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Arabian Business
28-05-2025
- Business
- Arabian Business
Best restaurants in ICD Brookfield Place: Dubai's most elite dining destination
Walk into ICD Brookfield Place and you immediately sense the difference. There's a quiet confidence about the place – no neon logos, no cloying fragrance pumped through the air vents. Just sharp lines, natural light, and the unmistakable feel of serious money spent wisely. In a city obsessed with superlatives, ICD Brookfield Place plays a subtler game. It doesn't scream for attention – it earns it. At a glance, it's a corporate stronghold – home to hedge funds, family offices, and the kind of firms that rarely do PowerPoint. But beneath the surface, something else is going on. ICD Brookfield Place has quietly, and deliberately, become one of Dubai's most refined culinary playgrounds. This is a dining destination built for grown-ups – the kind who close deals over dry-aged tuna and end the day with the city skyline as their backdrop. This is not just about food – it's about positioning. It's a statement that Dubai's power brokers, dealmakers, and culture shapers don't want to eat where everyone else is eating. They want nuance. They want discretion. They want restaurants that understand the difference between a trend and a standard. And ICD Brookfield Place delivers that, floor after floor. Iberian-Latino is the label, but that barely scratches the surface. It's a love letter to the flavours of Portugal, Spain, and Latin America – all refracted through the lens of contemporary Dubai. The lighting is sultry, the plates are plated like artwork, and there's a palpable buzz that never tips into chaos. The team here knows what they're doing. It's where you go to entertain someone important – or become someone important. It's also one of the few places in the city where you can actually feel the intersection of heritage and ambition in every bite. Every dish is deliberate, every detail a nod to craft. Bar Des Prés Bar Des Prés is what happens when a celebrity chef doesn't phone it in. Cyril Lignac could've cashed in with a lazy French concept. Instead, he brought edge. Paris meets Tokyo – foie gras meets miso – in a space that feels more like a billionaire's private apartment than a commercial kitchen. Every dish is dialled in, every texture deliberate. It's fine dining without the fuss, luxury with its collar undone. Lignac's ability to merge French elegance with Japanese precision makes Bar Des Prés not just unique – but essential. Il Gattopardo Il Gattopardo is pure mood. A seductive throwback to Italy's golden age, it's less about trends and more about timelessness. The kind of place where the staff remember your name and your table preference after one visit. Where truffle doesn't feel like a gimmick and pasta is made with actual pride. It's dinner with a side of Fellini. The interiors whisper old-world romance, while the menu walks a tightrope between tradition and flair. It's where you escape, even if just for a few hours, to a slower, more indulgent era. 1920 1920 might be the most impressive lounge in Dubai that still feels like a secret. Perched on the 52nd floor, it's a masterclass in restraint – a vintage-inspired hideaway that doesn't rely on tricks. It's jazz-age New York reframed through the DIFC lens: polished, confident, and effortlessly cool. The views alone could carry the venue – but they don't have to. Here, it's the atmosphere – the sense that something important is always about to happen – that keeps people coming back. It's ideal for quiet strategy sessions or reflective nights that stretch into something more meaningful. Lulu and the Beanstalk Lulu and the Beanstalk defies classification. Part film set, part bookshop, part café – it's the creative heart of the building. Founded by two filmmaker sisters, it's all about atmosphere: low lighting, worn leather, vinyl records, and a refreshment list that doesn't take itself too seriously. You could come here for a casual coffee or end up closing a joint venture late into the evening. Either works. There's an effortless magic to it – like walking into a memory you didn't know you had. It's whimsical without being twee, serious without being stiff. And the soundtrack? Flawless. The Guild The Guild is built for scale – but without the soulless sprawl. Think of it as a culinary theatre: multiple rooms, each with its own purpose, tempo, and identity. Market-fresh seafood prepared to order. Robata grilled over open flames. A bakery with serious credentials. The space breathes. It pulses. It accommodates both solo diners sketching ideas and twelve-person tables closing nine-figure deals. You can arrive at lunch and stay past dinner without repeating a course. It's less a restaurant, more a living, breathing organism – one that knows how to flex, adapt, and entertain. Josette Josette is what happens when someone decides to make dinner an event again. It's part restaurant, part stage show, all wrapped in velvet and brass. Chef Burcu Cracknell's menu plays the hits – duck à l'orange, escargot, beef tartare – but reimagined with a wink. The team are performers. The interiors are theatre. It's not subtle – but that's the point. Josette doesn't aim to please everyone. It dares to impress the few. Every moment here is staged for delight – and beneath the glamour, there's substance. The food is excellent, the energy electric. Bottom Line? ICD Brookfield Place isn't just competing with Dubai's dining scene – it's redefining it. Every restaurant here has a point of view, a pedigree, and a plan. There's no filler, no fluff, and absolutely no tolerance for mediocrity. It's where taste – literal and figurative – finally catches up with the money. In a city where everything tries to be everything, this is one address that knows exactly what it is: a serious destination for those who live, work, and eat with intent. It's curated not for hype, but for longevity. For substance. For those who know that a table booked here says more than an Instagram story ever could.
Globe and Mail
08-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
M&A update: Tariffs, rate uncertainty stall activity
Global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity surged in the final month of the first quarter before stalling due to the mounting trade war, with $885 billion of deal value announced through March. 1 There was a pick-up in mega-cap mergers during March with three deals announced, bringing the first-quarter total to seven transactions greater than $10 billion in size. Even with the end-of-quarter boost, mega-mergers were down compared with a year-ago while small-cap M&A has had the best start to the year since 2021, with a 42% increase in deal value for transactions in the $1 billion to $10 billion size range. The strong initial run of merger activity is likely to stall as tariffs weigh on the market, but similar to most macro shocks, the impact will be greater for larger deals, and we would expect to see a steady flow of small cap M&A. When President Trump was elected in November, analysts and dealmakers were anticipating a rush of deal making following three years of stagnant activity. High interest rates, increased market volatility, and a hostile regulatory environment previously weighed on M&A markets, keeping many dealmakers on the sidelines waiting for a more conducive environment. With the Trump administration's pro-growth and anti-regulation agenda, the market was optimistic that the tide had turned for M&A, with new appointees at key regulatory touting a pro-business agenda. However, the Trump administration's trade and tariff policy has quickly dampened those expectations with increased volatility, a lack of clarity on implementation, and concerns that tariffs will lead to higher inflation, all creating an environment fraught with uncertainty. Strategic acquirers typically analyze a target company looking to determine the potential synergies that could be realized post integration, but that calculation is nearly impossible with shifting tariffs which might impact the target business. Stalled M&A activity makes for buyers' market The market for deal financing is also struggling, with the lenders of several leverage buyout deals who have committed to providing financing at a specific rate now unable to syndicate that debt, forcing them to hold them on their balance sheet and dampening the risk appetite for other lenders. With this added uncertainty in the markets, M&A activity has stalled, particularly for larger deals with global operations. However, for savvy dealmakers willing to deal with some uncertainty or make a bet on where tariff rates will ultimately settle, this is a buyers' market where bargains abound. Larger deals and leveraged buyouts will likely see a longer pause as credit markets have been disrupted, making it more difficult to syndicate larger debt deals. The inflationary impact of tariffs is also adding to uncertainty with the Fed in a tough spot as growth expectations decline while the risk of higher prices becomes a key concern. In these volatile market environments, investors would benefit from adding non-correlated alternative exposure like merger arbitrage, which can complement or be a substitute for fixed-income exposure with better tax efficiency. While we believe that the Trump administration is likely to capitulate and roll back disruptive tariffs, it may prove difficult to restore confidence. With erratic announcements and an uncertain end-goal, markets could remain turbulent for the foreseeable future. Amar Pandya, CFA, is Portfolio Manager of the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Special Situations Fund at PenderFund Capital Management. Excerpted from the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund, Manager's Commentary, March 2025. Used with permission. Notes 1. M&A in 2024 and Trends for 2025 Disclaimer © Copyright 2025 by PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part by any means without prior written permission is prohibited. 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