In collaboration with Kitopi and Deliveroo, the initiative Home in a Bite has brought eight restaurants from Lebanon to Dubai, providing their owners with badly-needed dollars as the country’s economic crisis continues.
Through the initiative, Kitopi used its cloud kitchens to recreate 20 menu items from each of the participating restaurants, and Deliveroo joined as the official delivery partner for the brands that have signed on.
“The restaurants are getting a percentage of the sales, and with the devaluation of the currency in Lebanon, getting access to fresh cash is great,” said Christine Assouad, consultant at The Catalyst of Growth, the company behind Home in a Bite.
“The aim is to get to a point where we can cover all their salaries from the money they are getting from here as fast as possible,” she continued.
Home in a Bite did not have to raise any funds and the restaurants didn’t have to pay any fees as several companies in the UAE offered their services free of charge to show support. This includes Kitopi which financed the training and process, Hypermedia which offered a free billboard campaign and Deliveroo which is giving the brands high visibility.
Christine Assouad
Having moved to Dubai after the Beirut port explosion in August, Assouad, the CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts Lebanon and of Treats Holding (Lebanese cuisine restaurant Semsom), wanted to be a link between her country’s F&B sector and the GCC.
“There are still opportunities here in the Gulf despite the fact that coronavirus pandemic effected the region as well,” said Assouad.
Because of her experience as a franchiser and a franchisee, Assouad originally thought of the franchise model as way to bring some of Lebanon’s restaurants to the GCC. However, a lot of the region’s big hospitality groups were reluctant to launch any new projects given the current climate, saying they wanted to focus on their existing projects instead, she explained.
“I was trying to find different options and this is how I met Mohamad Ballout, co-founder and CEO of Kitopi four months ago and discovered the cloud kitchen universe that is disrupting the F&B industry whether we like it or not,” said Assouad.
Mohamad Ballout, co-founder and CEO of Kitopi
“I went back to Lebanon and reached out to the restaurants based on two criteria which are very good food and people that are passionate about what they do,” she added.
The restaurants making up the first batch of Home in a Bite are Lebanese cuisine restaurants Tarator, Semsom, Tawlet and Ummi as well as international food brands Casper& Gambini’s, Deli.Co, Diet Center and Cuisine D’Amour.
After the selection of restaurants, a team of chefs from Kitopi were sent to Lebanon to be trained on the 20 recipes by their original cooks. Upon their return to Dubai, they re-produced the recipes and the brand owners were invited to the city to try them and give their feedback.
Home in a Bite was launched in Marina at the end of March and will be expanding to Downtown Dubai and Motor City in mid-May, increasing its coverage.
Downtown Dubai
“We are starting to grow slowly but surely. I think when we expand into the two other kitchens, it will increase our reach and this will help,” said Assouad.
Lebanese expats in Dubai were Home in a Bite’s earliest adopters because of their familiarity with the participating brands, but Assouad said Deliveroo’s algorithms indicated that non-Lebanese are increasingly ordering from the Lebanese cuisine restaurants because of the cuisine’s universal appeal.
Home in a Bite plans to expand regionally, starting with Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
“We are planning to add more restaurants to our platform but the total number will depend on performance because at the end of the day we need to perform as well. We have been online for a month now and know what is working and what needs fine-tuning and so I can bring brands that have a higher chance of succeeding,” explained Assouad.
During Ramadan, the participating restaurants have pledged that for every iftar they sell in Dubai, they will to provide an iftar meal in Lebanon, through an NGO of their choice, Assouad said. Assouad hopes to create a “trickledown effect of helping others in Lebanon” through this initiative.
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