At the risk of putting my job in peril, I often played hooky (please note the past tense, boss!) on a Sunday for one simple reason: Club Boudoir used to host the best Bollywood nights on Saturdays. And one always knew it was going to be a fabulous – and prolonged – evening of music and dancing because Aks Nights were hosting.
The oldest desi “club night” brand in the UAE, Aks boasts some of the best Bollywood DJs in the business – the ones who know when to play Munni Badnaam Hui and Sheila Ki Jawani and when to put on some Jaanu Meri Jaan. Despite the concentration of Hindi and Punjabi music fans in Dubai, when Aks launched in 2010, not one premium club in the city held desi nights on a weekend, so the team took up a lounge (remember Da Gama at Century Village, anyone?) and turned it into a club.
The crowds showed up in throngs and just over a year later, Aks approached Armani/Prive, Base, Crystal, Mahiki and White, and started a monthly Bollywood music night on their A-list premises. And the crowds kept coming.
For all of that, though, fans of the genre have always felt that it’s been under-represented and, equally, that there just aren’t that many dedicated locations to head to. Well, do a little jig, because the co-founders of Aks Nights threw open the doors to their very own venue this month: Dialogue Dubai at the Majestic City Retreat Hotel in Bur Dubai.
In keeping with our times, Dialogue is a restaurant, lounge and entertainment venue all at once. You may not be able to jump on to the dance floor just yet, because of Covid-19 restrictions, but the sprawling space has a stage up front that will host Indian and Pakistani singers and live bands interspersed with Aks DJs. Couches and coffee tables make up the lounge section, while a raised platform is filled with dining tables.
It all feels very plush, which is down to the suave interior design, most notably the lighting. The 10-metre bar is backlit and features an illuminated honeycomb pattern, while an accent pillar right in the centre is cleverly set up to put on a light-beam show to the beats of the music.
And thus the stage is set. The Friday night I visit is my first time at a Bollywood club in a long time. There are no singers on that evening, but the DJ is masterful. He blends the best of new and old Bollywood songs with remixes, mash-ups and teasers so tempting that it’s all I can do to stay put. Have you ever seen someone cut a rug while seated?
And yet as I look around me, I’m surprised to see most patrons are intently focused on their plates, ordering dish after dish from the partially open kitchen. Hey, I want to tell them, you know there’s a 24/7 kulcha joint just around the corner, right?
But the curious foodie in me wins out, and I request the prompt server to get me a menu.
Pindi chole hummus, it reads. And Guacamole papdi chaat; dal on toast; chicken desi goreng. The rest of my party is equally agog at the quirky flavour combinations that, I’m happy to report, will in fact tantalise your taste buds or – in the case of the mascarpone makhani risotto and tandoori prawn rechado (approved by chef Gautama’s grandmother, no less) – send them into a tizzy. The team are also planning to launch weekend brunches from next month.
As I leave Dialogue in the wee hours of the morning, glad that I don’t have to go hunting for food as per usual, I think how it’s too bad dancing isn’t on the cards at the moment. But at least now I have a place where I can enjoy butter chicken samosas against the backdrop of the best in Bollywood music. And, luckily, I don’t work most Saturdays.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
if you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Seoul from Dh3,775 return, including taxes
The package
Ski Safari offers a seven-night ski package to Korea, including five nights at the Dragon Valley Hotel in Yongpyong and two nights at Seoul CenterMark hotel, from £720 (Dh3,488) per person, including transfers, based on two travelling in January
The info
Visit www.gokorea.co.uk
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, second leg:
Liverpool (0) v Barcelona (3), Tuesday, 11pm UAE
Game is on BeIN Sports
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
