Gordon Ramsay closes Maze on The Pearl Qatar

Gordon Ramsay Holdings has closed Maze Doha on The Pearl Qatar after just two years of operation.

The restaurant, which was the only Maze Gordon Ramsay outlet in the Middle East, closed in March.

The news comes following the ban on the sale of alcohol on The Pearl Qatar, which was reported at the start of 2012.

In January, staff at Maze said business has tumbled in the wake of the alcohol ban.

“I would say [the decline] is even more than 50 percent,” a spokesperson told sister magazine Arabian Business. “It is not only Maze… all the restaurants have stopped serving. There are a lot of rumours, we are waiting in great anticipation that [the ban will be lifted].”

Managers of other restaurants located on the popular tourist spot said they had received no explanation for the ban or any indication on whether it might be lifted in the future.

“Every restaurant on the Pearl is banned [from selling alcohol]. We were told around mid-December,” Sumeet Jhingan, country manager for Foodmark, the hospitality arm of retail giant Landmark Group, said at the time. “We don’t know if it is indefinite, there was nothing in writing or communicated to us as to how long it is going to last.”

Foodmark, which counts brands such as Carluccio’s, The Meat Company and Mango Tree in its restaurant portfolio, operates two outlets on Pearl-Qatar.

“Obviously the business has dropped; by half… for some restaurants, probably even more,” Jhingan said.

A spokesperson for Gordon Ramsay told Hotelier Middle East the company was continuing to invest elsewhere in Qatar.

Two restaurants have recently opened at St. Regis Doha — Gordon Ramsay Doha and Opal by Gordon Ramsay Doha.