BIOGRAPHY Basil Al- Salem is a dynamic international entrepreneur with a deep experience in the development process and operation of restaurants. Mr. Al- Salem possesses a unique skill set in restaurant creation and JV agreements, with a wide knowledge of restaurant concept development, from interior design and branding, to menu development. Mr. Al- Salem’sprofound financial background facilitates aknow- how for the financial engineering of restaurants. Basil Al- Salem has been aBoard Member at: the United Gulf Shipping & Rocks (since June 2013), and atthe Kuwait Board Member at Entrepreneurs’ Organization (since January 2013). In addition, he has been an Advisory Board Member to the College of Business Administration at American University of Kuwait since November 2012, and a Managing Director at Kuwait Food Concepts since 2008. Lastly, he has been theCEO at Gastronomica ME since January 2007. Mr. Al- Salem holds a BS degree in finance from Daniels College of Business, at the University of Denver, and an Executive Education Certificate from the John. F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University. In addition, he has furthered his knowledge by completing the KIA Investment Training Program in 2001, the Thukhur Entrepreneurship Program from Cornell University’s ILR School in 2013, and the Strategies for Effective Negotiation, Persuasion and Decision Making program from Harvard University in 2014. Basil is fluent Arabic and English, and has elementary proficiency in Spanish and French. When he is not busy managing his five projects, his interests are: Cooking, Design, Travel, Art, Photography, Economics, Environment Preservation, Investments, History, Science, Movies, Hiking and Camping. KUWAIT FOOD CONCEPTS Kuwait Food Concepts Co. is a leading restaurant operator inoriginal upscale dining concepts. The company is based in Kuwait with operations currently in Kuwait, KSA, Oman, and UAE, with Qatar and Bahrain on the way. The Company currently as six unique popular dining concepts, created in-house from the ground up with an aim to be the leader of original dining concepts in the Middle East. The company’s brands are Slider Station, B+F Roadside Diner, B+F Open Flame Kitchen, B+F Burger Boutique, Skinny Cloud and Cocoa Room. Most of Kuwait Food Concept’s restaurants have become prestigious, award winning establishments. B+F Burger Boutique has won awards for the Best Burger, best brand in the Gulf, and best design. B+F Open Flame Kitchen won an award as best new retail concept in the Middle East and Africa, and Slider Station won an award for outstanding interior design in Oman. Mr. Al-Salem takes pride in this, and uses it as a motivation to continue delivering a unique dining experience that is “actually different.”

The biggest surprise in meeting the entrepreneur behind Gulf meat eateries such as B+F Burger Boutique and Slider Station is learning that he is a recent adopter of veganism. Basil Al Salem — king of the juicy steak shawarmas on offer at Nomad Kitchen and the Coca-Cola-braised short ribs served up at Slider Station — went vegan earlier this year. But this does not mean that he is going to enforce his lifestyle on customers who frequent the string of restaurants he established through his Kuwait-based company, Gastronomica. “We’re only human, people cheat,” he tells Arabian Business in an interview in Dubai. “It’s rare to find people that are always dieting or always exercising, most need to find a balance. “That’s why, for me, veganism is a lifestyle choice, not a diet. Diets are hard to keep up.” Veganism is challenging, though, the 39-year-old Kuwaiti admits. “I had dinner at La Petite Maison in DIFC [Dubai International Financial Centre] last night and of course it’s truffle season and the menu included goat’s cheese with white truffle — delicious. I thought, why does this happen now?” Al Salem, who began his career at sovereign wealth fund the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), set up his first restaurant, Slider Station, in Kuwait in 2003 when the worldwide burger revival was at its peak. He had returned to Kuwait from studying finance overseas at the University of Denver in Colorado, and was disappointed by the lack of quality local restaurants in his home city. The opening of Slider Station was followed by a series of modern, higher end versions of traditional fast food restaurants. Today, holding company Gastronomica has 15 restaurants across Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Dubai and Qatar and 15 more in the pipeline scheduled to open in 2017 or beyond, in new locations including Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. There are eight brands: food truck concept Nomad Kitchen; coffee and bakery chain BRW; B+F Open Flame Kitchen; B+F Roadside Diner; breakfast café Cocoa Room, ice cream restaurant Skinny Cloud, as well as Slider Station and B+F Burger Boutique. The common denominator is the use of an inventive combination of ingredients, Al Salem says — from the aforementioned Coca-Cola ribs to the ‘Ninjawich’ breakfast sandwich at Cocoa Room, which comprises maple and chipotle candied bacon, French toast, eggs and sweet potato fries — along with artistic restaurant design to create a fun and interesting experience. “Food is only part of what it means to be a restaurant operator,” he says. “I believe people are paying for the total dining experience. That’s why more and more restaurants are investing in tactile points like music and interior décor. These are the things that draw people in. Our ethos has not changed fundamentally since we launched.” The approach seems to be working, with Gastronomica claiming to serve approximately 2 million customers in 2016 and scooping industry awards such as the Gold Award for Best New Retail Concept in 2011 for B+F Open Flame Kitchen. Al Salem, who moved on from KIA to work as head of asset management of United Real Estate Company before founding Gastronomica, clearly enjoys thinking through what he does and achieving success in a calm and measured way, free of the egotism and rush of some entrepreneurs. He tells Arabian Business that he is preparing Gastronomica for the next chapter in its 13-year growth story — shifting its headquarters from Kuwait City to Dubai. This move, he says, is intended to help the company tap into the UAE’s globalised market and raise its profile on the international food scene. It is the first step towards expanding outside the GCC — although Al Salem insists it is still early days and the weak economy is forcing Gastronomica to be more conservative in its ambitions. “The low oil price is hitting consumer spending power and affecting demand so we have to be careful with our growth strategy,” he says. “International expansion is on the agenda, albeit a longer term plan, and that requires that we reinforce our management team and move our headquarters to Dubai. It’s easier to gain a global profile from Dubai [than from Kuwait].” Gastronomica employs 800 people across its restaurants (this is expected to rise to 1,000 by January 2017) and around 30 in its head office. It has one employee in a support office in Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road. Under the plans, an initial three staff would move from Kuwait to an expanded Dubai base, and the company would look to recruit new hires from international markets in due course, Al Salem says. The process of relocating the first three has begun and is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2017. “This first stage will be our springboard for global expansion,” he says. Al Salem refuses to disclose financial information because the company is private. He says it recorded on average 50 percent year-on-year growth across its restaurants in 2015/16 — driven by sales and three new unit openings — but says this year’s growth is unlikely to be as strong as the average 20 percent recorded each of the most recent years, despite a targeted 15 openings by 2018. “For 2016/17, the growth rate will definitely be lower than what we have seen in recent years because of the economic slowdown. And high rents are a [prohibitive] factor. The [retail] real estate sector has not yet fully adjusted to the slowdown; in many areas, rents remain at previous levels. “So for us it’s about quality control and sustainable growth. We don’t want to set definitive targets for unit openings; we want our growth to be gradual. We are looking at individual unit performance and intend to renegotiate some of our leases.” Saudi Arabia provides the biggest opportunity for Gastronomica within the region, Al Salem says. The company already operates restaurants in Riyadh and Jeddah and plans to target the smaller, regional cities where population growth is driving demand for lifestyle eateries. Al Salem also declines to provide detailed information about which brands are performing better than others, but hints that the burger concepts are seeing the slowest growth. It has been 15 years since Gourmet Burger Kitchen first opened in London in 2001, revolutionising the fast food scene with premium burgers and quality side dishes. It cannot necessarily be stated that the public has ‘burger fatigue’, but the market is certainly crowded. “Burgers are the one area [of the restaurant scene] where we are seeing less demand — and I am not saying I am seeing this trend reflected in our sales, but it is what I’ve gathered from looking at the market,” Al Salem says. “There are two reasons for the drop. One is saturation of the market, and the second is growth of burger restaurants reaching a normalised level rather than recording rapid bursts of activity.” With two of Gastronomica’s concepts focussed almost exclusively on burgers and at least two others featuring burgers or sliders on hearty carnivorous menus, is Al Salem concerned by this emerging trend? “They only represent 30 percent of our total sales so we’ve managed to mitigate any downward pressure,” he claims, adding that the company intends to limit the expansion of Slider Station to one outlet per city. Al Salem also dismisses suggestions that some of his concepts are in direct competition to one another, conceding that on the surface there is some overlap in menus, but the setting and ethos of each is different. For example, Slider Station’s design is based on the American gas station of the 1940s. It has ‘industrial chic’ interiors and was the first restaurant in the world to introduce the concept of serving sliders on a conveyor belt. The menu is largely tapas-style small bites. B+F Burger Boutique, on the other hand, serves main course-sized meals and aims to offer an eco-friendly dining experience with recycled packaging and interiors made from natural materials. Gastronomica is eyeing new concepts for the future but Al Salem is coy about revealing specific plans. He says there are two emerging restaurant trends in the region and beyond: health food — including vegan dining — and ‘experimental’ food, for example, pairing unlikely ingredients or introducing “exotic” or “antiquated” products to the Middle East. Al Salem cites duck fat chips and venison, considered by many as traditional English gastro-pub fare, among the sorts of culinary treats that are not yet abundant in the Gulf. It is likely the new concept will focus on the latter, but he says plans are in the very early stages. “We’re thinking of one new concept, but the pure health food market contains too many risks at present,” he says. “We do want to develop healthy food in the GCC but the demand is not yet high enough to make an impact.” Al Salem believes the Dubai restaurant scene has room for improvement — and not necessarily at the top end. He says he would like to see more, smaller eateries run by Emiratis. “Having big names is not the be all and end all. Go to any city in the world and you’ll get a local chef. Here in Dubai it is mainly franchised brands. Of course that brings a certain set of standards to the market but there is no local element. Perhaps budding Emirati chefs are being pushed out of the market by high rents, whereas the global chains can afford expensive real estate. “It’s a vicious circle, because in order to be called a chef you need to work your way to the top. But there are few opportunities for young Emiratis to do this, as the top global restaurants in Dubai will typically choose staff that have already made their name.” With a solid 15 years of growth behind it, Gastronomica arguably presents an exciting acquisition opportunity for a larger restaurant company or investment firm. But would Al Salem be happy to sell? “We’ve had some interest from equity funds and have held talks but they concluded without a deal,” he says. “We have enough cash for the next one-two years so any sale is a longer-term plan. “We don’t want to be any more aggressive right now due to the economic slowdown in the region. We want to evolve gradually.” However, one idea Al Salem says he is exploring at present is a possible expansion into the hospitality industry. He says the skills involved in running a hotel and running a restaurant are similar, and that he has perceived a gap in the market for a well-designed, unique hotel concept that differs from the franchised model he says is too prolific in the food and beverage (F&B) business. Internal discussions have been held within Gastronomica but the idea is in the early stages and the company has yet to explore the market in any proactive manner, he says. “We could potentially break into the hotels market. There are so many franchises but nothing local. And we understand hospitality. We understand service, design, food — these are the fundamental parts of running a hotel, as well as the housekeeping. So the operational complexities are not that different. “However, looking at the market right now, it’s not a good time. It’s all about the timing.” For the time being, Gastronomica looks set to continue its growth trajectory with a steady trickle of new openings across the Gulf. But fast forward a few more years and the company could bring some fresh and exciting fare to the global dining table.

Arabian Business Awards Gastronomica’s Founder Basil Al Salem as Entrepreneur Of The Year

Kuwaiti entrepreneur Basil AlSalem discovered his passion for food and design when he was living abroad, and combined them to launch a series of projects and restaurant in his country. After settling back in Kuwait, he noticed a lack of local restaurants in the market as most of the malls work with franchises. This motivated him to open up his own restaurant Slider Station in 2003. Gradually, his first humble restaurant turned into a series of high-end modern restaurants, including B+F and Cocoa Room. In this video interview, AlSalem talks about the major challenges he faced as an entrepreneur: Lack of labor, land, electricity and water at good prices were few factors that discouraged entrepreneurs to venture into the industries’ field. “When I first launched I used to open the restaurant at 3 pm,” AlSalem says. “I couldn’t open at lunchtime because of the lack of labor.” He also had a small space of 60 meters square in an undesired location. During our meeting, he advised entrepreneurs to take risks, believe in their projects, and find their passion in order to succeed. Today, after 12 years of challenges, the entrepreneurship ecosystem is witnessing more success stories coming from Kuwait and more local businesses that are able to compete with big and foreign projects, he tells us. AlSalem concludes by talking about the Food and Beverage industry in the country and how the market is saturated. “It could be profitable if the idea had a very unique concept.”

For some men, a good burger can equal a great business. Such is the case with Kuwait-based entrepreneur Basil Alsalem “You have a young generation that wants something new. My business strategy is for people to be able to say, ‘This place is actually different.’” Basil Alsalem has a very active Twitter account. If you were to follow him, you’d see his self-proclaimed status as a “knowledge seeker at heart” and that his profile is rife with positive customer feedback. It’s testament to the popularity of the seven restaurants he owns across the Middle East. For those who hadn’t noticed (probably the strict vegans among you) there was a gourmet burger revolution in the early Noughties. In 2001, when Gourmet Burger Kitchen first launched to an eager crowd in the United Kingdom and subsequently the world, it became acceptable to pay more than a handful of change for a burger. High-end restaurants have long catered to an expensive burger that’s more wagyu then Wendy’s, but the gourmet burger boom meant people were in search of something a little tastier (and healthier) than typically found on a McMenu. A more accessible and affordable high-end burger, if you will. Putting his own spin on the trend, the now thirty-four-year-old Basil Alsalem decided to launch the first gourmet burger restaurant in the Middle East. Burger Boutique opened in Kuwait in 2003, kick-starting Basil’s entrance into the restaurant business. “I’d been to one place in New York that had created a $24 burger,” Basil explains when we meet in Kuwait. “It had all kinds of fancy ingredients and that was my inspiration point. I wanted to make a designer place that focused on a high quality product that wasn’t necessarily very expensive.” Aside from the fact that Burger Boutique plugged a major hole in the Kuwaiti market, the restaurant’s quirky décor also helped sell it as a hangout. A self-confessed “design junkie”, Basil’s vision was to put a contemporary spin on the idea of the American diner, something he knew a lot about having majored in finance at the University of Denver and thus spent time travelling across the States. “In the 1950s, diners used materials that were a reflection of the industrial strength of the day,” he explains. “Steel, glass, brick and computer-controlled warm lighting… all of these things were reflected in the design. At Burger Boutique, I took these elements but reinterpreted them to reflect today’s symbols of industrial strength, so we have cutting edge materials and rusted metal walls.” It’s this eye for detail, design and substance that carries through to the rest of the restaurant portfolio. Basil is a dab hand at catering to different tastes but always with a design-focused twist; something that can be seen in his other restaurants. At Slider Station, also in Kuwait, imagine Yo Sushi but with burgers (some with their buns creatively dyed different colours) going around on the conveyor belt and a more rustic, stylishly raw décor. Just next door is Cocoa Room, with its brunch-focused menu and low-slung single light bulbs. The walls are adorned with Basil’s personal collection of American memorabilia, while iPad menus help lend an up-to-date element. Over at the city’s favourite mall, 360, is Open Flame Kitchen — a mean mother of a restaurant, constructed like a giant steel grill and boasting over twenty tonnes of steel. It cost over $3 million to complete. Each of these restaurants is a major personal project for Basil, and talking to him it’s clear that the design is just as important as the menu. In fact it flows through his blood. “My brother is an architect and both my mother and father have a real interest in design,” he tells me. “It has always been a part of the family. I grew up looking at Architectural Digest and my father took me to museums instead of playgrounds and so my interest in art is ingrained.” Not that it’s all furniture shopping and gazing at nice artwork for Basil; he’s taken his appreciation for design and aesthetics and turned it into a core part of his approach to success. “At the end of the day it’s business that counts,” he explains, passionately. “Encompassing a package in terms of design and atmosphere, so people will enjoy the experience and not just the food alone, is my selling point. Twenty years ago people paid for food and they were fine with that. Today they want an escape and they are willing to pay for that package.” And it’s thanks to those people who quickly became regulars that Basil was able to expand outside of Kuwait. In particular, his Burger Boutique in Saudi Arabia has been a real success. This might seem surprising given the logistical issues. Only male staff members are permitted, “which means we have to work twice as hard to find good employees.” And then there is the country’s conservative stance, which Basil admits was a difficult, though not impossible, challenge. “You have to think: Do I do something within the barriers or do I push it a bit? Saudi restaurants usually have separate family and bachelor areas. I’ve risked not having those sections. It might seem bold to others, but people are connected to the Internet and you have a young generation that wants something new. My business strategy is for people to be able to say, ‘This place is actually different.’” Although he says it took “a little bit of convincing” to obtain permissions, it was worth the effort. He has no direct competitors and thinks the restaurant scene is picking up every year. “A huge young and trendy Saudi population is coming of age,” he says. Another brave move for Basil was the launch of Slider Station in Muscat, a noticeably quieter part of the region. “We opened in December 2011, so it’s still very fresh,” he explains. “It went through a lot of rectifications and there were mistakes, like with my very first project. It’s a large space and I wanted it have a really unique look so it didn’t look like I’d just copied from elsewhere. To open in a country that is a virgin when it comes to the restaurant scene was a bold move but, as with all bold moves, it pays off in the end.” Perched on a beach overlooking the Indian Ocean with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and a spacious feel, you can see why he took the risk of opening in another relatively untapped market. This is exactly what one should expect from an entrepreneur who has created a business with an annual turnover of $20 million. But he didn’t do it entirely on his own of course. Coming from an investment background, it was Basil’s father and two investors who helped start the company. He and his family now hold a seventy percent controlling stake, making it the first real business his family has directly run. You’d think that with his eye for spotting gaps in the market, Basil would own other money-spinning enterprises, but he says he came to the conclusion early on that focussing on one business was better than trying to divvy out attention to multiple sources of income. “When it comes to the restaurant business there are a lot of logistics,” he explains as our meeting comes to an end. “There is a lot of PR and hiring that goes into it and so it requires my full time attention. I want to stick with this way of working for the next couple of years until I reach the stage where I have enough leadership within the organisation that I think about doing something else too.” That something else could potentially be boutique hotels, another industry in which Basil thinks he could bring something fresh to the region. Given what he’s done with his unique take on restaurants, it wouldn’t be a surprise if, a few years down the line, a stylish hotel designed by Basil himself became the place to check into in the region. And will there be a restaurant in Dubai, the city with the region’s most developed food scene? If it seems surprising that it hasn’t already happened, the answer encapsulates Basil’s vision for success. “If I could find the right venue then I would do,” he answers. “But I don’t want it to be in some hotel lobby. I want an independent location that feels fresh and original.”

When Basil AlSalem made the move away from the world of business finance, he took a bit of a leap. Rather than being a departure from his business roots and education, however, it was actually fueled by it. Having returned home to Kuwait post- college, and been around just long enough to see a glaring hole in the restaurant landscape, he moved forward with the careful consideration and due diligence that you would expect from a guy with a background in finance. Not even a short ten years later, and he now represents the pinnacle of local dining expertise writ large: he foresaw the burger movement and pushed it through with his original Kuwaiti concept Burger Boutique, he repeated himself when he created the innovative Slider Station, and completed his hat trick with the wonderful breakfast offerings of The Cocoa Room. In addition to his sophisticated and culturally eclectic concept that is the Open Flame Kitchen, as well as a myriad of new openings throughout the region, he has showed time and again that he is just getting started. When this entrepreneur is not dreaming endlessly out of the 29th floor window of his sea-view office, he is busy travelling the world in search of the next it flavor. We catch up with him in this month’s Up Close and Personal column to find out what drives him forward and how he stays ahead of the trends. bazaar questionnaire: What is your idea of perfect happiness? Nothing makes me happier than being with my whole family in good health and having fun. It is these moments in my life that are most memorable, and for a very good reason! It puts a smile on my face. What is your greatest fear? Growing old too fast too soon. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I love to learn about almost anything whether how things function or historical figures. I don’t like the feeling of not knowing something. I use this trait to my advantage for everything from having a conversation about the economy to developing business ideas assisted by my general knowledge. What is the trait you most deplore in others? I believe each person has a trait that has more potential to be deplored than others. However, it takes a while to understand those positive traits and focus on the ones that they seem more willing to deplore themselves. Which living person do you most admire? My wife. She is everything I can’t be. She lifts me up when I’m falling. She completes me. What is your greatest extravagance? I never understood extravagance until I spent the first $100 on a meal. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Do it. When were you happiest? Every day is my happiest. I like progressive happiness. Which talent would you most like to have? I think I can learn almost anything except being good with music. I like to learn to play on the oud. It makes me forget my daily routine. I bought one during college; I think I left it there. What would you consider your greatest achievement? To me, achievements are relative. I think it is something that others can claim about others. For me I count milestones and see where they take me. Where would you most like to live? I love nature. Anywhere where the environment is respected and that possesses peacefulness and serenity. I can live in the desert or an island or right here in Kuwait, just as long as I find those qualities.