EAT STREET
Lawrence Assadourian from Eat Street reveals more about the platform that will support home-grown entrepreneurs in the UAE to launch their own food trucks:
What is the basic concept behind Eat Street and its vision?
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Eat Street is a mobile food platform and it has a number of key mandates. Its first mandate is in line with UAE Vision 2021, Dubai Plan 2021 that complements the Dubai Strategic Vision 2015, as well as Dubai Tourism 2020 and Expo 2020 Charter.
We’re looking to support culinary entrepreneurship in Dubai. In light of this, we are hoping to continue a positive dialogue with the city of Dubai, specifically the resident stakeholders within the government to facilitate the necessary legislation around mobile food.
Our second key mandate is the identification and incubation of Emirati culinary talent and entrepreneurship. Our third key mandate is to attract, incubate, and retain global culinary talent and entrepreneurship.
That is divided into two parts; the first part is to identify current residents of the UAE who wish to enter into the culinary field, and secondly, to further position Dubai as a culinary hub by attracting global palates that may have traditionally selected cities such as London, Paris or New York to establish their food businesses. Our next key mandate is the vitalisation of urban areas.
Our last mandate is the internationalisation of local culinary talent. We hope that between now and 2020, our platform will be able to identify global talent and Dubai will become a city that not only imports international brands, but can also export them.
How do you pick the brands that will be able to rent a food truck from you?
All of the entrepreneurs that we currently work with are home-grown brands. Because of the very nature of our platform, the criteria selection is based on so many factors, and it is really on a case-by-case basis.
How does your initiative work?
Eat Street as a platform does not provide licences to operate in the city. We are the go-between for the relevant government authorities and the members of Eat Street. Our current 10 members are also case-by-case specific.
Some members have been allocated trucks from us, and some members have joined our platform with their own trucks.
When will Eat Street’s trucks be rolled out?
We did a very soft launch of our first three members on the Boulevard for NYE, which was highly successful. We are looking to launch an additional two, so a total of five, during the Dubai Food Festival, and a further four during March.
Which brands have already signed on with Eat Street?
Our first brand is called Home Bakery, started by an Emirati brother and sister team, specialising in American baked products. The second concept is Park House, which is going to have its first retail location on Kite Beach and is a surf-n-turf countryside-type brand.
Third is a company called Brooklyn Bros serving gourmet hot dogs. Our fourth is Moti Roti. Fifth is Sheburger, founded by an Emirati culinary entrepreneur. Our sixth is Melt & Co, which will be serving grilled cheese sandwiches. We also have Meylas, which is the world’s first Emirati food truck. Melt Frozen Yoghurt has joined our platform as well. The others names will be released shortly.
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May 6, 2015 , Canada
As a Company who has manufactured American Food Trucks for over 15 years we did see an increase in inquiries fro the UAE and especially Dubai over the 3+ years. Even at the very early days in America there were hurdles to jump over as with any new venture where city councils are not sure how to t...