The Late Night Juice Bar Edition
On Joe & The Juice, alcohol-limited cities, and drive-throughs.
Louis here. Earlier this month, I went to a dinner hosted by tennis player Nick Kyrgios to celebrate the launch of his new collaboration with Joe & The Juice.
I’d taken the long trip down to Wimbledon simply in the hope of shaking hands with an athlete I respect, but left having enjoyed an altogether different experience: the CEO of Joe & The Juice delightedly showing me a video on his phone of what appeared to be hundreds of cars stretching out under cover of darkness across multiple city blocks, waiting to place their order at the company’s late-night Kuwait drive-through.
He explained to me that because almost all of the company’s Middle East locations are in countries where alcohol-access is limited, if not prohibited—and because 70 percent of the region’s population are under 35—Joe & The Juice has become an incredibly popular place to go with friends for a evening drink, in the same way young people in the West might meet out at a bar.
Why is this interesting?
Colin here. Non-drinking culture is all the rage in the US, but it has been mostly about the product (e.g. Ghia and Seedlip) and not so much about how culture and spaces have adapted around this material trend. How do you design convivial spaces that aren’t bars is the most interesting aspect of this to me.
When Louis told me about this encounter, it made me think about the fact that one of my favorite things about hotels in the Middle East is that they have copious seating and hang-out areas, without trying to monetize every square inch for alcohol. Instead, people just hang out and have nice teas and socialize late into the night. Tables aren’t being turned: hanging out without time pressure over drinks and snacks is a big part of the culture. The chairs and couches are comfortable, and many of these places feel vibrant and alive in a different way that we don’t really see in the West.
The Joe and the Juice dynamic is an example: people want a pretext to hang, and it is delightfully odd that a juice bar that started in the streets of Copenhagen is now a cult hit in a decidedly different climate and atmosphere. (LC and CJN)