For more than 20 years Duncan Fraser-Smith has worked in Asia, Australia and the Middle East, developing successful standalone and hotel-based F&B outlets. With restaurants such as Marina Social and Intersect by Lexus under his belt, he has made a name for himself as one of the region’s go-to F&B experts.
Hospitality wasn’t something Fraser-Smith just happened to fall into. The seed was planted at a young age for the charismatic Australian. He recounts: “I went to the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne in 1982 and I was just fascinated by the pink marble and the brass and the silver dishes that were set up for a Sunday brunch. I remember saying to my father ‘I’m going to do this one day.’ I think I was 10.”
By his 14th birthday, the decision to make hospitality his career was cemented. After looking at the available opportunities in Australia he set his sights on something further afield — The Hotel Institute for Management in Montreux Switzerland. Not everyone was as excited as he was: “My dad was all for it but my mum was horrified.”
His mother eventually came around, but a life back home in Australia wasn’t on the cards: “I’d been doing some work for a hotel group in Sydney and I was just getting a bit stale so I had a head hunter call me and offer me the opportunity to go and interview for a position with a company in the Middle East.”
Once in the region, Fraser-Smith was then approached by IHG to develop its F&B concepts for Europe, Middle East and Africa, which soon transitioned to Middle East Africa and Asia. Soon, people started to approach him: “A particular owner came up to me and said ‘Duncan, I’ve got this other property and can you give me some advice on what you think we can put into that.’ And of course I couldn’t. That’s when he said, ‘you should go and do this for yourself.’”
The restaurant developer’s decision to launch The Cutting Edge Agency came soon after, and for three-and-a-half years he helped launch several successful F&B concepts throughout the region: “I was able to do what I love doing for anyone. I wasn’t restricted.”
There was also a shift in who was approaching him for advice, saying: “I found that owners were calling me and saying ‘we’d like you to oversee the development of the F&B in this property that’s going to be operated by ‘x’’, That was quite exciting for me because owners were seeing that there was an opportunity to realise the potential of their F&B spaces.”
Last month, Fraser-Smith shocked the regional F&B community by announcing that he had been appointed director of global food and beverage for The First Group. The property development firm’s new F&B arm will be tasked with developing F&B concepts for its upcoming projects as well as repositioning restaurants housed in its existing properties. One of the imminently opening properties is Tryp by Wyndham in Dubai’s Barsha Heights neighbourhood. Fraser-Smith sits on one of the comfortable couches at Local, one of the hotel’s three F&B concepts that he helped develop, and tells Caterer about what he’s been up to for the past six months.
Speaking about how the appointment came about, he says: “Initially I started consulting for The First Group but when I met the team and saw the growth potential that they have, and the fact that they’re committed to growing a sustainable, feasible mid to upscale F&B division, it was a no-brainer.”
The move is also a change in market sector for Fraser-Smith: “What I do like is that we’re playing in this mid-market which I said for many, many years is undersupplied. So there’s an opportunity to look at the existing and upcoming portfolio of hotels that The First Group has and go ‘what can I put in there that’s different, exciting and relevant to the market place without resorting to branding and franchising?’”
Local is the embodiment of this school of thought and was conceived to support local farmers and produce and service the local community. Fraser-Smith explains: “The food is real, there’s nothing pretentious about what we do. The price points are going to be disruptive in the industry. For instance everywhere has a happy hour but if you come to Local we’re happy all the time.”
Pricing was a major factor with a focus on cost-minimisation and bringing everything down from a cost perspective. “You’ve got to create that area where your price point is perceived to be value for money and then over-compensate with what you give. Where we sit here, you’ll be hard pushed to see a dish on the menu over AED 100 (US$ 27). But the quality is there and so are the stories behind where all the produce comes from.”
Being able to attract and retain a loyal following from the local residents is key according to Fraser-Smith: “We just want to provide a place where you can come, sit with your laptop, get something to eat, have a beer, a great experience and not feel like you’ve been damaged in the pocket for coming.”
The 650-key hotel is also home to a ‘Coachella meets Ibiza’ Spanish tapas bar called LiQd which is located on the pool deck. For the hotel’s final concept, The First Group is working in partnership with Fighterbrands’ Joey Ghazal. For the beverage-driven BarBary, Ghazal the restaurateur behind The Maine Oyster Bar & Grill, will come in and oversee the management of the space on a daily basis. Talking about the venue conceived in conjunction with Ghazal, Fraser-Smith says: “When you see the space you’ll see we even managed to incorporate what looks like a food truck on the terrace. So it’s quite an interesting space. It’s a very cool 1920s, vintage, retro Parisian style bar. What we’ve done is create three uniquely distinct venues.” Local is set to open in mid-September and both LiQd and BarBary are set to launch in mid-October.
| Advertisement |
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
