15‘Survival
is the
essence of
creativity.’
—TONY HABRE,
CEO, ADDMINDFOODOpening restaurants
in a glitzy ‘Wild West’
BY ROB CHILTONchefs, waterfalls, and roof- terrace
venues overlooking the Dubai skyline.
“They attract the right crowd from
the beginning, and the entertainment
off ering is always on point,” says
Yousra Zaki, editor of Caterer Middle
East magazine.
Although restaurants open at an
astonishing pace in Dubai, they turn
over just as quickly, with high rents
meaning a business needs to be a fast
success. Habre never lets his guard
down. “You have to be quick, you have
to follow the trends, you have to know
what’s the next thing,” he says.
The next thing for Addmind is to
continue expansion internationally
in London but still with a focus on
Dubai. “This city makes you hungry
for more,” he says. “It never stops.”“DUBAI IS THE WILD WEST,” SAYS TONY HABRE, SMILING.
“In Dubai you either make it or you fail; there is no gray
zone. You have to be perfect at everything.” The CEO of
Add mind hospitality group is currently making it, operat-
ing some of the city’s most well-known restaurants and en-
tertainment venues. But he has teetered on the edge of fail-
ure before, and he doesn’t want to go back there.
In May 2020, during COVID-19 lockdowns, the busi-
ness outlook was bleak and, according to a survey by the
Dubai Chamber of Commerce, half of restaurants and ho-
tels expected to go out of business within months. Dine-in
revenues fell by 52% in March 2020, according to a survey
by JLL, an industry consultancy. Habre had just opened
three new venues: Paradise beach club and restaurants Iris
and La Mezcaleria. Paradise closed permanently, but the
two restaurants reopened after the lockdown and have sur-
vived. Keeping venues afl oat took tremendous creativity.
“The fi rst moments of COVID were crazy and terrifying,”
Habre says. But they adapted, and to keep business going,
Habre and his team started doing deliveries from their res-
taurants and pop-ups serving food and drinks, and kept an
active social media presence to stay connected to custom-
ers. “I think survival is the essence of creativity, and we
were beyond creative during COVID,” he says.
That creativity got Addmind—and Dubai—back into
expansion mode. Habre plans to open three more eater-
ies in Dubai this year: Babylon and Rasputin in Dubai In-
ternational Financial Center (DIFC), as well as Lenia on
the Palm. All three are apt to be as infl uential on the local
nightlife landscape as his past ventures have been.HABRE OPENED his fi rst nightclub, Pulse, in 2001 in his
native city of Beirut, and two years later he set up Add-
mind to create brands around the venues he was planning
to open. Although quality is essential to the success of any
metropolitan venue, Habre says social media and market-
ing have been just as vital, if not more so. It has been a way
for Add mind to connect with customers, many of whom are
“communities of hyper connected world travelers.” Each
venue has its own unique identity on social media to “keep
the conversation going” after a guest visits.
Addmind brought what Habre describes as “a fl avor” to
the entertainment scene in Beirut and in 2013, he opened
his fi rst venue in Dubai. “This is where I always wanted
to be because it’s the strongest international city in the
region for hospitality,” he says. Now Add mind operates
more than 20 restaurants, bars, and clubs in Dubai,
London, Qatar, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Beirut. They have
a reputation for combining quality food with creativity
and theatrics—dramatic interiors with glass decanters
dangling from the ceiling, open kitchens with up to 30TIME’s Destination Dubai series is presented by△
Habre at Sucre,
one of Addmind’s
Dubai restaurantsSee the video at time.com/DestinationDubaiBUSINESSNATALIE NACCACHE FOR TIME