The arrival of Abu Dhabi’s first brewery marks an exciting new chapter for the UAE.
As any craft beer lover will attest, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a cold IPA to cool off on a hot afternoon or take the edge off a hard week’s work. It’s even better if you’re at a brewpub or microbrewery that serves its own beer on-site. However, for visitors and residents of the United Arab Emirates or anywhere in the Gulf region, that simple pleasure has never been possible—until now.
On Al Maryah Island, a natural island northeast of Abu Dhabi, Craft by Side Hustle has become the first commercial beer brewery to open its doors within a geographical expanse covering almost 100,000 square miles, where other nations still ban the sale and consumption of alcohol.
The brewpub is emblematic of the latest progression of the UAE, which has continued to loosen its conservative laws to open up its tourism sector and economy, meeting the demand from Western visitors and expats.
Recently launching in a retail and entertainment complex called The Galleria, Craft became the first venue to legally make alcohol in the country, where previously all drinks sold in hotels and licensed establishments had to be imported from outside its borders.
Co-founder Chad McGehee is an American expatriate from Louisiana who grasped the opportunity to address the country’s paltry beer options after the law was finally amended.
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“What can I say? Being the very first craft microbrewery to open here is an enormous source of pride for us all,” effuses McGehee. “We’re honored and humbled to symbolize the evolution of Abu Dhabi. From the outset, the response has been hugely positive, to say the least, and we’ve struggled to keep up with demand.”
Craft’s story began when McGehee, who had lived in Abu Dhabi for several years as an employee of IBM, began hankering for the kind of beer that had proliferated across the States and the Western world following the craft beer revolution. Until then, it was predominantly imported mass-produced lagers found in any of the licensed venues in the country, costing upwards of $15 or $20 for a pint–the juicy IPAs he craved just weren’t available.
As it was illegal to brew or distill in the UAE, McGehee simply did so in the U.S. under the name Side Hustle and then distributed the beers, and later spirits, into the Middle East.
“The beer, with everything handcrafted from seed to sip, was made originally for me and my friends and colleagues to drink,” explains McGehee. “But then it just kept growing.”
It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Abu Dhabi finally made the telling change to its licensing laws, and when the news reached McGehee, he knew the moment had arrived. After approaching experienced local restaurateurs Peter Samaha, Nadim Selbak, and Adam Davis about partnering to create Abu Dhabi’s first brewing company, Craft was born, with Side Hustle as a brewing partner.
“With their expertise on the restaurant management, concept development, and construction side, combined with our expertise on the alcohol side, we knew we could create something truly special,” smiles McGehee.
Craft by Side Hustle opened in 2023, selling beer it had brewed right there on its local premises: it was the first of its kind in the country and the entire geographical region.
Only six months later, this revolutionary venue is already set to become an Abu Dhabi institution. To date, 40 different beers have been brewed and released to a burgeoning loyal customer base—14 on tap at any one time—within a spacious and atmospheric pub setting complete with bare brick walls and steel brewing vats.
A distinctly craftsman-like design approach pervades the building interior: all metalwork hand-forged by Irish blacksmiths, furniture handmade by master carpenters, the front entrance and feature lighting created using staves from Side Hustle’s whiskey barrels, and a large mural inspired by streets of New Orleans, painted by a local artist.
It’s all a world away from the glitzy wine bars and nightspots more commonly associated with Abu Dhabi and its national counterpart, Dubai. With that standard already set so high venue-wise, how has Craft balanced becoming a fellow first-rate city establishment with being an unpretentious local pub with affordable beer?
“It’s certainly a fine balance, but our guests will always appreciate quality and value, and that is really what we offer,” replies partner Peter Samaha. “We wanted a space that was casual and cozy and also made good use of the layout here, as well as staying true to the Southern U.S. identity that we always had planned for Craft. It’s a big space, so it was kind of hard to make it feel warm and cozy, but we feel we’ve achieved that. It’s inviting and comfortable and somewhere people don’t want to leave!”
Working alongside the core management team and its partners are fellow ex-pats Mitchel Dougherty, the brew master, and Troy Payne, the head chef who directs Craft’s distinctive kitchen predicated on made-from-scratch South Louisiana and Cajun cuisine: a unique culinary offering in Abu Dhabi, if not the whole country.
McGehee is only too keen to offer his personal recommendations for particular beers and their best food pairings on Craft’s menus.
“My favorite brews so far are ‘Sip Happens,’ a true-to-style traditional German Kölsch; ‘Hoptical Illusion,’ which combines the best parts of hazy IPAs (big hop aromas) with West Coast IPAs (balanced bitterness and dry finish); and ‘Czechs & Balances,’ a traditional dark lager brewed with hops direct from the Czech Republic,” shares McGehee. “My favorite pairings have to be Sip Happens with our homemade andouille sausage or Cajun jambalaya, and Hoptical Illusion with crab beignets. You really can’t go wrong with those.”
For any visitors who might not be a fan of craft beer, there’s a full range of Side Hustle spirits on offer, as well as a curated selection of bourbon and rye whiskey, not to mention a seasonally-rotating signature cocktail menu, meaning all bases are well covered on the libation front.
And for the sustainability-conscious, Craft makes a point of recapturing as much water as possible in the brewing process, while constantly seeking ways of reusing its waste products like spent grain.
“Our system has a built-in loop whereby the water used to chill wort (which becomes warm in the process) is looped to our hot water tanks,” explains McGehee. “This saves both water and energy. We also capture the CO2 created during fermentation and use that to naturally carbonate our beers. And we’ve been working with local farms who can potentially use our spent grain –testing if certain grains are better at creating fertilizers or growth mediums for different crops. Thus far the data is promising, particularly around mushrooms and tomatoes.”
So, not only are you becoming part of history by sinking a pint or three at Craft in its first year of business, but you’ll also be enriching the local environment, as well as helping propel the craft beer movement into a whole new territory that has never previously experienced it.
What are Chad’s final thoughts on prospective competitors arriving in Craft’s wake and on potentially opening new Craft outlets elsewhere in the city and beyond?
“We realize that every brewery following us will be compared to us,” he replies. “So, we’re focused on making Craft the best venue it can be, to be the first thought of when someone chooses to go out for food or drink. Our longer-term plans do include growth, for sure, and we’re confident other opportunities will arise. Until then, though, we’re focusing on the here and now.”
It’s gratifying as a Western visitor to Abu Dhabi to see that, no matter how far the city expands into the desert, how high it climbs into the sky, or how much wealth it attracts or generates through its economy, it’s also striving to keep its feet on the ground and ensure that it’s not all glitz and glamour. Nothing embodies that effort more perfectly than Craft by Side Hustle.