Khyber Italian Restaurant - Brava

It is not often that one makes a trip to an exotic location and gets rewarded with another equally infallible exotic experience as a complementary courtesy from the hotel.

Overlooking the colossal summits of Kashmir, the ‘Brava’ Italian restaurant at the Khyber Himalayan Resort reveals itself as a welcome surprise for the patrons to indulge in comfort and variety, which makes no bargain on the authenticity of the experience. Braving the extreme weather conditions of the valley, ‘Brava’ echoes the feeling of a cosy night-in, complete with a fireplace stationed inside the restaurant.

Keeping the Celsius scale of the region in mind, the restaurant welcomes the patrons into an ornate vestibule leaden with a modern console and artwork before leading them into the main dining hall. Despite being an open floor plan, archetypal of Italian-style restaurants, Studio B effectually managed to sustain privacy in some corners by camouflaging a few columns and turning them into semi-booths to encourage a cohesive atmosphere. The confluence of dark rustic paints on the wall, along with several wooden shelves featuring handsome artefacts, cutlery, and kitchen ingredients, allows sensory activity in the space. The vibrancy of the visual and physical textures in the restaurant is helmed by the plush leather and bright furnishing fabric upholstery appearing in conjunction with rough marble flooring arranged in a speculative cousin of the Herringbone pattern.

The restaurant amuses its clientele by proffering a twofold view in the indoor dining area with a glass partition framed with aluminum channels, looking directly into the kitchen. The patrons can personally observe the chefs preparing their Italian gourmet meals in front of them. At the same time, the traditional pizza oven sporting the restaurant’s name with embellished tiles occasionally sneaks some attention to itself. Preceding false ceilings to cover the substantial height of the indoor dining hall, Ar. Anil Badan harnessed the decades of hospitality design he spent mastering and chose to install overhead wooden beams for manifold reasons like sustainability, earthen tones, and minimal construction activity in the frigid temperature of the site.

DESIGNED

2023

COMPLETED

2023

TECHNICAL DATA

Effectuating the client’s brief to every morsel of its execution, Studio B’s founder and principal architect, Anil Badan, fashioned a typical Italian-style restaurant and tucked it with modern minimalistic elements to keep its standing abreast with each of its kin. Borrowing from the magnificence of the Himalayan range, the restaurant bequeaths sublime comfort to the patrons, in addition to proffering them the gratuity of a broader food palette at the hotel.

PROJECT TEAM

Studio B Architect