This new cafe, indoor farm and community space deserves a spot on your summer restaurant list
House favourite One Life Kitchen is growing – literally and figuratively. The community concept has a brand new outpost in Alserkal Avenue, resident cool club for all the cool kids, and now a culture and dining hotspot in the city, and this one is a little bit different. After wildly successful branches in D3 and JVC, they’ve made a pivot into a farm-to-table experience coming straight from just one level above – The Growhouse by One Life.
Necip Camcigil, founder of One Life, tells us that this was a natural progression. The demands of Alserkal Avenue for this collaboration were such that he had to innovate and come up with a fresh idea for a fresh space, as is the MO of the avenue, and this is what came out of it. He adds that One Life was never going to be a franchise-chain-esque concept, which is why each branch has an element that makes it stand apart from the others.
After failed attempts at growing produce at their D3 location during the strange times of the pandemic, him and partner Chef Kelvin Kelly decided now was the time to revive that design, but done with purpose and intention this time.
And so, The Growhouse was born. Housed within industrial chic walls, the cafe and co-working space features a regenerative biodiversity farm and a massive kitchen, three times larger than the sister branches, and is also now the catering headquarters of the brand.
The space itself is big and airy, still having retained a lot of the barebones elements of the warehouse structure – concrete walls, exposed vents, high ceilings and all that. Posters from neighbour Cinema Akil’s activations line the walls. Two bright red, charming handpumps stand in the middle of all the greenery, so you can wash your hands the way your ancestors did it.
This time around, UAE-based sustainable solutions provider LetitGRO is offering horticulture expertise to make up for the lack of Camcigil and Kelly’s green thumbs, and local company, The Waste Lab, will help them convert food waste into a resource. The Growhouse will also serve as a community hub, hosting public workshops and events centred around sustainability, food, and wellness.
The food
One Life has always had a made-from-scratch, sustainable philosophy, but now with an indoor farm where they’re growing their own ingredients, they’re executing it in the most absolute manner – real zero-mile, farm-to-table stuff, with a view into the magic with the open kitchen. A myriad of all kinds of delicious scents reach my nose before the food is even served, and I’m given a selection of some of the exclusive Alserkal dishes.
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Two kinds of tortellini – hearty, packed with flavours and comfort; perfectly done kebabs, Camcigil’s own recipe, juicy and slathered in yogurt sauce; sea bass served in a silky, buttery sauce with sweet grapes – you’d think it doesn’t work, but it couldn’t be better; mixed salad bowl with pasta, beetroot, cherry tomatoes, kale and more good, green stuff; and of course, some amazing coffee.
The story of One Life is also one of awakening from corporate slumber. As we pick at our food, Camcigil explains the inspiration of the name of his brand – having spent 9 years in corporate, he decided he was going to take his one life and do something with it that nourishes him.
The many things The Growhouse does and the way it does them reflects what it stands for – doing everything, for everyone, from scratch. The air is buzzing with a welcoming, communal feel as patrons tap-tap away at their laptops, sipping coffee, having meetings and going about their day. Life, done at a leisurely pace, because you know, you only have one of it.
Images: Supplied
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