A Dubai eatery scheduled to open next month plans to decorate with dozens of carefully crafted, life-size silicone renditions of major celebrities – each costing almost Dh300,000 to produce at facilities in the US and UK.
A Taste of Fame, due to open in Sunset Mall on Jumeirah Beach Road at the end of next month, will be the first of its kind for the Middle East. The 3,658-square-metre restaurant can seat 200 patrons, each dining in the shadow of tuxedo- and gown-wearing replicas of such stars as George Clooney (left), Kim Kardashian, Robert De Niro and Amitabh Bachchan.
Among the 36 figures will be a half-dozen Marvel characters including Batman, Iron Man and a massive version of The Hulk.
The outlet aims to offer a full VIP experience, beginning with “paparazzi” snapping their photo as they enter on a red carpet.
Partners Rabi Youssef and Mohammed Ezzat have backgrounds working in restaurants in the UAE and Germany. “We don’t claim we are a fine-dining concept, but we can definitely claim that we offer a unique and unparalleled experience with an ambience and food that will not be experienced anywhere else,” said Ezzat.
* The National staff
Meatless Days
Sara Suleri, with an introduction by Kamila Shamsie
Penguin
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially