Don’t order a pizza, order a pizza chef – check out the café’s new at-home experience.
Hosting is an art. Whether you’re planning a dinner party or birthday party, there’s so much thought that goes into an event. Should I invite my boss, how many drinks do I need, and will guests arrive on Dubai Time? It can be more stressful than rush hour on the Sheikh Zayed Road. So, I decided to try Jones The Grocer’s Live Pizza Baking Station Experience, and it was one of the best host decisions I’ve ever made.
Jones The Grocer is best known for its charming cafés, which have become a firm favourite with locals and the FACT Dining Awards Dubai – it won the Best Family Friendly restaurant, after all. In 1996, it was founded in Australia and prides itself on creating gourmet food for everyday life. The brand has expanded with 34 stores across the world, and cafés in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and beyond. Now, it has launched a chef experience, so you can enjoy the signature service at home.
Jones The Grocer’s Live Pizza Baking Station Experience and grazing table would make Martha Stewart proud. The team bring the ingredients, utensils, ceramic plates, cutlery and, most importantly, their skills. The chefs are on hand – literally – to produce pizzas with freshly baked dough, savoury toppings and an artisanal touch. Sizzling hot from your oven or the pizza oven, which they can bring, it’s a slice of pleasure.
While I love celebrating in restaurants and bars, it can be tricky to suit everyone’s preferences and pockets. With bombastic beats becoming de rigeour in Dubai’s dining scene, I was after a little less clubbing and a little more conversation. At a certain point in life, staying in is the new going out – and I’m (almost) there.
So, when it came to party planning, Jones The Grocer were all ears. The enthusiastic and experienced team offered a choice of pizzas: Buffalo; Margarita; Fun Guy with truffle mushroom; Garden bound with smoked chicken breasts and asparagus; Goat Cheese and Pumpkin; Italian Stallion with wagyu peppercorn; Tiger jones with prawns; and Quadrado with four cheeses.
On the day, the team arrived ninety minutes beforehand. Two created the grazing table, two chefs cooked the pizzas and one server helped. Despite having a standard-sized homely kitchen, they made it look like a restaurant kitchen. When the guests arrived, they were impressed with the chefs at work in their whites. The chefs sprinkled flour on the worktops, rolled out the dough and served spectacular slices, from the crowd-pleasing Margaritas to the unexpected Goat Cheese and Pumpkin hit.
Jones The Grocer’s grazing table is the stuff that foodie dreams are made of. The table looked like something straight out of a Pinterest board – so much so, guests took photos of the spectacular set-up and asked for the details for their own events. Laden with cheese, chutney, crackers, fruits and canapes, everything was carefully curated with little labels. It was all about the attention to detail, from the nuts specifically scattered to the whole pineapple used as decoration. Plus, the artistic apparatus gave it a rustic chic, I’ve-just-been-foraging feel, from the mini wooden wheelbarrow filled with bread to the beautiful blooms.
One of the downsides of hosting is tidying up, but Jones The Grocer were on hand to help. As they did not want to disrupt the flow of the party, they returned the next day to pick up the pieces, from the plates to pizza oven. My job: figure out what to do with those generous portions of cheese.
Jones The Grocer’s at-home experience wins on the wow factor. The whole event was relaxed yet refined, and took the stress out of socialising. Go on, party without the pressure.
The Live Pizza Baking Station Experience starts from AED 189 for adults and AED 159 for kids, and the grazing table starts from AED 290 per person.
GO: Visit www.jonesthegrocer.com for more information.
