In the months since it opened its doors in September last year, Marmellata’s reputation for serving some of the best pizza in Abu Dhabi rippled through the emirate, making it something of a quiet institution.
Run by Raj Dagstani, alongside his teenage son and business partner, Sebastian, 13, Marmellata’s tiny hatch at Mina Zayed was rarely without a winding queue each Thursday night, as diners patiently waited for their slice of smoked duck breast and fig pizza, or Swiss chard with garlic sauce.
Despite only opening once a week, its power was such that Dagstani was processing 45 kilograms of dough for pizzas and nine kilograms of focaccia, baked with ingredients such as butternut squash and sage or grape and fennel seed, each week – almost always selling out.
In the wake of the pandemic, Dagstani and sons Sebastian, and older brother Emile, took to hand delivering their goods in carefully wrapped takeaway packages to cars arriving in pre-booked time slots, each five minutes apart.
However, a year after first setting up shop, Marmellata has announced its Mina Zayed shop is to close on Thursday, September 24 – its final hurrah.
“The universe has been pushing us towards a more commercial enterprise just as hard as she can and I’ve done my best to resist but I can see that a commitment one way or the other is needed,” a statement on Marmellata's website reads.
“Between the risks of food service during Covid-19, my children’s education moving online from home and our new landlord’s development plans for Mina Zayed, I feel the time is ripe for change and that my attention is needed elsewhere.
“We will close this version of Marmellata on September 24 with every intention of building something equally wonderful and infinitely more robust even if slightly more ‘underground’. When and where I don’t know but in the meanwhile I am eternally grateful for your embrace.
“Abu Dhabi is a beautiful tapestry of weird and wonderful, that we were a blip on your radar is enormously soul satisfying, thank you for that. Thank you also for enriching our family and for pushing us towards our best, inshallah our best is still ahead ... Deep appreciation for all of you, onwards the adventure!”
Speaking to The National in June, Raj said: "It's a balancing act. But I'm excited by the learning curve and determined to make something beautiful during this time."
He had also teased a second restaurant in the capital, saying Marmellata was only the start for them. Based on the success of Marmellata, that will be a father-son operation, too.
“We have this whole other dimension of each other’s lives that we would not get access to otherwise,” he said. “It just so happens that we work well together.”
Raj was also asked to co-mentor a group of food and drinks start-ups as part of NYU Abu Dhabi'sStartAD incubator programme, which is sponsored by Aldar and opening later this year at Mamsha Al Saadiyat.
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India Test squad
Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
