Interview: ADNH's Julide Ozbilge Nuss

Julide Ozbilge Nuss at Venetian Village, Abu Dhabi, which will have all six restaurants open this year [Photo: Grace Guino/ITP Images].

ADNH F&B asset management manager Julide Ozbilge Nuss speaks to Devina Divecha about the plans for the new restaurant development, Venetian Village, at The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal, with the final and sixth dining concept announced this month

Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH) is getting serious about its F&B —and to that effect has launched its F&B asset management division, headed up by Julide Ozbilge Nuss. Its first high-profile project is the Venetian Village, which will be home to six restaurants when the project completes in the summer of 2015.

Spanning 20,000 square metres across the grounds of The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal, Venetian Village also includes the hotel’s spa, and 52 of the hotel’s luxury rooms.

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I meet Nuss at Inakaya, one of the development’s restaurants, and she says: “Venetian Village is an eclectic combination of restaurants. We have selected international and national brands and concepts to become part of the dining destination.”

All concepts, except for Al Fanar Restaurant & Café, will be seen in the UAE for the first time (see box out on pg 64). How did ADNH go about selecting these? Nuss says: “We wanted successful international brands. Because we are part of the Ritz-Carlton property, what was important to us is that it fits with the property and is able to create a dining destination. We didn’t want to bring existing concepts that are already in different areas of the region.”

Obviously, Nuss reveals, her team researched more than just six concepts, and says the final selected brands were run by people who were “all very fascinated by the Middle East” and “very eager to be part of the UAE’s development”.

How Venetian Village operates each restaurant is on a case-by-case basis. Out of the six, four restaurants are franchises, operated by ADNH under the restaurant division of ADNH F&B asset management. These include Inakaya, Brasserie Flo, Barfly and Todd English’s Olives.

From the remaining two, Al Fanar Restaurant & Café is a leased space, along with the just announced concept Punjab Grill — a fine dining Indian restaurant with locations in Singapore, Bangkok, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. Inakaya, Brasserie Flo and Al Fanar are already open, with the rest scheduled to be operational by the summer of this year.

Nuss aims to drive Venetian Village towards becoming a “prime dining destination”. She defines it as being medium to high-end, but with an approachable pricing position.

She came on-board just over two years ago, when she joined ADNH to launch the restaurant division. She reveals: “With the evolving Abu Dhabi scene, ADNH believed that this division would add value.”

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