Atherton says: “My whole company is built around the word ‘social’. The reason why that exists is because going out 15-20 years ago to a high level restaurant meant not really talking, and that’s not what we’re about.
“We play really funky music, we have cool uniforms, we have informal dining, but still at Michelin quality. And that’s what has captured people’s imagination around the world. We still deliver that very high quality cuisine but in a very informal setting.”
He continues: “In the past you would only go to one of these restaurants when it was someone’s birthday, someone’s anniversary… whereas with our restaurants you can come in, have a beer, chat with the bartender and go again. Never before were you able to do that in a Michelin quality restaurant, never. The whole informality has really made our restaurant group stand out from the rest.”
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That is exactly what Atherton will bring to his new Dubai venue. He says Marina Social is “so much more than just a restaurant”.
He continues: “I don’t want people to think, ‘oh Jason Atherton, he’s a Michelin star chef, so we’re going to go there, it’s going to be a tasting menu’. It’s not. It’s not what I do as a chef. I win Michelin stars for doing really great food, not just for doing tasting menus.”
And it’s not just the food but the bar that both Atherton and Martin highlight. Atherton explains: “We have four of the world’s best bartenders working for our restaurant group. The main one is here right now having meetings with suppliers and he will front the bar programme here. We’ve put our necks on the line and we want to have some of the best cocktails in Dubai on the menu, and we want to have a crowd coming just for that, never mind the food.”
Martin adds: “That bar part of it is equally as important to us. It is a social area that we want people to come into. There is going to be a great selection of whiskies and cocktails, and as you can see, Jason’s passion.”
Atherton continues: “We’re very lucky that the hotel’s given us a very beautiful terrace space and we want to work on the sundowner, we want to have some great cocktails, some great bar snacks. It’s so social. That’s the whole thing. Every time we think about anything, it’s ‘does it fit into the word ‘social’?’”
He provides an example of training that shows his attention to detail when it comes to keeping the restaurant experience as interactive as possible. “When we’re training the receptionists, we never allow them to walk in front of the guests. They always walk on the side of the guests.
You cannot walk in front of them because when you do that, you’re losing that 30-second interaction with the guest, from when you take their name, walk them to their table where you can find out ‘is it their birthday? Is it a special occasion? Are they in a bad mood?’ All these little tidbits of information that you can pass on to the maitre’d to make their night that much more special, because we are super passionate about what we do,” he says.
Passion aside, his group’s success is proof that chefs can’t just enter the F&B business as a restaurateur without careful thought and hard work.
Atherton smiles, and says: “I have this joke… We really opened our restaurant group four-and-a-half years ago and we’ve got 14-15 restaurants globally. I say it’s a 27-year overnight success story. I’ve been cooking for 27 years in three-star Michelin restaurants all over the globe.
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