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Dean & Deluca Soft Launch

Dean & Deluca soft launch is today. From what I saw over the weekend, it looks like they’re opening both the Dean & Deluca gourmet store and cafe in the same location.

47 replies on “Dean & Deluca Soft Launch”

Ya rab Ya rab Ya rab their waiting staff have nothing to do with the ones in Dubai. Ya rab ya rab their waiters and waitresses do not haunt customer’s each step and run after their every twitch and move!!! Ya rab i can go look at one item without anyone breathing down my neck asking if i need any help. Ya rab when i say no thank you they would just go away and not stay glued to my side…

wow… good that they will gonna open their branch now…. 🙂

This place is definitely not for the budget conscious.

If you have money then come here. Do not come here if you are afraid to spend money.

You will find all sorts of magnificent things here from the choice of vegetables and fruit to delicacies from who knows where. No matter what you do here it is gonna cost.

^ Except wine which is the whole point of Dean and Deluca.

Seriously like Kuwait needs another place to throw their money away.

Want to impress me? Open a goddamn proper bookstore and media center.

i just want a decent book store in Kuwait which would have a place to sit and casually scan through books and may be some coffee along with it! may be Borders or the way virgin used to be before..come on tht dosent involve alcohol or any compromise with religion..! how difficult is tht to exist here! Sigh…never mind!

It wont survive, people in kuwait are extremely stingy, everyday in the newspapers they keep complaining co-ops are to expensive i doubt they will pay for dean and deluca products

I keep wondering….why there’s no “”Pret A Manger” in Kuwait?
seriously…it’s better than most coffee houses, and you can have a really decent breakfast there

It will be open as of tomorrow (thats 27th of Jan) but the official opening day is the 4th of Feb.
They have a cafe and the most amazing sandwiches as well as the grocery store. and I have had the chance to meet the staff and they have been training for the last 6 months so they know their stuff!

Komsomol, Unknown — I’m 100% with you. Unfortunately such places will turn into pick up joints for people who just want to sit, smoke, yap on their cells and bother those actually trying to read.

Stafa: Yes, ground floor.

Is it open today or on the 1st?

ET is right. People in Q8 rarely care about spending money on gourmet food or good quality items unless they can show it off by wearing it and parading it around.

So if it is going to survive it must become an ‘it’ cafe where every one can oogle every one else …

Yeah..q8 needs a decent bookstore. Fucking dieing without my dose of Fredrick’s insanity. wud be gr8 if v have some place where old and 2nd hand novels are available cheap!
Call me stingy.YEAH.

yeah, i agree with that, kuwait need to have a real, nice, decent bookstore where you can find and read nice books where you will enjoy reading it and most important you will learn something from it…

but the problem is most kuwaiti (not all) i think are not fund of reading..

instead, they are fund of eating, going out, drinking coffee or tea, thats why if you noticed, most of the establishments here, they cater, for fashion, leisure and FOOD.

thats why DEAN AND DELUCA will somehow will gain profit here. : )

I heard Borders was opening at Avenues, Can anyone inform if thats true? And if thats true, i pray it be as the one around the world… with awesome steaming hot coffee, bagel and sit in peace to read your favorite book without any interuptions and geeky guys staring.

laish faj2a all you guyz are talking about bookstores!!! 😛 LOL! the topic is ((>dean & deluca<))!!:P hehehe!;D

Why are there only soft launches for everything in Kuwait ? Are they worried men might start to get a hard on if the inauguration is nothing but that.
I like my stores to open with much pomp and show like they do in the Emirates.

i grabbed a fairly decent roast beef sandwich from the deli, and their espresso was good. might be a decent place to grab lunch during the week…. except that i don’t really like frequenting the avenues.
my favourite was the cheese section. while they didn’t have a parmeggiano reggiano (which is a must for any good cheese shop) they had a good selection of spanish manchegos amd some other types of sheep and goat milk cheeses; it was nice that they let me try several kinds.
the butcher had nicely presented food, but the choice of lamb or chicken left me wanting more, like duck and venison. i asked for a deboned shoulder of lamb and they did a nice job and even trussed it for roasting.
seafood had a good choice: monk fish, sea bass, 3 kinds of crab, mussels, oysters…
veggies were decent, including types of mushrooms that i haven’t seen in kuwait before.
the rest seemed OK, but not unrivaled in kuwait.
it’s definitely great to have another place to get quality ingredients in kuwait. i just wish it didn’t have to be in a mall, unfortunately that might be the only location that would keep a place like this alive. i hope it stays solid over time.

did you guys know that al shaya stole this franchise from the global group while they were still negotiating for it?

He saw the plan and contacted them direct promising them a prime spot in his mall.

Don’t forget Shaya is also paying 5kd a sqm for his prime spot. It will stay as long as he needs.

The location is quite good but still i’m not convinced about having a gourmet grocery store in Kuwait.
Everybody seems to eat outside anyways…

Avenues (A.k.a. Bedouin Souk) is located on goat herders alley on 5th ring road near riggae. You can go there and watch the fights on weekends.

Contessa: Sorry, Dean & Deluca does not sell bagels in Kuwait!! Weird I know but what to do. This what Kuwait gets and deserves for having such a narrow mind!!

lul’s:

Aside from the bagels though………….

Really, the place is gorgeous. Staff is very friendly and eager to please which is always refreshing to see in the Middle East. The variety of dry foods is excellent and the prepared food looks appetizing. The Meat, Seafood, Cheese, and Produce sections are perfect.

But my fave so far are the chocolate covered waffles in the cooler in the back!!!

Just waiting to try the cafe.

Obviously Randy is another victim of the public school education system. Bagels were first made in Egypt. They were called saeedi “Bizza”. Sank you–

Ghostface what a silly comment, how racist..
and btw its offensive =)
Ya i agree some bedouins are so low and useless bs some are very respectful and smart..oo ohma (not all of them) mn a9el il q8..so dont generalize..
Just wanted to make that clear ya ghost face =)

ohhhhhhh … today i had the worst experience ever!
i went to dean and deluca store! oh my god! what is that! r they serious! it was a terminal supermarket, most of the items is local stuff, like baqlawa, q8 spices, local expired leafs….ect. nothing special !! except the variety of cheese, oil n d&d spices!! thats it .. also i`v tried some items of the poor menu !!!!!!!!! IT WAS LIKE A HILL ! also the waiters were lost ! the wrong order 4 the wrong table ..
in fact i am not a picky person but i could`t resist all the up-normal mess!

I’ve there today, and all I can say is, if you like the place, go stock up, coz it won’t survive at all !!
Only 10% of the items are “marketable” the other 90% is either too weird for the local palette or too expensive.
As for the cafe, it has the most absurd service and even worse is the food! I swear I was going to write my will as I bit a little from the ridiculously bad tasting Morrocan Lamb & Arugula Pizza. The dough was like an experimental pita bread that went wrong. The whole point of pizza is the dough, and it has to have strong gluten. The pizza I had was probably made from cake flour. The supposedly “Morrocan” lamb tasted like roadkill.
The coffee could have easily been served by one of those kebab places in mubarakiya. I tasted like tarmac !
The best thing about the place was the good selection of Spanish Manchego cheese, which is the one thing that TSC needs to bring down. Oh and fresh Buffalo mozzarella cheese.

ET is so right,

It never ceases to amaze me, how many people here carelessly throw money left and right for unnecessary things like expensive cars and clothing items, but when it comes to BASIC necessities and musts like food and hygiene (or paying the credit card bills), they complain about it being too expensive or can’t be bothered. They seem to only care what people think about them, not what they think about themselves.

For those of us who are used to high-end grocery stores in America and Britian, Dean & Deluca is a lifesaver. To me, the prepared food section is the best part, as there is no other shop in Kuwait with a huge selection of healthy and exciting meals to go. There are so many amazing things in each section of the store and the staff is genuinely eager and ethusiastic about helping customers to learn about and try new things, which is in huge contrast to the general apathy and even hostility often found with retail staff in Kuwait. Customers often feel inferior when shopping in a store that has many products with which they are not familiar, but at Dean & Deluca Kuwait it feels like we are all learning about new things together. The cheese department has an eat-over counter where customers can sit and relax while trying samples, and these samples are served with crackers, fruit, etc. to provide the full effect. It is quite a step up from stabbing a piece of cheddar cheese off of a sample plate in passing at other grocery stores in Kuwait. I have not found the prices to be unreasonable at all, especially compared to the Sultan Center, where we end up paying the equivalent of $10 US dollars for a box of Quaker granola bars that would be $2 if bought at home. There are definitely some very expensive items on offer at D&D, but these are generally only alternatives to the very reasonably priced selection for those same types of products. For example, there are very reasonably priced bottles of olive oil, as well as very expensive ones as well for customers who want to try something exotic. Finally, I have to say the Arabic sweets are amazing!!

Passed by it this weekend..it was just too crowded….i do think they have some original stuff esp. when it comes to their vast selection of cheese and oils etc. the food stuff looked refreshing and new …dunno how it tastes tho.All the tables were taken at the cafe , and the staff didnt bother with those waiting neither do they reserve so mayb nextime will stop by. Its def a place i cud spend some time in! ..n yea i do agree tht kuwait seriously needs a decent bookstore with some good selection and yea, lack a proper music store as well..instead of improvisin tht place (Virgins)..they have made it smaller n limited with their choices of display!!

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