With an ambience of Dubai in the 1960’s, and with the taste of Authentic Emirati Cuisine, Al Fanar Restaurant & Cafe will revive the memories of Dubai when it was a small town on the shore of the Arabian Gulf at an idyllic spot close to the creek-with rows of wind towers surrounded by Al Badia oasis, with tents and Barasti huts where fishermen, pearl merchants and Bedouins lived.
A bewildering scene of the Al Badia at the External Seating greets you to see the very relaxed mood of the time-fragments of local scenes: a Bedouin tendering his flock of camel and goats; a donkey loaded with kerosene to feed the lamps of the town, an old Land Rover just parked ready to unload the goods from a long haul; the landscape dotted with tents and Barasti huts where the locals spend lazy summer nights outdoors.
The old town was a thriving city of trade where goods-from neighboring countries are brought in, traded with pearls. The trading gives the architecture of the old town a very distinctive character-rows of wind towers, tossed up on walls made of coral stones and mud, grilled wooden windows and vaulted wooden doors.
The scenes and scents bring flashes to the Wanderer’s mind as you could smell the freshly burnt bukhoor and uod as you enter the old town. An alley to the right takes you to the roofed souk where uod, bukhoor, saffron, spices and sweets are sold in the old shops; and a traditional café serving Arabic tea and coffee to the souk visitors.
A bustling souk experience which is haunting and intoxicating is contrasted to the very homely experience you get as you step into the Merchant’s Court Yard thru its vaulted doors. The lighted multifaceted Facades speak of history-a bygone tale of how the house was built thru generations.
The humble, yet rich traditions of the East are manifested in the architectural character-so distinct and noble. Sitting under the canopy of the desert tree against an open sky, with the smell of bukhoor in the air, one can’t help out but be mesmerized.
The courtyard evokes a feeling so intimate to the heart-being the center of the house long time back-where the stories of the ancestors were told and retold from generation to generation.
Life was good