Dubai concept The Maine to open in London’s Mayfair this year

Dubai homegrown restaurant brand, The Maine, will open its first international outpost at 20 Hanover Square in Mayfair, London, this fall.

The Maine Mayfair is divided across three levels with five rooms and will have a seating capacity of 350.

“It’s a homestead in Hanover Square from 1720. It is the only surviving Grade II listed Georgian building in the entire area. The area was dug up for air raid shelters in the Second World War,” Joey Ghazal, founder and managing partner at The Maine New England Brasserie Co. told Gulf Business.

The Maine is a New England brasserie concept that opened its first outpost in a garage in Dubai’s JBR in 2015, followed by other locations including Studio City and Business Bay.

“The London restaurant is 11,000 square feet. If you took all of our restaurants in Dubai, they would not reach 11,000 square feet together,” says Ghazal about the scale of the property which was the homestead of the Duke of Montrose, and will for the first time be transformed into a social dining and entertainment destination.

20 Hanover Square forms part of the 1.3acre, mixed-use development by Great Portland Estates.

“From the time we saw the location in October, to the time that we will be opening, is under a year. We won the location in stiff competition with a lot of very seasoned local operators in London,” says Ghazal.

“We have to adapt the brand in a way to think how can we create an experience and a destination that will drive people to it. We have a 100-foot terrace that is connected to New Bond Street. We have a drawing room, which will be a sort of an aristocratic lounge. We have a large bar and brasserie that will have a nightlife and entertainment component to it.”

Ghazal says that while details of the head chef at the The Maine Mayfair are being kept under wraps for now, it will offer ingredients and concepts that haven’t been seen at its Dubai siblings. “In London, we have the opportunity to work with local suppliers and local farms, we are able to play with ingredients that we are not able to play with here [in Dubai], and create much more of a local story over there.

“Our goal really is to create a destination that would surprise and really delight people who visit many times, and not have the same experience twice.”