JAS Group Launches JAS Hospitality to Develop World-Class Restaurant Concepts

- The group's first launch will be Qbara, an Arabesque restaurant and after-hours destination at Wafi Fort complex

Dubai, UAE, 15 July 2013: JAS Group, the Dubai-based investment and development company co-founded by Joy Ghossoub, Ammar Al Alwan and Shafiq Khartabil announced today the launch of JAS Hospitality, a company developed to bring world-class restaurant concepts to Middle-Eastern and global audiences. JAS Hospitality has committed to the launch and global roll out of new leading edge restaurant concepts developed in the Middle East.

Heading the operations team for JAS Hospitality is Managing Director Elmar Pichorner and Culinary Director Patrick John. With over 60 years of combined experience in the hospitality and food service industry, the management team is associated with the launches of many of Dubai's most notable hotels and restaurants including One&Only Royal Mirage, Atlantis The Palm,  Zuma and La Petite Maison.

“JAS Hospitality's core business is to develop, launch and operate projects within the leisure and hospitality industry in the MENA region,” said Pichorner. “Our focus is on creating unique world class concepts with the aim of eventually exporting them globally.”

JAS Hospitality also revealed its first concept, Qbara, an Arabesque lifestyle restaurant and after-hours destination at Dubai's Wafi Fort complex that will open its doors to discerning diners in August 2013. Qbara mirrors the ethos of Dubai as it is inspired by the classical but presented in a fresh and innovative style. The cuisine at the contemporary restaurant, lounge and bar will have an unmistakably Middle-Eastern flavour and is inspired by Levantine, Middle Eastern and Moroccan traditions. It will serve a unique take on quintessentially authentic flavours in a chic and stylish setting, with interiors and ambience providing a backdrop of modern Arabian opulence with a theatrical twist.

Qbara will be the new home of executive chef Colin Clague, who has extensive fine dining restaurant experience in the region and across the world. Some of his notable postings include the launch of Burj Al Arab, executive chef at award-winning Japanese restaurants Zuma in London as well as Dubai and lately Pollen Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Clague is tasked with developing  Qbara's innovative menu inspired by the flavours of the Magreb, Levant and Middle East presented with a contemporary twist.
Qbara's interior design is the work of Noriyoshi Muramatsu of Tokyo-based Studio Glitt, one of the restaurant world's most revered architects and designers.