He wishes it was easier and cheaper to acquire talent. He wishes there was a labour pool of decent hospitality part-timers who could pull a few shifts without needing a contract and all the expense that goes with it.
Finally, he wishes there was an open dialogue with landlords to talk candidly about how crippling the rents are for the business. He wishes he could understand the landlord’s pain points and gain insights into why they have to charge so much.
Shah talks about this list with no bitterness or anger, but with optimism and a sense of hope for the future. Dubai is a nascent city, he says. So this is just the beginning.
When the writing is on the wall, restaurateurs usually have a couple of choices. Some choose to go through a process before closing their doors – they exhibit their final throes, if you will. Those desperate to hold on to some kind of pulse and future follow a similar pattern.
The process usually starts with dramatic menu changes in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. This means they will probably add burgers and avocado to the menu. Then there is the quick refurbishment to offer something different to the guest. This often involves some paint and a few Edison light bulbs.
Then they discount like crazy, offering ridiculous food and drink prices in the hope that those attracted by AED49 (US $13.34) all-you-can-eat-and-drink lunches are suddenly going to become loyal and premium paying patrons. A further roll of the dice is that they will then either open for breakfast to improve day sales or close for lunch to reduce payroll costs. Finally comes the afterthought: shisha – the final nail in the coffin before the fridges are emptied. Unfortunately, I have seen little evidence that any of these actions actually offer long-term solutions.
For others, closure is immediate and seemingly without warning – but it provides a release, relief from sleepless nights and constant worry.
All restaurants close eventually — there is an inevitability to it. However, these closures are all part of the culinary circle of life. Without closures, there would be no success stories; without failure, there would be no innovation or progress; without something ending, nothing else would begin. Closure is inescapable, and it happens to the very best in our industry. As I type this, Danny Meyer, one of the most successful restaurateurs of our time, is closing Green River, the Chicago Michelin-starred restaurant.
Colin Clague had to close Q’bara before finding massive success with Rüya, and is now busy launching international locations. Even the formidable Marco Pierre White has a hat-trick of closures here in Dubai, with Frankie’s recently closing its doors in JBR after a decade of memories and music. Closures create dialogue; dialogue creates change.
According to Dubai Statistics Center, over 4,000 trade licences were cancelled in the first three quarters of 2017 — that’s twice as many as in 2016. There is no doubt that 2017 was a telling year for many businesses in Dubai.
Detailed data on how many of those cancelled licences were restaurants was not available, unfortunately. However, what was interesting was that there were three times as many new licences issued in the same period. Over 15,000 new commercial licences were issued in Dubai in the first three quarters of 2017. That optimism has to be a reflection of the market sentiment somehow.
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