Gautam Dhawan built Southgate from love — love of Kasauli, love of beautiful objects, love of feeding people well and making strangers feel like they had arrived somewhere they were always going to come. He furnished it with vintage pieces from Calcutta, Shimla, and Delhi. He filled it with installations from his own home décor label, Exhibit D. He curated the music. He baked the banana cake. Ramesh and the team carry the legacy forward. The two beagles are still there.
Some places are inseparable from the people who made them, and Southgate in Kasauli is one of those places. Gautam Dhawan built this home in the hills with the specific and complete investment of someone who has found exactly what they were looking for: a house in the mountains, guests who appreciate it, good food, good music, and the quiet of a Himachal hill station that has maintained its character while the world around it has moved on.
Guests who came to Southgate in Gautam’s time describe the same things with remarkable consistency: the warmth of his welcome, the tasteful interiors that reflected a genuine aesthetic intelligence rather than a decorator’s brief, the food — particularly Chef Ram’s banana cake with hot custard, which is mentioned with the specific reverence that only genuinely exceptional desserts generate — and the two beagles who were, by universal guest testimony, the cherry on top of everything. Gautam is no longer with us. But Ramesh and the team carry his legacy forward with care, and the house he built continues to be what it was when he filled it: a home in the hills that feels like it was made for the particular person who is staying in it.
The Design
Southgate spans three levels on the main Kasauli road, with four rooms and two living areas, each with balconies offering views of the surrounding Shivalik hills. The design is the most distinctive thing about the property beyond the hospitality — an eclectic and clearly personal aesthetic that draws from vintage furniture sourced from Calcutta, Shimla, and Delhi, balanced with modern chairs, quirky art pieces, traditional handicrafts, and installations from Gautam’s own home décor label, Exhibit D.
Exhibit D — Gautam’s creative enterprise, which ran parallel to Southgate — is woven through the house in ways that guests discover gradually: a specific lamp, a particular textile arrangement, an art piece that catches the light in the afternoon and rewards closer examination. Family heirlooms are scattered through the space alongside collected objects from travels and markets, the combination producing an interior that feels both curated and lived-in, both designed and organic.
The living areas have kitchenettes, microwave access, cutlery, and the practical infrastructure that distinguishes a well-thought-out homestay from one that merely has rooms. The music, curated by Gautam and now part of the house’s personality, plays during meals from the third floor — a detail that one guest describes as exactly right in its ambience without being intrusive.
The Four Rooms
The four spacious rooms are spread across the three levels, bookable individually or as entire floors. Entire floors come with two rooms, a living room, and the porch — providing the privacy and the space of a complete home-within-a-home. The rooms are generously proportioned, thoughtfully furnished in Southgate’s characteristic style, with private bathrooms, good showers, and the particular quality of spaces that were designed by someone who thought carefully about what guests would need.
The balconies are the feature that guests describe first: the breathtaking views of the surrounding hills, the birdsong that begins before dawn and provides the morning soundtrack that gives the property its reputation as a birdwatcher’s haven, and the chai that arrives — or that guests make themselves in the kitchenette — as the primary activity of the first hour of every Kasauli day.
The Food
Chef Ram is the culinary heart of Southgate — a cook whose food has generated the specific kind of reviews that only consistent quality produces over time. The menu ranges from Himachali thalis to barbecues, Indian classics to continental bakes, covering the full range of what guests at a hill station homestay might want across the different meals of a day.
The banana cake with hot custard deserves its own mention because guests give it one. It is the dessert that guests specifically instruct future visitors not to miss — described as the best thing they have tasted, recommended with the enthusiasm of people who have clearly thought about it since returning home. The food overall is described as amazing, with presentation matching quality, and the team’s willingness to cater to individual dietary needs and preferences as a consistent feature of the experience.
The Southgate Kitchen food truck — a separate enterprise of Gautam’s — brought the same ethos to a mobile format, its curated menu an extension of the house’s relationship with good food. The truck represents Gautam’s understanding that the hospitality he practised at Southgate was not limited by its four walls.
The Birdwatching
Southgate’s position in the Kasauli hills, surrounded by the deodar and pine forests that make this one of the best-preserved hill station environments in the Shivalik range, gives it access to a birdlife of considerable richness. The Kasauli hills support a diversity of Himalayan and sub-Himalayan species that is exceptional for a location so close to the plains and so easily accessible from Delhi and Chandigarh. The garden at Southgate, with its mature trees and quiet setting, is itself a productive birding spot — guests who arrive without binoculars often wish they had brought them.
The surrounding trails — Gilbert Trail, the walks to Monkey Point, the paths through the Kasauli forest reserve — extend the birding into the wider landscape. Morning walks from Southgate, before the day has fully established its temperature and activity, are described by guests as among the most enjoyable hours of their visit: the light in the pines, the birds active in the canopy, the hill station empty and quiet in the early hours.
What Kasauli Offers
Kasauli’s appeal is precisely its restraint. The British cantonment established in the 1840s — whose Victorian-era bungalows, the Christ Church of 1853, and the broad pedestrian mall have all survived into the present with more fidelity than almost any other hill station in the country — is a place that has maintained its character through the determined application of cantonment rules that keep development in check. The Mall Road, the Kasauli Brewery (one of the oldest distilleries in India), the Gurkha Fort, and the Eagle’s Craig viewpoint are the standard circuit — all easily walkable from Southgate’s position on the main road.
Chandigarh, 60 kilometres away, provides airport access and the option of combining the hill station quiet with the city’s own considerable cultural offerings for guests who want the contrast.
Why It Stays With You
One guest described their stay at Southgate as nothing short of paradise. Another said the house was built with lots of love and taste — a phrase that is both accurate and, in the context of Gautam Dhawan’s legacy, quietly poignant. He built it with lots of love and taste. The team he trained carries that love and taste forward. The beagles are still there. The banana cake is still on the menu.
Southgate is a home in the mountains made by a man who loved beautiful things and loved sharing them. It remains exactly that.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Mohan Meaken Road, Kasauli Kotbeja, Solan District, Himachal Pradesh (on the main Kasauli road) Phone: +91 96500 88695 Instagram: @southgatekasauli Booking: Via Instagram DM · TripAdvisor (search Southgate by ZENQ Kasauli) · Booking.com
Founder: Gautam Dhawan (late) — home décor label Exhibit D, Southgate Kitchen food truck Team: Ramesh and the Southgate team (carrying forward the founder’s legacy) Chef: Ram / Ramesh (legendary banana cake with hot custard) Resident dogs: Two beagles
Property: 3 levels · 4 spacious rooms · 2 living areas · Garden · Balconies with hill views Design: Exhibit D installations · Vintage furniture (Calcutta, Shimla, Delhi) · Family heirlooms · Quirky art · Traditional handicrafts · Eclectic, personal aesthetic Capacity: Rooms bookable individually or as entire floors (2 rooms + living room + porch)
Meals: Full home-cooked menu · Himachali thalis · Barbecues · Indian and continental · Banana cake with hot custard (unmissable) · Dietary preferences accommodated Facilities: Free WiFi · Free parking · Kitchenettes in living areas · Microwave and cutlery · Pet-friendly · Full-day security
Experiences: Birdwatching (property garden + Kasauli forest trails) · Morning walks on Gilbert Trail · Monkey Point · Kasauli Mall Road and Bazaar · Christ Church · Kasauli Brewery · Eagle’s Craig viewpoint · Chandigarh day trip
Check-in / Check-out: Standard hill station timings — confirm on booking
Getting There — Chandigarh Airport (IGIA, Mohali): approximately 60 km — around 1.5 hours by road. — Chandigarh city: approximately 65 km — around 1.5 hours. — From Delhi: approximately 290 km — around 5 hours via NH44. — From Shimla: approximately 70 km — around 2 hours. — Southgate is on the main Kasauli road (Mohan Meaken Road) — easily accessible by private vehicle. Free parking available on site.
Nearby — Kasauli Mall Road: 2 km · Christ Church (1853): 3 km · Gilbert Trail: 3 km · Monkey Point: 5 km · Kasauli Brewery: 4 km · Eagle’s Craig viewpoint: 4 km · Chandigarh: 60 km · Shimla: 70 km
Best Time to Visit: October to March for the most pleasant weather and the clearest hill views · December to February for crisp winters and the warmth of the house at its most essential · March to May for the spring flowering of the deodar and pine forest · Year-round for birdwatching — the Kasauli hills support resident species throughout the year, with additional species present in the winter migration months
