High prices and large venue behind Novikov Dubai shutdown, says Bulldozer Group

High menu prices and a large venue were two of the reasons behind the closure of Japanese restaurant Novikov Restaurant & Lounge in Dubai, according to the managing partner of Bulldozer Group, the hospitality firm which brought the London concept to the emirate. Speaking to Arabian Business, Evgeny Kuzin said the restaurant’s massive space made it difficult to fill with customers on a regular basis. “There were a few elements that we missed in beginning, when we had our learning curve. The restaurant was too big for the location it was in, and one of the mistakes we did - which we paid for – was that the prices were a little bit too high for the concept, and not enough people came. It was too big,” he said. Novikov Restaurant & Lounge opened in Dubai in 2015 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road only to close four years later in 2018. The 280-seater was spread across two floors and four areas comprising the Bar & Lounge, Sushi Counter, Main Dining Room, and Mezzanine Private Dining Room. The concept belongs to Russian billionaire Arkady Novikov, who has over 50 dining outlets across Moscow. Kuzin said in August last year that the group will expand Novikov to Saudi Arabia “very soon, in a couple of months.” As for the Dubai brand, the plans have currently been put on hold, he added. “We have no plans to reopen Novikov in Dubai yet. Let’s see what happens,” he said. The Bulldozer Group is known for bringing global concepts including Italian restaurant Cipriani to Dubai. The firm also opened its own concept Greek restaurant Gaia in DIFC in 2018. It is headed by Chef Izu Ani, who is famous for launching successes La Petite Maison and La Serre Bistro & Boulangerie. The firm is also expected to open London concept China Tang in DIFC this year. The restaurant in Dorchester Hotel serves Cantonese cuisine in rooms designed in Art Deco, aimed at evoking 1930s Shanghai.

Dubai · United Arab Emirates · 12 Jan 2019

Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai to close

Iconic US department store Saks Fifth Avenue is closing its Dubai store after nearly 11 years of business. Located in BurJuman Centre, Saks first opened its Middle Eastern outpost in 2005, however, due to the end of its licensing agreement, the 80,000 square foot of retail space will close on August 31. "We can confirm that the lease agreement with Saks Fifth Avenue is approaching its natural conclusion”, an official spokesperson for BurJuman confirmed. He added the space will be incorporated into the mall's expansion plan. The parent Canadian company of Saks, Hudson's Bay Company, have denied any immediate plans to renew the licensing in the UAE, or even move it to another location. The BurJuman space will be the last remaining Saks Fifth Avenue store in the UAE, as the retailer closed its menswear store at the Walk on Jumeirah Road in 2010, a mere two years after opening. It was soon replaced with a discount outlet store selling Saks Fifth Avenue products from previous year's collections, which is now closed as well. Saks saw a short-term success in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, too, as it drew its shutters in 2012. According to forecast from consulting firm, Euromonitor International, the UAE retail market is to grow seven percent, and is valued at $53.7 billion (Dhs197 billion) for 2016.

United Arab Emirates · 10 Apr 2016

From fine-dining to local farms – Dubai’s Bice Mare is seeking inspiration in Italy

Bice Mare, the upscale Italian restaurant in Souk Al Bahar, has closed its doors this summer for a two-month renovation – but that doesn’t mean the chefs are on holiday. Executive chef Francesco Guarracino, the driving force behind Bice Mare’s success over the last four years, has taken his team on a cross-country driving tour across Italy, searching for the best products the country has to offer. The 11-day, 5,000-kilometre road trip, titled The Road to Dubai, started in Milan at the World Expo on June 28 and ended in Sicily on July 8. The tour included stops in Milan, Florence, Rome, Napoli, Sorrento, the Puglia region, Sicily and many small towns in between. Guarracino hired three deluxe camper vans to transport his crew, which included six of the nine Italian chefs who work under him at Bice Mare, five journalists from Dubai, two restaurant managers and a ­Dubai-based ­distributor. The ambitious journey is reflective of Guarracino’s personality. He meticulously organised the tour, down to the minute, on his own with visits to roughly 20 small farmers and artisanal ­producers across the country, many of whom are his personal friends. He also arranged for his team to dine in nine, ­Michelin-starred restaurants along the way, including Don Alfonso 1890 in Sant’­Agata sui Due Golfi and La Pergola, Heinz Beck’s three Michelin-starred restaurant at the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria. Beck also has two restaurants in Dubai – Social by Heinz Beck and the newly opened A Taste of Italy. “I’m a man who doesn’t like easy things,” says Guarracino. “The challenge for me is essential. Everything I do in my life has to be hard work and hard to achieve. My whole life is like that. My dreams are always big. ” One of those dreams is Bice Mare’s renovation. When the restaurant re-opens in the first week of September, diners will hardly recognise the interior. The plans include everything from floors and a refurbished terrace to a new lounge area and an open kitchen where guests can watch Guarracino and his team construct their signature dishes. The menu will also include tastes guests have not had before in Dubai – using products the team has found along this summer’s tour. Guarracino says: “We’re finding and showcasing the best of each region from the culture and the food to the land, the products and the people.” The farms and producers the team visited are family-run operations that create their signature products using techniques passed on down several generations. Many are part of the Slow Food association, an ­international movement formed to promote local, high-quality, and sustainable products. The next step is importing the products into Dubai, which is no easy feat. Many of the producers are small businesses and not commercial factories pumping out goods for the masses. Which is why distributor ­Marilena di Coste, owner of Made in Italia, was brought in. Di Coste says importing new products involves everything from translation and certification to government approvals and shipping logistics. She also needs to find enough buyers (primarily chefs and gourmet food shops). Some of the products Di Coste and Guarracino hope to import are Provolone Del Monaco, a rare cheese made from the milk of Agerolese cows in Campania; yogurt made with buffalo milk from the Marche region; and lemons (that are more sweet than sour) from Sorrento. Di Coste, an Italian with indisputable pride in the flavours of her homeland, says, “There are a lot of products from Italy already in Dubai and some of them are good-quality products, but what’s missing is the soul. There is a difference between commercial products and artisanal products.” “We really need these new products,” says Guarracino. “Every restaurant does the same thing. It’s very commercial. It’s the same everywhere. The products here come from big companies. I want quality products with history and from hard-working families. To make a special product, you need a special person. It cannot be made by a machine. You will not taste the ‘soul’.” Sitting in his restaurant a month before he set off on the trip, Guarracino didn’t hesitate when asked why he planned such a monumental excursion when most chefs would opt for a much-­needed holiday during the ­restaurant’s two-month renovation. “Bice Mare is my baby,” he said. “I work a lot. I’m here every day from 9am to midnight. The things I do, I want to do right. I need to do things in a certain way. I want to understand what can be done better in Dubai. I want to bring these lesser-known products from Italy. I want to change the mentality of the people.” • For more information chef Guarracino’s The Road to Dubai journey through Italy and the products he discovered, visit www.theroadtodubai.net sjohnson@thenational.ae

United Arab Emirates · 11 Jul 2015

No more steakburgers in Dubai: Steak 'n Shake closes in UAE

Forget about grabbing a steakburger in Dubai or Abu Dhabi the next time you drop by the emirates. Steak 'n Shake's two restaurants in the United Arab Emirates have closed, after less than a year dishing up steakburgers and shakes. The Indianapolis burger chain, which last year launched an ambitious international expansion, said the recent closings of the UAE locations had to do with a change in franchisees. "We have decided to move forward with a new franchise partner. The UAE is an important market for us in the Middle East, and it requires a franchise partner who has the resources to select great real estate and can meet our agreed upon growth schedule," a company spokesperson said. Both UAE restaurants were in malls. A Dec. 13 note on the Steak 'n Shake UAE Facebook page, which has 6,228 likes, thanks "the overwhelming support and loyalty of our fans" and tells followers that "Steak 'n Shake is no longer part of Saleh Bin Lahej Group - Hospitality Division." Several customers registered their disappointment on Facebook. One said, "We were really craving for your burger yesterday only to find out that it's closed. You should open one in Dubai Marina." The closings won't slow Steak 'n Shake's overseas expansion, the spokesperson said. "The closure has zero impact on our international growth plans, neither in Europe nor in the Middle East. In addition to our most current openings in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, we continue to sign up new deals in Pakistan and in negotiations in several other countries in the Middle East, none of which has been negatively affected by the changeover in UAE. In Europe, we continue to sign up new franchisees throughout France, Spain, Italy and in negotiations in other European countries." Last year Steak 'n Shake also opened locations on the French Riviera in Cannes and on the Spanish tourist island of Ibiza. Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.

United Arab Emirates · 6 Jan 2015

The $150m man behind The One

Two hours in the company of entrepreneur Thomas Lundgren is a draining experience. We begin by discussing the purpose and meaning of a new lampshade in the corner of his office. Next, we move onto his recent holiday in Sweden, in between which he confesses to being dyslexic, before explaining that doing an MBA is like getting into the "karaoke business". A full half hour is spent analysing the difference between men and women's brains. We even debate the rise of religious fundamentalism across the globe. Then another confession - he cries when he watches Disney movies. "If you run your own company, you can do what the bloody hell you want," he explains. We will go there and work alongside each village. The villagers must be part of it. He can say that again. It takes a full two hours to realise that the many thoughts, wisdoms, passions and obsessions of Lundgren are actually in some way all connected to his latest dream, one that will be officially unveiled to the world this week. Put simply, the founder of The One furniture empire has decided to gradually start giving all his money away, channelled into a new company which will build schools in remote parts of the globe. Starting immediately, 1% of The One's current US$100m-a-year revenues will be heading there with 15 locations earmarked for new schools. That figure is expected to steadily rise. By 2020 - when the company's revenues are projected to have topped the half a billion dollar mark, he hopes to have built at least 500 schools - not just with The One cash but with a huge helping hand from The One staff. "The world is [expletive]," Lundgren says swearing: "This whole project is not about me, it's about something far bigger." Given that The One also has big plans with eight new store openings planned next year across the Middle East, and the fact a firm of American investment bankers have recently been casting a rule over the empire - putting a US$150m price tag on the business - some cynics would argue that his social enterprise project is a spectacular marketing stunt. So is it? "So what if it is? What's the problem? If you think this is a marketing stunt, then should that be a reason for me not to do it? What is it that you are doing to help change the world, huh? I feel good about this, very good. And yes, I expect criticism, and let it come. If people have a problem with this, it cannot be my problem. If you want to feel good, if you want to do something good, then only you can decide that," he says. Lundgren has clearly made his decision. The idea of doing "something" has been kicking around his head for several years, and began to take shape in the past three years - inspired by the book "Three Cups of Tea", which tells the story of the American mountain climber Greg Mortenson, who devoted his life to building over 55 schools in Pakistan after becoming lost during a climbing expedition. Lundgren has taken the Mortenson ideals and added his own theory that empathy is the key to harmony. Being able to see yourself in somebody else's shoes is what it's all about. "That's why Bill Clinton has empathy and George Bush has no empathy. So for me it's about our company having empathy - the people who work for us having empathy, so they can understand why I am doing this and why we must do it. You see for me the problem I face is trying to run The One as a ‘small huge company.' When we were a small company, we were the underdog so everyone loved us. "As Jack Welch said, the trick is to keep the small mind of a company within a global operation. When there were 12 people working in this building I had 12 stars working for me. Now there are 88 people but I don't have 88 stars," he adds. What Lundgren is hoping for is that the empathy of his own staff - 800 across the Middle East - will translate into school building. The current plan is for each of his 15 existing stores to be associated with a village in one of the countries it has a manufacturing operation in. That store will take "ownership" of a school building project and around 20 staff from the store will fly out to a remote, poverty stricken part of the world to help put together a school in as little as eight weeks. Every aspect of the funding - from flight tickets to cement prices - will be declared on the internet in the new company's accounts to ensure transparency. The schools will be directed towards female education, though not exclusively, and will be shut down at the fist sign of any kind of religious fundamentalism being practiced inside. "I don't want people to think that we are going there to act as some sort of missionaries. We will go there and work alongside each village. The villagers must be part of it. The whole idea is to give them the tools they need to sustain it. We will get it started and after three to five years they will sustain themselves," he says. The projects already look like becoming far more than just a school, and may incorporate the infrastructure often needed around the schools. Lundgren is hoping a mixture of help comes from all walks of life and business - whether it is Thuraya donating free satellite phones or business gurus pitching with their own advice. "When I started going deeper into it, it just got bigger. I already decided that I wanted the schools to target women more than men in the villages. So we go and build a school in Africa, where in some parts the women fetch the water. If the water is too far they won't have time to go to school. So we have to put in a water system. We have to provide safe and clean drinking water. And who is going to run the schools? We need to put in teachers. Anyone can be a part of this. I hope that they will be a part of this in whatever way, no matter how small or big," he says. It's a big plan and a big idea, one which Lundgren is now busy trying to convince others to follow. That shouldn't be difficult however given that convincing himself was the harder part. "I needed to really decide why I wanted to do this, and what doing this really all was about. You know I am dyslexic, and I am told that a lot of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. Dyslexic people have to find ways around problems in order to succeed. And that's what entrepreneurs do. We look for ways around things," he says. "It's also about having to do something different. I mean, some people choose to better themselves by doing something like an MBA. What a waste of time. Think about it this way - what do you do in a karaoke bar? You go and sing other people's songs. So what does an MBA teach you? Other people's management. So I think if you go to business school, it makes you stupid because you are in the Karaoke business. Today an MBA is useless. Other people are into following ‘best practice.' Why should you follow someone else's best practice? What a waste of time. People have to do things that are right and make them feel good and others feel good. That's why we are human beings." Having convinced himself to follow this path, the scale of its growth is now naturally directly linked to the growth of The One furniture empire, which for now appears to be on a financial roll. Lundgren admits he has been chased by an American investment banking firm waving US$150m. "They wanted to have dinner with me but I really just don't get it, how you do all these valuations. Okay, so I am worth maybe US$75m. Or better still, let's say it's actually US$100m I am worth. But where is it? Where is all this cash? (at this point he starts searching under his own The One table for several minutes, laughing). "I don't know where this money is and I have no idea how much money I have. I am pretty useless with money, and so when people say they want to talk to me about valuations, and p/e ratios and whatever, well I just don't get it. Cash is king. And that's all there is to it. This venture with schools needs cash and it will have cash," he says. Today an MBA is useless. If you go to business school, it makes you stupid. To grow the company - and in effect grow his school buildings projects - Lundgren admits he has looked at three options - a stock market flotation, taking on outside investment or carrying on as he is. "If I go to the stock exchange there will be a certain percentage of shareholders in my company and then it is all about quarterly figures and short-term goals. So I could take the money from the investment bankers because they have outside knowledge. But they have a five-year goal which is to sell out. So I have to carry on doing what I am doing, running this my way," he says. So can the Swedish entrepreneur really succeed? If his track record is anything to go by, he probably can. Lundgren's journey to the top has been a roller coaster ride of success, failure, depression, arrogance and luck. He first moved to the Middle East from Sweden in 1984, living in Saudi Arabia for a year before a nine-year stint in Kuwait with his new wife. Lundgren at the time worked for Ikea, helping establish it as a major world-wide brand. Until 1991 and the start of the first Gulf War when he left the country. Lundgren returned to Kuwait briefly after the war but was unimpressed with the state of the country and decided to move to Dubai. He put together a business plan to start The One, deciding he needed four partners to each cough up US$1 million. No bank or financier showed any interest in his plans to launch yet another retailer. Eventually he went back with a begging bowl to two Arab businessmen he knew and persuaded them, somehow, to give him US$1m. Another American investor threw in US$500,000. Somehow he got the business up and running through periods of chaos for three years until 1998 when an electrical fire at the store appeared to be the final straw. "But I got through that and we survived. And then you read that book about Greg Mortenson and you realise how he managed to achieve so much despite having absolutely nothing, and you realise that anything is possible," he says, adding: "I don't expect everyone to be saying what a great idea this all is, or that they are all now thinking the way I am," he says. "But I think if other companies start to do things like this - even if they only do it because they think they have to, you know, its trendy and all that, then that's fine. It's a start. At least a start. And that's all I want to see from others. Do something. Do anything." The next couple of years promise to be fascinating in the life and times of Thomas Lundgren. A year ago he had plans to open a hotel and a record company. A considerable fortune was spent sponsoring the Robbie Williams concert in Dubai. Now, all his plans and conversations are about giving back. "Look at what Bill Gates is doing, and what Warren Buffett is doing. It's incredible," he says. At this point, it strikes me that Lundgren has been talking for two hours and not once mentioned or more likely slated his arch furniture rival Ikea. But it doesn't take him long and he doesn't disappoint. "You know who the richest man in the world probably really is, if you probably did the sums? It is Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea. And how much does he give? Absolutely nothing. And that is my problem with Ikea." Nobody, least of all Lundgren himself, expects him to ever control an empire on the scale of Ikea's. But for the first time in Lundgren's life, that doesn't seem to matter to him anymore. More than just words Thomas Lundgren is the first to confess he's not a big reader. "I just like buying books, but I don't really read them. I sort of scan them and then tell other people to read them," he says. There has been one notable exception - Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, proved a huge inspiration to Lundgren. The book highlights how some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and American nurse Greg Mortenson's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. "I think it is just an amazing book and I have bought 200 copies, which I am handing out to everyone I know," says Lundgren.

United Arab Emirates · 8 Sep 2007