Co-Founders of The Matcha Club, Paul Vittecoq, Lucas Basset-Chercot, Waleed Alamir and Othmane Mekouar on bringing a boutique padel community to Dubai.
What do the first 30 minutes of your day look like, your morning routine?
OM: I usually start my day with a good workout, a bike ride or a HIIT session. Following that, I check the news and make myself a little juice and then eventually leave for the day’s work. I then arrive at The Matcha Club around 9am, walk around and then go upstairs to our offices where the team is.
We love the branding and feel of The Matcha Cub – did you all feel aligned on this concept from the outset or did you seek external input?
OM: Yes totally, we all wanted to do something different and original, not just a random padel club. As we had our own Design and Build Studio, 6inch, it helped us to be on track and align things in order. From start to finish, we handled all the construction and design, as we wanted to build our own project, making it exactly what we imagined. The other co-founders Lucas and Waleed, had obviously the same vision as us and together we were able to implement this project that was so dear to our hearts.
What was the catalyst for launching and how did each of your previous backgrounds and roles support this?
OM: Basically, we are a group of friends who played a lot of padel together, but we were tired of never being able to find available courts and all of a sudden, we had an idea of opening our own club, but again, we wanted to do something different. By being social, we wanted to add that social side and create a real community and a place to hang out. Our backgrounds are all different and this worked in our favour, as Paul and I have a design background, Lucas has a financial one and Waleed works in urban planning.
You have solar-heated showers and recycled wood. Was sustainability an important aspect of this venue?
OM: Yes, sustainability is a very important aspect for us, we were all agreed on that. We are striving to become an even more conscious club and are constantly taking steps to live up to our ambitions. Moreover, we have a partnership with the brand Adidas which is a brand that strongly supports sustainability.
The food is also Japanese-inspired – can you expand on how you focused on the menu?
OM: The menu is designed to fuse elements of both French and Japanese cuisine in a healthy and unique way. Japan and France both have strong culinary cultures that essentially share the same values and beliefs when it comes to cooking. Incorporating fresh produce, the elegant, rich flavours of the French cuisine merged with the diverse flavours of Japanese cuisine creates a refreshing fusion. The combination of the two cuisines allows our customers to explore a variety of contrasting flavours and textures and gives us the opportunity to add a fresh palette of flavours to the Dubai dining scene.
This is ‘The Integrity Issue’ – what does integrity mean to you?
OM: For us, integrity is a set of values that must be respected even when no one is watching. Principles around honesty, trust and doing what you say and saying what you do, are all part of integrity. It also refers to a person’s ability to live up to his or her commitments and principles, despite pressures to the contrary. As a moral concept, we associate integrity with honesty.
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