Disrupting The UAE's Food Industry; The UAE's First Food Incubator, Urban RetrEAT Celebrates One Year Of Success In Business

Urban RetrEAT, the most innovative food hotspot in the UAE marks a successful one year this June in supporting home-grown food concepts across the UAE. The UAE’s first food incubator, has housed over 50 up and coming food vendors in their Abu Dhabi venue since it was first established in 2018. Founded by Dana Alsharif, a local foodpreneur, the unique food pop-up concept helps new food concepts to boost their business by creating a community and offering them a space to cook and sell their dishes to interested customers.

In the one year since its inception, Urban RetrEAT has housed 52 different food vendors on three to six month rotations, and served up to 16 different types of international cuisines. More than 80,000 meals have been served at Urban RetrEAT over the past year and over 150 applications have been submitted by local food start-ups for a spot at Urban RetrEAT.

“Urban RetrEAT was created to give local food start-ups a platform for exposure. We aimed to provide a space where new food concepts could come in, cook their signature dishes and serve them up to customers in an affordable space, where they might not have previously had the chance to do so. As the first concept of its kind in the UAE we were thrilled to have secured a great spot in one of the best malls in Abu dhabi, Yas Mall,” commented Dana Alsharif, Urban RetrEAT founder.

“As we look to the future we have been having interesting conversations about potential expansions across the UAE. The format of Urban RetrEAT is such that there is a constant rotation of vendors meaning that there is an ever-changing dining experience. We’ve had some great success stories in our first year with one vendor even being offered a permanent location in Yas Mall to operate from,” she added.

Currently on their fourth rotation, the food incubator hub has already landed a great success story. One of the most popular concepts to be launched at Urban RetrEAT, Off The Hook, a home-grown seafood restaurant which took part in two rotations at Urban RetrEAT has now been given an independent location in Yas Mall to operate from following high demand from local customers.

Urban RetrEAT also supports local creative talent such as musicians and artists by offering them a platform to showcase their work and perform for customers within Urban RetrEAT.