Two of the creators of Dubai-founded café Friends Avenue opened their second casual dining concept last month, just 18 months after their first foray into F&B entrepreneurship.
When Caterer met co-owners and co-founders Davron Hamidov and Zee Alikhonov shortly before they unveiled Arrows and Sparrows at Emaar Business Park in The Greens — a 1,800ft2 venue that will eventually also house a bakery — the pair said they always planned to create a group of cafés and restaurants, each with their own personality.
Hamidov and Alikhonov opened Friends Avenue in cluster T of Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) with their friend and business partner, Fazliddin Kosimov, back in February 2015, offering “hearty food and organic coffee”.
Hamidov reveals: “In the beginning, it was quite terrifying for us to take the risk of opening a new café on our own — three young guys, with no previous background in entrepreneurship, in a completely new market.”
The Uzbekistan-born restaurateurs, who are all in their mid-twenties, countered this by conducting a huge amount of research before taking the plunge, and drew on their experiences from travelling.
Elaborating on how the business partnership formed, Hamidov says: “We studied together for our bachelor’s [degree] and then we went to the US, working in New York in different places, including cafés and restaurants.
“We also went to Italy and Finland, travelling in many places.”
It was their time in New York City in particular, and their long-standing friendship, that inspired the first venue, and its name.
“We wanted Friends Avenue to feel warm, friendly and charming. Arrows & Sparrows is also about warmness and friendship, and it is family-oriented — The Greens is very family friendly. When we think about sparrows, they get together, eat a lot and chat a lot together, so ‘sparrows’ represents our customers. In Native American culture, arrows crossing symbolises friendship, but we adapted it for our logo,” Alikhonov tells Caterer.
Hamidov adds: “Arrows represents friendship and sparrows represents community, so when we say ‘arrows and sparrows’, we mean ‘we and our people’.”
Opening two different concepts in different parts of Dubai within the space of 18 months clearly demonstrates that the pair see potential in the emirate.
“In my opinion, Dubai is a really good market [for starting a business], compared to other markets. At the same time, you need to know what you’re doing, have passion for it, and be really determined to succeed because we have seen lots of places opening up and closing down after a really short period of time. Opening Friends Avenue made us feel confident that if you know what you’re doing, you can succeed,” Hamidov remarks.
Asked why they have chosen a location away from JLT for their second venture, Davron shares: “In The Greens, the food offering is quite limited, especially for eating breakfast, so we thought why don’t we go there and open a brunch-style place where you can go with your family or friends for breakfast, a good coffee, or dinner?”
Alikhonov points out that Arrows & Sparrows will have an approach to presentation and flavour that is “a little more elegant and mature” than Friends Avenue, which he describes as serving “large portions of proper food”.
The new venue will feature a bakery further down the line, with the pair planning to produce artisanal breads and customised cakes. Both concepts use the same suppliers and Hamidov says they have no plans to change this. Stressing the importance of cultivating solid relationships in this sense, he comments: “We wouldn’t like to look for other suppliers; you cannot switch easily, and as long as both parties are happy with each other, you can have a long-term relationship that really matters.”
He adds that trust is a key component of the supplier-client relationship, as well as in the duo’s co-partner relationship which, in this instance, came from friendship.
Speaking about their dynamic, Hamidov reveals: “It helps to be friends before launching a business together — especially if you are in it for the long-term — because you understand each other on a cognitive level. I know what to expect from him — we had already been friends for seven years when we opened Friends Avenue, and now it’s more, so we really know each other. This has increased our level of productivity during the whole process.”
He cites having the “same interests, goals and level of passion” as an important factor in succeeding in a business partnership, so that you are always working towards a common goal, resulting in it “all coming together, all the time, without bias”.
Agreeing, Alikhonov adds: “You need to find a person you can understand — sometimes we don’t even need to talk to each other to understand each other, and we know what to expect.”
This no doubt makes the day-to-day tribulations of launching new businesses slightly easier, though Alikhonov concedes that going up against big companies and well-established brands can be stressful. They both tell Caterer that they try to always remain calm when encountering challenges, and ensure they are very hands-on.
“One of the ways our business became successful is working in Friends Avenue, talking to people, handling the kitchen, handling any complaints, and sometimes even serving food,” Alikhonov reveals.
Hamidov adds: “Even when we are working on another project, we visit to make sure everything is as it should be — the quality, the team, etc. We haven’t had a day off in a long time.”
Disussing the pros and cons of owning and operating homegrown, independent concepts, Hamidov asserts: “Nowadays, everybody is more interested in independent concepts because these places pay special attention to every guest, in terms of the service, and create every dish with attention to increase the quality, whereas franchises make everything standardised.”
He says that creating Friends Avenue independently and doing all of the work themselves, with their partner Kosimov, from HR to menu planning to marketing, was a valuable learning experience. In addition, it enabled them to put into practice much of what they had learned academically about starting their own business.
Reflecting on the toughest part of building up their first concept, Hamidov reports: “People management is one of the hardest parts of running a business. When we employed people for Friends Avenue, we thought they would stick around because they were happy but unexpectedly something can change.
“Even if we do everything we can and provide all the benefits we can, another place might be offering something new or better, and people easily switch. We expect the same thing at Arrows & Sparrows — we have learned a lot.
“Also, as Dubai is multicultural, we are managing various nationalities and different personality types, so we have to be really careful not to offend someone.”
Discussing keeping everything in-house, rather than outsourcing tasks — such as recruitment — Hamidov reiterates that they were keen to gain experience.
“It wasn’t so much about saving money — we needed to learn everything we could so that when we grow, we know what to do better and can avoid making mistakes. We studied, so theoretically we knew, but we wanted that core knowledge to come from learning practically.”
They even took care of the interior design of both concepts themselves, opting for a Scandinavian-style for Arrows & Sparrows compared to a New York City-style interiors of Friends Avenue. Asked what advice they would give to young entrepreneurs wanting to follow in their footsteps, Hamidov says: “It all starts with determination, goals and ambitions. If you know what you’re doing and you have a true passion for it, you will be able to make it work. Why wouldn’t you succeed if you have really good food, ambience and location? People will get to know it and tell their friends, so even if you don’t have enough budget for marketing, from word of mouth, you can get customers. For young entrepreneurs, starting small helps.”
Alikhonov interjects: “But starting small with a team rather than alone.”
Perhaps opening in a freezone is also advisable, given that the pair said that opening Friends Avenue in a freezone made it “really easy” to get set up, whereas this wasn’t the case for Arrows & Sparrows in The Greens. Despite stating that the process of setting up this concept was more complicated, it hasn’t deterred them from looking to launch more.
With the conversation drawing to a close Alikhonov shares growth plans, revealing that while they have had offers to open concepts in their home country of Uzbekistan, as well as Indonesia and Russia, for now they will focus on developing themselves as businessmen first.
