Day in the life: Entrepreneur adds Italian flavour to Dubai restaurant scene

Entrepreneur Amber Haque co-owns two restaurants with her husband Rami and says splitting responsibilities is key for a couple working and living together.

Amber Haque is trying to strike a work: life balance amid running two Italian restaurants in Dubai. Antonie Robertson / The National

Amber Haque is the co-owner of the Pizza Guys and the recently opened Italian "soul food" restaurant Pi. Dubai. Born in Dubai of Pakistani heritage, the Canadian citizen, 36, has lived in the UAE on and off since birth. She runs the two restaurants with her husband Rami Badawi, 36. While Pi. Dubai opened in Dubai Mall last month, Pizza Guys in Business Bay opened in 2013.

9.30am

I wake up late as I go to bed really late because I’m functioning on the rhythm of the restaurants. Before I eat or do anything else, I check all our social media accounts to see if anyone needs directions, made a complaint or has asked questions such as, “What does soul food mean?”

10am

My husband still makes me eggs for breakfast every morning. We got married two years ago but met at school. I was born in Dubai to a family of diplomats, then came back as a teenager for five years – I met Rami at the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. I came back again in 2008 and he had moved back six months earlier.

10.30am

Work for the morning consists of checking emails and monitoring social media. Then I check in with the supervisor for Pizza Guys and the storekeeper at Pi, who makes sure all deliveries for the day have been received in good condition. Nothing is frozen at Pi. Dubai. Everything is fresh, so the storekeeper is one of the most important people in the food and beverage space. If the Scottish salmon or peekytoe crab hasn’t been delivered, the chef can’t do what he planned for the day’s menu.

1.30pm

I meet my personal trainer at the gym. I haven’t been going for a while because I was too busy with Pi. Dubai opening and also because of Ramadan – I find it too challenging to work out when fasting. My trainer is hardcore, so I am happy he pushes me. I am doing lots of strength workouts and TRX suspension training. I normally box, but I have got a problem with my hip joint so can’t at the moment.

3pm

I return home to Downtown to shower and get changed, then it’s just five minutes to Dubai Mall to Pi. Dubai. I have a late lunch with Rami. I will always have an organic kale Caesar salad or lamb piccata. It’s important for a husband and wife working and living together to split responsibilities – it can become quite hairy. He focuses on Pi operations and guest satisfaction, while I manage the brand and social media and operations at Pizza Guys.

4pm

We are both there for the front-of-house staff line-up, to check that uniforms adhere to the dress code, have a debriefing of the day before and go through any specials for the day, with the chef explaining the ingredients and any allergens. The assistant manager then gives us an update on the day so far. We are a typical of restaurants in the UAE because we are local – most international brands come here with a 300-page manual detailing everything, right down to the type of leather to be used for shoes and the buttons on uniform shirts. We do not have a manual, so we have constant training and evaluation instead. Rami and I were both full time when Pizza Guys launched but we can’t be full time at both places – we had an operations specialist for Pi’s launch and she’s stayed on part time, and we leave it to people we personally trained at Pizza Guys.

6pm

I head to Business Bay to Pizza Guys, to make the pizza and cookie dough. Rami makes it at Pi. Dubai. Before we opened Pizza Guys, I did a course in traditional pizza making at the Association of True Neapolitan Pizza, where the recipe hasn’t changed in 300 years. We adapted it to create our own. It only has four ingredients – water, sea salt, fresh yeast and flour from a 15th century Italian mill – then it’s proofed for two days to make it light and airy. The cookie dough is super-popular so we decided to put it on the menu at Pi as well.

8pm

Back to Pi. Dubai – my life exists in a triangle between Downtown, Business Bay and The Dubai Mall – and I am there for the rest of the night until it closes at midnight. We greet regular customers and make sure, as owners, that everything is on track. I keep monitoring our social accounts. Here in the Gulf, Instagram gets a lot of activity between 9 to 10pm as people tend to have late dinners and stay up later. It’s a mix of monitoring and mingling.

Midnight

Rami and I leave and go for dinner, something informal such as a sandwich or salad. We do not cook proper meals at home and, when I get to Pi in the evening, the last thing I’m thinking of is food. Forgetting to eat is an industry-wide problem.

1.15am

Once home, we have a couple of hours to unwind. I try to get to bed by 2.30am or 3am. We are trying to shift our schedule back now that the second restaurant is settling – we are still trying to find a balance.

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