Dubai restaurants struggle in the dog days of summer

One of my favourite spots in the whole of Dubai is the terrace café attached to the Marriott Harbour hotel on the fringe of the Marina.

It’s officially called the Counter Culture Café, but known to all as the Doggy Café because of its welcoming attitude to our canine friends. In Dubai’s sublime winter months, it is the place to be seen with your pooch. Many is the happy hour I’ve spent there with my Yorkie, chatting to other owners as dog lovers do.

But in the sizzling summer, it’s a forlorn place. When I passed by the other night, there were two people in an area that can seat 100 (excluding mutts) rushing to finish their beers before the onset of hyperthermia.

There were a few more in the air-conditioned interior (dogs not allowed) but, I calculated, nowhere near enough to keep the place running as a going concern. How do these places, and the other thousands of outlets in the city that offer al fresco dining, survive the blistering months of June, July and August?

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With increasing difficulty, it appears. Especially this year, as the annual exodus has combined with a steep rise in rents to ratchet up the financial pressure on Dubai’s bars and restaurants.

Some just give up for the period. A friend trying to book online at the excellent Rhodes W1 restaurant in Grosvenor House hotel was met with the online message “closed for summer”. There must be others who have weighed up the financials and decided it simply isn’t worth it.

Some decide on a skeleton operation, advising staff to take their full holiday entitlement in August and hoping the few diners left will not notice. Expect the lobster thermidor to be unavailable.

Others resort to innovative marketing techniques to pull in the punters who remain in the city during the summer.

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One big restaurant chain is about to announce a package whereby anyone who spends more than AED2,500 on aggregate at any of their many outlets in August will get a 50 percent reduction on their bills in September. I like to think of it as the “Jumeirah John” offer.

A pal in the business explained to me that the pressure is greater this summer as UAE residents have well and truly recovered from Covid-related travel fears. The first year after the pandemic was a boom time in Dubai, as diners wanted to go out and have fun after lockdown, but were still wary of air travel.

They have overcome those fears now and are flying off in droves to more comfortable climes, as the latest numbers from Dubai airports and tour operators confirm.

Looming over the industry this year is the threat of further rent increases. Last year was a savage one for commercial real estate – restaurants and hospitality included – in the emirate, with some experts calculating rents rose as much as 300 percent in some prime areas.

In many cases this left no alternative but to move out, as demonstrated by the huge increase in hoardings announcing that the developer is “working to enhance your experience” or an “exciting new concept”.

Those kind of increases simply cannot go on if the industry – an increasingly important factor in the Dubai tourism offering – is to continue thriving.

When Naim Maadad, CEO of Gates Hospitality group, announced the closure of two hugely successful restaurants – Folly and Publique in Madinat Souk – earlier this year, he mainly blamed “evolving” customer tastes, but added pointedly: “Brands and indeed, landlords, cannot rely on what has worked in the past.”

Maybe there is some rent relief on the horizon. Tony Habre, CEO of Addmind Hospitality, which is behind such places as Gaucho and Indie in DIFC, said recently that some landlords were offering 50 percent rent reductions.

We shall see whether that slows down the rate of closures after the summer, or whether the exodus to cheaper areas – like Business Bay – will accelerate.

DIFC, especially Gate Village, has long been a unique environment. Its well-heeled clientele is apparently immune to such pressures as high housing costs, school fees and all the other charges faced by mere mortals.

When I was there last week, people were still queuing outside to get into Zuma at 10.30pm – in 35 degrees of heat and 65 percent humidity. You would certainly need a drink after that.

Personally, I’ll wait for September in the Doggy Café.

Frank Kane is Editor-at-Large of AGBI and an award-winning business journalist. He acts as a consultant to the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia and is a media adviser to First Abu Dhabi Bank of the UAE