Interview: ADNH's Julide Ozbilge Nuss
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.
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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Nuss started from scratch, worked on finalising brands, and engaged in negotiations and contracts. She says that with her hotel and F&B background, setting up the division wasn’t in itself challenging. However, valuable lessons were learned along the way.
“We take hotels with all its supporting departments for granted. When you’re setting up something from scratch, even if it’s just one restaurant, you have to follow the same procedures, though on a smaller scale — so you need all the HR and IT procedures, finance policies, back-of-house systems like cost controlling and receiving, and marketing, under one roof.
“I’ve learned different things along the way. The most interesting has been the construction — seeing everything from design to execution. In the hotel business we don’t get that involved with construction or building, so it has been most fascinating to see it come alive after you’ve done everything on paper.”
As an hotelier and restaurateur, Nuss acknowledges the importance of learning from both streams of the hospitality sector.
She says: “I hire people combined out of the hotel and freestanding restaurant business because they both give you something important. The hotel business will give you the structure, standards and quality you need in restaurants. Freestanding restaurants give you marketing, the focus of the business of really driving the restaurant. The way we’ve set it up is getting those two together.”
ADNH’s primary focus is to complete this project, though with new CEO Ignace Bauwens on board, Nuss says the next step for the company will be announced shortly. She does not confirm what this might be, and whether ADNH will look beyond the UAE capital.
However, she does say this is the right time to be in the Middle East’s F&B industry, and that the developments are moving along to the trajectory taken by cities like London or Las Vegas. “I love how the F&B scene in Abu Dhabi and Dubai has developed. This is a very interesting environment to be in.
“We are not like the old restaurants where it didn’t matter — serve the food, get the drink, and it’s over. Expectations have changed and it’s very good for the region, and for the visitors. I have come to see that it adds to the value of the city with everything that is going on. I think that it’s a very positive change.”
She admits that Dubai and Abu Dhabi does have differences in terms of market segment and residents. Nuss explains: “Dubai has established itself a bit earlier, and lifestyles are different in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In Abu Dhabi, the going out scene is a lot slower-paced. But it’s changing — with Reem Island, Sowwah Sqaure, Yas Island and so on, I’m sure that Abu Dhabi will be as hectic as Dubai.
“One of the things about Abu Dhabi is that it doesn’t forgive, so everything has to come together. What we have over here with so many brands and the quality, I know it’s going to set us apart.”
Venetian Village restaurants:
- Al Fanar Restaurant & Café: home-grown Emirati restaurant; first to open in March 2014
- Inakaya: Japanese robatayaki and sushi restaurant; opened in October 2014
- Brasserie Flo: French cuisine concept; opened December 2014, on UAE National Day
- Olives: a Todd English restaurant; to open by summer 2015
- Barfly: from the creators of Buddha Bar, Georges V Entertainment; to open by summer 2015
• Punjab Grill: fine dining Indian restaurant; to open by summer 2015