IN A VALLEY girded by the reddish rocks of the Shawka Falls, bartenders are stretched out under the late winter sun. Hammocks sway in the gentle breeze, masseuses tend to taut muscles, and all manner of low-octane activities – from candle making to rock painting – disconnect the brains of the 80 or so guests. As the sun disappears behind the mountains, campfire talks by industry notables nourish their minds.
Just a few hours before, no one had any idea what was in store. They’d agreed to strike out 48 hours in their restless Dubai schedules before being led on to coaches and taken to a mystery location. That would reveal itself to be a remote glamping site at the southern end of emirate Ras Al Khaimah, close to the craggy border of Oman.
This was a benevolent kidnapping by Dubai’s bar industry godmother: Rebecca Sturt.
She too had demands. In camp there would be strictly no alcohol until sundown. The other condition was even less negotiable. “You are here to relax,” she says matter-of-factly to the group. “We’re going to give you a schedule of activities but you don’t have to do anything. You can literally sleep for two days if you want.”
The idea underpinning The Islay Retreat had itched away in Sturt’s mind for years. Now regional marketing manager of Middle East & India at Rémy Cointreau, she had the brands to which this sort of thing made sense. But she wanted to do it properly. Rémy-Cointreau’s Bruichladdich Distillery could be the benefactor, but it needn’t be a direct beneficiary. For these 48 hours, that would be bartenders. Of the 20-plus talks and wellness activities, only one – a short, and optional, tasting of two new products – gave mention of the company that made it all happen: Bruichladdich Distillery.
“I started planning this years ago,” says Sturt from the camp’s open-air yoga studio before a mountain panorama. “Working with The Botanist and Bruichladdich and being the first B Corp Scotch distillery, it kind of all made sense. B Corp is about a lot of things – sustainability, waste management, employee wellbeing – but the other is how you give back to the community. The giving back is what I take from it most.”
And if at first Dubai and rural retreat seem incongruous sentence partners, it makes sense here as much as it does anywhere – few bar communities need a break more than those of Dubai. “The city never sleeps – the guys here work long, busy hours, most of them work six days a week,” says Sturt. “They have big teams and they’re running multi-million pound businesses. These guys are always on – there’s no downtime in Dubai.”
Sturt says ROI is the last thing on her mind – it’s all about “giving back” to the community. In so many brands’ hands, such words would fall flat – just empty clichés – but Sturt has the best part of 20 years’ work here to back up her claims. Since she arrived in 2006, the emirate and its bartenders have come far – in skills, in pay and in community.
Through the MMI training academy Sturt trained 10,000 professionals; her Pineapple Bar Consultancy and the Dubai Bartenders Club helped many more. Mentees become mentors whose mentees do the same – this is how a bar community is built and the international speakers at The Islay Retreat – Indie Bartender Danil Nevsky, Panda & Sons’ Iain McPherson and Jigger & Pony’s Indra Kantono – speak to just that issue.
The idea of bartender wellness is, of course, not new to the industry. Sturt was inspired by Healthy Hospo and many years ago hosted a campfire talk in the UAE desert herself. Over the years we’ve seen the odd wellness camp for small groups of bartenders, getaways to brand houses and wellness activities are an increasingly present part of brand trips – but perhaps nothing to this scale and focus.
Zooming out, the bartender trip has long seen wellness trumped by brand indoctrination and drinking. The party somehow always wins. Indeed, even The Islay Retreat isn’t completely immune to that instinct – some bartenders celebrate into the night – but there’s nothing like a 5.30am sunrise hike to underline the trip's true purpose. Bartenders are intended to leave feeling better than when they arrived. And that is a shift in thinking.
Back at camp, Laura Duca is relaxing in the sun, waiting for a session on growing indigenous desert plants to start. It’s a departure from her usual day as beverage manager for more than 20 venues at the Atlantis, The Palm – there can’t be many more demanding jobs in F&B. “It’s the first time I’ve come to something to like this,” she says. “Being here – so remote – it pushes you to slow down. It grounds you. It’s nice to truly enjoy the experience, rather than just drinking, then being dead the next day.”
That evening Giedre Bielskyte, bar manager at restaurant Boca, fresh from hikes through the dry river beds known locally as wadis and campfire talks that brought a tear to her eye, takes a moment to reflect: “In Dubai we work a lot, many people are exhausted. To leave the city, the lights, to be away with our community – it brings us together. I can see in myself, I now feel fully prepared to go back – and with new ideas. It’s been an eye-opening experience – it’s given me a new belief in what we do.”
For Lynn Lin, the last two years have been a testing period, launching Electric Pawnshop with a sequel now on its way. She had no idea what was planned, even less so that she’d have a chance encounter with a caravan of camels. “The freedom to do nothing here make us want to connect and do the activities more,” she says. “This sort of brand trip is honest about wellness – it’s not about alcohol. It’s just what I needed.”
Looking around at the peaceful expressions of the bartenders as they leave camp, the ROI is clear for all to see. “I think about what I didn’t get as a bartender that I’d love to be able to give to these guys – experiences, life-changing moments, emotions, positive associations,” says Sturt. Perhaps in the future more brands will follow her lead. Trips could be a little less treat, a little more retreat.
