Just when you thought the city’s love for coffee couldn’t get any more voracious, Dubai’s café scene is getting yet another sweet glow-up. One of the newest trends in the city involves villa owners opening up their homes as bespoke cafes, bakeries and drive-by matcha stations to cater to the cravings of its residents. How, you ask? We chatted to the owners of Dubai’s most booming villa cafes to discover the secret recipe to drawing a crowd of sweet-treat lovers to your front door.
Arguably, it all starts with Dubai’s love for the new and the niche. These villa-cafes provide an authentic experience, meaning the city’s it-girls can remain two steps ahead in their choice of happening social hubs. The uniqueness of the villa-café concept truly gives it its edge, resulting in more reshares on socials that drive more traffic to the business (pun definitely intended). Other than the fact that it’s an exciting experience in and of itself to get your caffeine fix at a new, somewhat under-the-radar location, hitting up a villa-café is also especially convenient. Simply place your order online, drive up, and receive your treats to your car. Waiting in line is so last season.
These business also give new meaning to the word ‘homegrown’. Operating from your home is much cheaper than running an actual café or bakery. It’s an attractive choice for young women of the region looking to explore their entrepreneurial spirit. “We started our business out of a love for local enterprises”, says Hessa Belobaida, founder of the uber-Instagrammable drive-by matcha café in her home, Oryx. “We wanted to create something special because small businesses inspire creativity and community spirit”.
Support for Oryx’s home-brewed matcha has been soaring online. It’s speciality? The Panna Cotta Matcha. “We combined our love for matcha with the beauty of nature”, says Hessa. Aside from serving up top-quality brews, her home in Al Khawaneej is also frequented by gazelles and oryxes. By picking up an order from the villa-café, the customer gets a personal interaction with the nature of this specific neighbourhood in Dubai, something you simply can’t get at your average coffee shop. “Seeing our customers’ faces light up is the best reward”, says Hessa.
Another matcha drive-by, Wave By MBM, was a fun project started by other matcha-lovers in the city. Based in Al Mizhar 2, their signature ‘Pink Wave’ and ‘Blue Coconut Foam’ matcha lattes are often dubbed the “best matcha in town” by their followers. It’s no secret that Gen Z place a premium on authenticity, looking for new things to try, trends to follow and new ways to express themselves online, the attraction to the villa-café concept, is thus a natural by-product. It’s an opportunity to support something different happening in the region, and DXB girlies are always ahead of the game.
So, just how do these businesses take off? Just as any other venture, there are rules and restrictions for operations taking place from your home, too. Getting advice from experts on steps like obtaining a business licence in Dubai, is crucial. “Starting a home-based business can be a rewarding endeavour, but it requires careful planning and execution”, says Ayesha Alsuwaidi, founder of home-bakery 221b Baker Street in Al Twar 3. Drawing in customers to your home is also a big part of the challenge, “it’s not just about the products you provide; it’s about how you can align what you offer with the customers’ needs”, says Ayesha.
Ayesha started her bakery business out of her long-standing passion for baking and cooking, with the aim to “open a bakery where the aroma of freshly baked goods greets the neighbourhood”. The homely feel of these businesses is (again, pun definitely intended here) right up the street of the Gen Z consumer-base. Ayesha played into the narrative of the personal and authentic business by naming the bakery after Sherlock Holmes’ renowned location, “to give it an air of mystery and allure since I’m a fan of the show”.
Perhaps, home-based businesses are a more approachable entry-point for young people to have fun with the idea of creating something meaningful in their communities. In a city like Dubai, where large-scale businesses are continuously booming, owning just a little slice of that corporate pie is easier when it can be done from the comfort of your own home.
The villa-café venture is without a doubt rooted in creativity and local community spirit. As young people continue to reinvent the wheel of corp culture, perhaps you’ll find that your next coffee and cake fix is (quite literally) on your doorstep.
PSA: Matcha desserts are about to be your new obsession. Check this out.