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The Sum of Us, Dubai

15 June 2015

How to find the best coffee in Dubai, by the duo that brought a touch of Australian café culture to town and never looked back.

Filled with a tantalising aroma of fresh baked sourdough bread and roasting coffee, The Sum Of Us, Dubai’s newest gourmet café, is proving irresistible to the city’s foodies and coffee lovers.

Founded by Tom Arnel and Serg Lopez, the guys behind the eponymous Al Quoz café that proved an instant hit when it opened in 2013, The Sum Of Us is a cavernous café, bakery and coffee roastery devoted to producing and serving good, honest, casual food with great coffee in a relaxed space.

“It’s really all about the product and the people who make it,” says Serg. “We’re proud of what we do and we’re putting it on show. Our staff love to talk about their craft, so you can expect an open space that’s interactive.

“The bakery and coffee roaster are all on show so our customers can learn more about our craft from start to finish. They can have a conversation directly with our experts and ask questions before buying.”

With a reputation for serving fresh, uncomplicated food, washed down with one of the best coffees in town, the question is if the Tom & Serg Café formula will be replicated for its devotees at The Sum Of Us.

“Not a chance,” says Tom. “We would be going against everything we stand for. As a city develops, it’s easy to inject a formula into as many spaces as possible, but this is where the food preparation and service process become soulless and robotic. We want our product to be handcrafted by people with passion and drive; you just can’t get this with a multi-outlet model.

“We’ll be serving an, ‘all-day breakfast’, lunch and dinner menu seven days a week with food that’s simple, balanced and precise. For breakfast you can expect things like creamy scrambled eggs with parsley purée and charred tomatoes on freshly-made toasted sourdough, or waffles with poached plums and vanilla custard. For lunch and dinner we will have a great range of salads like our famous confit lamb and quinoa salad with feta cheese and pomegranate dressing, or a great main course like our lemon myrtle risotto with roasted cod, sour cream and chilli oil.”

Nestled among the five-star hotels opposite the World Trade Centre, the two-storey The Sum Of Us stands in stark contrast to the industrial confines of its predecessor… much like its founders.

Tom is an Australian executive chef, who left the glitz and glamour of fine dining for laidback eateries, while Serg, heralding from Spain, ran luxury hotel restaurants before partnering with the antipodean in 2013.

“We’re total opposites,” laughs Tom, “but we don’t step on each other’s toes, which makes us work better as a team. We’re both very passionate about what we do and almost obsessive about the same vision for our company but sometimes, as in any business, we have different ways of achieving the same goal. We haven’t resorted to fist fights yet but Serg has recently taken up boxing, so…”

thesumofusdubai.com

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