting, hand-engraved Kashmiri copper Samovar kept inside etc. The igloo occupies a good space of 22 ft wide and 12.5 ft high, and can accommodate 16 persons at a time for a meal.
The food

When you manage to get a table, order from the appetising menu, featuring hot drinks like kahwa and mutton or chicken tikka for starters and a delish full course vegetarian or non-vegetarian meal. Since it is an igloo, it may get tough for a living human to stand the temperature for more than an hour or so.

Gulmarg is a popular skiing destination, located in the Pir Panjal range in the Kashmir region.