23 March,2025 11:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Junisha Dama
Nicky Ramnani is a DJ and works in the artisanal ice space. Pic/M Fahim
If "right place, right time" were a person, it would be Nicky Ramnani. At least, that is how he sees his career trajectory.
He's a partner in Luna Hospitality; he's a DJ who goes by the name of Orbs; and more recently he has launched ICEX, an artisanal ice studio along with Dasmesh Kalra and Rohit Hegde. But he says he didn't set off with a plan. Even before he turned the console or began running the operations of an all-day bar, Ramnani had a studio in Juhu where he made diamond jewellery. Around 2013, he got behind the decks at The Daily All Day in Bandra, run by his cousin Dishant Pritamani.
"Ajay [Makhija, the other half of the DJ duo Orbs & Zen] and I played at our friend's wedding for the first time and we had so much fun that we told Dishant we would play every Thursday and Sunday at The Daily. Two weeks in, we were noticed by someone who was launching their agency and looking for talent to add to their roster." Suddenly, they were being managed by Regenerate, opening for international acts and playing sets across the country.
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When Ramnani's jewellery business plummeted, Pritamani asked him to come over to manage The Daily All Day. A career switch at 32 was daunting, but that year he opened The Daily All Day in Pune along with Pritamani, later Tsuki in Pune, and The Second House in Goa.
Ramnani may have stumbled into music and hospitality, but his creativity is untrammelled. On Instagram, he runs Humans of Music, a blog that talks about independent music talent in the country. And you will often see AI art experiments hold sway on his social media feed.
With ICEX, he's now into manufacturing - again, with a quirk. At first, he says was simply looking to invest in the business as ice manufacturing is an ancillary industry to hospitality and different from service, which he is used to. However, upon more research, the idea of creating designer ice appealed to his artistic sensibilities.
"You tell me to just manufacture and sell normal cubes and dry ice, I would never do it. Even though it has money. This [creating designer ice] had this experimental, playful angle," says Ramnani. "It goes beyond making something. It involves some creativity, it becomes borderline art."
Ramnani admits that manufacturing can be a boring affair. But seeing ice - a product of water that everyone sees and takes for granted - in a new form has kept work interesting. A few months in, the process of creating artisanal ice has also captured his interest. "It's interesting to study any material end-to-end, particularly how it behaves. Ice also has a lot of variables; small changes matter, the ambient temperature makes a difference, and all that can change the product," he says.
Artisanal ice, popularly used in high-end bars, has been gaining popularity across the globe and even on the internet. Its usage is limited to cocktail-forward bars in India and elaborate events, especially proposals and weddings. Ice studios are opening up and offering clear ice that is cut as blocks, cubes, or in custom shapes. As for infusions, anything goes.
Ramnani says everything he consumes serves as inspiration for infusion - even a cool design on a plate. So far, he has frozen fruits, flowers, gold flakes, coffee beans, sunglasses, a whole bouquet and a ring. He adds, "We were once doing a queer party in Goa and I was going to freeze a dildo. It didn't happen, but the point is that you can freeze any object."
Elaborate ice sculptures, once common at elegant dinner parties in the West, have made a comeback. Now catering companies in the West are using ice to make dinners more interactive for events, especially ones hosted by luxury brands. The founders of a food art studio AnanasAnanas in Los Angeles, Elena Petrossian and Verónica González, have created culinary experiences for brands like Cartier and Prada, using ice. They once designed a 300-pound ice structure and stacked it with seafood. The ice sculpture was designed with eucalyptus branches, shiso leaves and draped fabric. Another Los Angeles-based catering company, Sophie's Table, has made ice cubes for the skincare line Rhode in the shape of their new products to be used in cocktails.
Edible or not, anything can be frozen, including objects, because consuming what's inside the ice is not the only goal.
"The cube melts very slowly. You will finish your drink three times over, then the cube will melt," says Ramnani. Naturally, this allows for ample room to explore. For bars, it's a way to serve a cocktail that won't get watered down soon. Many others use it to enhance the look of the drink or to add a hint of drama to the drinking experience. A bar at a wedding can be made more theatrical, for example. "We freeze a full bouquet of flowers and you can pour alcohol on it. It's a big punch-block of ice that is placed at the bar," he adds.
Designer ice can be a game-changer at weddings or events that demand something unique. Event planners should be listening in. But the process is also very technical. Everything from setting up the plant, studying machines, and coming up with ideas of what to freeze next has been easy, says Ramnani. It was the logistics that were a nightmare to grasp.
"We had not accounted for how much logistics would eat into our profits. The most difficult part has been logistics and distribution," he adds.
As more players enter the designer ice market, Ramnani says margins are razor-thin. It's why ICEX has already invested in more machines, which will increase their production volumes.
But will this also mean that he gets to play out his artistic side? "Some artists are collaborating with ice sculptors in the West. The art could be anything - it could be a ceramic sculpture within an ice cube that slowly melts. It's an interesting direction, but I have not had a lot of bandwidth," he confesses.
