A new lounge concept from the creators of Iris is coming to Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) this autumn, tabloid! can exclusively reveal today.
Indie, which Add-Mind opened in Beirut late last year, will take over the upper level of Argentine restaurant Gaucho in a partnership between the two companies.
The existing bar area, a mezzanine that overlooks the restaurant below, will be expanded from 4,000 square feet to just under 6,500, said Ross Butler, Gaucho’s director of international operations. The lounge area, is currently being stripped off its decor; the heavy-duty work begins once building approvals come in. (Gaucho remains open from noon-midnight, and will close for a couple of weeks before Indie opens for a few changes itself -- a new bar and conferencing facilities in its private dining room.)
In addition to Iris in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Lebanese group Add-Mind also operate nightclubs White Dubai and Toy Room. Gaucho, known for its steaks and chic take on cowhide, has 30 outlets across the UK, the Netherlands, Dubai, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires.
“I think everyone in the world has been trying to get into DIFC,” says Add-Mind CEO Tony Habre with a laugh, over the phone from Beirut. “When this came it was the perfect time, we understood the market, and it completes our circle.”
“It’s two companies coming together and we hope it’s the first of many collaborations,” says Butler.
“With Indie there’s no pretension at all, which is one of the things we’ve really been impressed about.”
So what is Indie? Well if Iris is a bar-lounge, Indie is more lounge-restaurant.
“It makes you forget where you are. You are going to get in and feel like you’ve travelled somewhere else,” says Habre. “Indie, to be honest, is much more sophisticated. [Design-wise] Indie is more open, everyone together ... old-school, speakeasy in a big library, an indoor place. The music is a bit more sophisticated.”
Indie is “the sort of place I want to go,” says Butler. “What I liked in Beirut you had a very mixed demographic in terms of age, it felt mature but still fun. They are amazing at making great vibes, and they have made it different enough to Iris.”
It was Gaucho’s management, on the hunt for a nightlife specialist to take over the lounge, that approached Add-Mind.
“While we’re happy with the performance of the restaurant, the lounge has never hit the heights that we’ve expected,” says Butler. “Dubai being quite a young market, we felt that we needed to do some drastic changes in the lounge area to keep Gaucho in people’s minds and build on what we felt were a positive first couple of years. We looked at the lounge and had the idea to look for a partner, someone who had a good track record and also had a good cultural fit with us. The idea was if we found someone we worked well with in Dubai, we would extend that partnership through the UAE.”
Butler says he was offered concepts “from New York, south of France, as far away as you can imagine” but settled on commercial terms with Add-Mind a week after the first meeting, eight months ago. “Straight away, it was a very easy working relationship.”
Habre shares the love. “Working with such a big company like Gaucho was something interesting for us. They wouldn’t, and we wouldn’t, have gone into such a thing if we didn’t both have the synergy of the company and the people.”
DIFC also “fell in love with what we were pitching,” says Butler. “DIFC approved the concept on the first meeting, based on Tony’s track record. They wanted something that’s going to come in here and offer something new to DIFC.”
“Our belief since Gaucho first opened is the more restaurants and bars and nightlife options, the better,” he adds. “[DIFC] was always envisioned as a place where people would mill around and go from bar to bar and go there for the whole night. We believe the addition of more restaurants and bars will bring more people to the area, which more people will benefit from.”
