Morning:
9°c
Posh London restaurant Zuma opened its doors in Dubai on 18 September last year - just 72 hours after Lehman Brothers went bust, sending the global economy into a tailspin. You could almost hear the "pop" of Dubai's debt-fuelled property bubble. Located in the heart of Dubai's new financial centre, Zuma arrived just as bankers from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and, of course, Lehman were packing their bags.
So why is founder Rainer Becker beaming when I meet him for a quiet drink on the terrace? Well, it turns out Becker has about 350,000 reasons to be cheerful in Dubai. Because that's the average turnover (in British pounds, not some Mickey Mouse local currency) at his Zuma restaurant here every week.
"When we arrived in Dubai everything was golden and sunny," he recalls. "Then as soon as we opened, the economy took a downturn but we can't feel the slowdown here."
Some numbers: Zuma Dubai is 11,000 square feet - almost double the size of the London restaurant. The lounge and partly outdoor bar take up half the space, giving it a more clubby feel. Last Thursday, 512 people had dinner there, with another 900 just drinking. More than 100 were turned away.
"In Dubai, we're a destination restaurant," explains Becker. He's right. Until Zuma opened, a night out in the financial district was unheard of. Now it's the height of cool.
Still, there is room for improvement. Lunch business is quite slow: some days it serves just 100 diners, mostly bankers and socialites. Average spend is slightly below London (where it's £90), partly because some Muslim customers stick to Coke and Pepsi. Anecdotally, I breezed in last Friday at 9.30pm without a reservation and was offered a choice of tables. Try that in Knightsbridge.
Perhaps tourists will plug that gap, when they return to Dubai. They have in London, where the weak pound has lured French and German holidaymakers to take the place of hedge-fund managers. Takings in London are up on this time last year, though the exact increase is the one statistic Becker asks me not to print.
"I could take the Mickey and increase prices in Dubai, but I want to build customers for the long term. I want to be more affordable than the competition," says Becker. He doesn't utter the word Nobu, which opened in Dubai about the same time, but smiles when I mention it.
To be fair, Nobu is also busy, though it's more of a restaurant, rather than the all-singing, all-dancing social hub that is Zuma. Dubai's consumers are clearly cutting back on many things. Posh Japanese food isn't among them.
