Jones the Grocer

Residents of major cities like New York and London are familiar with the daily spectacle of office workers deploying from office towers to delicatessens, cafes and restaurants to grab a bite to eat at lunchtime. People dressed in uniform office garb stream every which way - heading to a local Cuban place for a plate of rice and chicken or a boutique gastronomic laboratory where they sip potato and leek soup through a straw.

The sheer volume of people coming in and out of these places forces them to be ruthlessly efficient - any place that starts taking too long or slightly burning their steaks goes out of business in no time. Restaurants also flock to office buildings in such a way that you can figure out the tenants of the building by the type of lunch options available nearby.

Here in Abu Dhabi, the restaurant scene is highly under developed and usually these dynamics do not apply. This may have finally changed with the introduction of

, a high-end Australian chain at an office building near the corner of Muroor Rd and 15th St. Still, it looks like the place is floundering a bit with the pace as executives from Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Media Company and nearby banks and ministries flood the small cafe around noon. (Quick aside: The founder spent about Dh4 million to open the place up. Read about it

). Below is a dispatch from a lunchtime excursion by

Rupert Wright

, one of The National's business editors

Restaurants can be a strong draw for tenants looking to move into an office building or a family looking for a new apartment. Many of the developers in Abu Dhabi like Sorouh Real Estate and the Tourism Development & Investment Company have been trying hard to bring in big names to their buildings to assure potential buyers and renters it is a worthwhile venture. As more and more of these buildings open up in the next year, we will see a proliferation of restaurants, cafes and high-end grocery stores. Until then, the latest arrival - Jones the Grocer - can probably safely stay in the lead whether or not it serves food on time...

From Rupert:

Jones the Grocer, a swanky upmarket store modelled on Dean & Deluca's and beloved of Sydneysiders, has opened in Abu Dhabi. In the true spirit of investigative journalism, we ventured out of our offices today, crossed fourth street, and strolled into the shop which is next door to the Mubadala building. As well as selling many beautifully packaged boxes of pasta, pistachio ice cream and having its own cheese room, there is also a seating area where you can have lunch.

We arrived at 1 o'clock, were seated ten minutes later, and by 1.30 we had ordered our meat pies and sat back in keen anticipation. At 1.55, a member of the kitchen staff came out. "I am afraid we have run out of pies," he said. "We will give you a hamburger instead." The hamburger, which arrived at 2.05, was a perfectly nice burger.

In every other respect, the place was a disaster. You could put it down to teething problems, except that the place has now been open more than two weeks.

In just about every other city of the world, Jones the Grocer (nicknamed Jones the Robber in Sydney) would be finished. It would be called Jones the Waiter or Jones the Waste of Time or many more dismissive names. Rather than having tables full of people waiting for food, Jones the Grocer would be empty.

We don't anticipate that will ever happen here. Abu Dhabi is so starved of decent places to eat, particularly around 4th and 15th street, that people will keep coming to Jones the Grocer until they get it right. It is possible that by 2020, it will be possible to eat lunch there and not have to wait an hour to be told that they have run out of pies. We are willing to wait until then before we return, but just about everybody else won't. Sometimes there are benefits to having a monopoly, as Bill Gates will tell you.