Dubai v London – how hipster coffee and warehouses don’t equate to a hipster ‘hood
I gave up being a coffee-snob-in-denial after, “Turkish coffee, please”, resulted in a one-sachet-cappuccino followed swiftly, still nursing a burnt tongue and offended tastebuds, by a Google search for “hipster coffee Dubai”.
Other than good Turkish and Arabic black unfiltered coffee, every single cappuccino or called-a-flat-white-but-not-remotely-like-a-flat-white I’d had in Dubai (up to roughly the end of 2017) had been overpriced and resolutely positioned in the “foul to undrinkable” category of supposed coffee.
My Google search led me to the industrial area of Al Quoz, around Noor Bank Metro Station, which I expected to be full of moustachiod, tatooed, bike-riding hipsters, warehouses, lofts and little to no industry remaining, thus a parallel with the super hip Shoreditch, east London.
(In 2019, there are significantly more hipster/third wave coffee shops than when I wrote this post in 2017)
To confirm (or perhaps quash) my expectations, I noted the following as similarities between Shoreditch, London and Al Quoz, Dubai:
Al Quoz and Shoreditch are both located close to a business centre.
Travelling by bicycle (where the London Overground/Hipsterline is absent).
Of course there must be graffiti.
Some random bits of Tracy-Emin-unmade-bed/is-that-art type installations around the area.
Likewise, some cool, photogenic, quirky vehicles and good signage for Instagram purposes.
Everyday objects should be transformed into cool, usable things that you make a mental note (that is never realised) to replicate at home.
The coffee should be good, expensive and have fancy latte art where milk/foam is involved.
Lifestyles should be being played out and creativity on laptops should be taking place.
See what I mean: great, expensive flat whites; warehouses; abundant Instagram opportunities; industrial; graffiti. Yet the hipster elements are not Shoreditch. I’m not complaining or saying it should be any different, it just made me think about all things hipster and how stereotypes don’t always work out. The joyous discovery of these cafes* in Dubai has, thankfully, saved me from freeze dried coffee or enormous bowls of milky coffee from the chains I can now freely admit to disliking since my outing myself as a coffee snob.
I should add, there was also kale, sourdough bread and avocado on the Tom&Serg menu!
*RAW Coffee Company, Al Quoz, Dubai. (the free RAW Refuel app shows on a Dubai map where RAW-serving outlets are, including Friends Avenue Cafe, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Damac Properties Metro)
Tom&Serg, Al Quoz, Dubai. (don’t be deceived looking at a map, it is a long walk from Noor Bank Metro)