New AlUla dining experience traces the historic Incense Road

A pop-up concept by Bompas & Parr combines immersive audio-visual projections with innovative food

Incense Road features a specially curated digital dining room with stories unfolding on screen walls alongside a six-course meal. Photo: Bompas & Parr

A new pop-up concept in AlUla is taking diners on a multisensory journey along historic trade routes.

Incense Road is curated by Bompas & Parr, a London studio specialising in multifaceted culinary experiences, including The Future of Food: Epochal Banquet, created for Expo 2020 Dubai. This latest initiative combines immersive audio-visual projections with innovative food and drinks, to tell a story that stretches from AlUla to Ancient Rome.

A specially curated digital dining room features curved screen walls and a vast communal table set in a custom-built tent at AlUla’s Nakhil Brzan Countryside Resort and Restaurant. A multimedia presentation transports visitors to a time when Hegra, AlUla’s Unesco World Heritage Site, was at the height of its power — a bustling city presided over by the Nabataeans, who controlled the routes of passage that enabled the trade of incense and other luxurious items coveted by the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians.

As stories unfold on the screens, the smell of incense fills the room and diners are served a six-course meal that cleverly complements the visual narrative. Canapes include a cardamom and camel milk spherification and smoked apple iced tea. Amuse bouches include a mulukhiyah dish and a persimmon and coriander seed spritz. A starter of Memphis Egyptian-style chicken kebabs is followed by a main of black pepper goat, feta and baba ghanoush. And dessert includes burnt caramel mint tea and chocolate and cinnamon coins.

The experience was created in collaboration with multimedia company Avocado Toast, and draws on the expert knowledge of curators and historical researchers. It is a mark of how AlUla is attempting to offer out-of-the-ordinary experiences that extend beyond the area’s heritage to include art, nature, design, fashion and food.

“When I think of what AlUla has to offer, there’s an amazing litany of concerts with celebrity artists, the fantastic, world-beating restaurants that we now host, but also some of the pop-ups and activations that we’ve had, whether it’s in the adventure space or our wellness festival,” says Melanie de Souza, executive director of destination marketing for The Royal Commission for AlUla.

Incense Road is on until March 11, with two sittings each day, at 7pm and 9.45pm. Advanced reservations are required.