Nightlife in Lebanon: White, Iris, and Iris Beach Club

Interview with Tony Habre, Founder and CEO of Addmind (White, Iris, Mad, Iris Beach Club)

Let’s talk about tourism first. How is the regional uncertainty affecting tourism in Lebanon?

The events in Syria are affecting us the most, because to reach Lebanon from many of Arab countries you have to cross Syria, so nobody is coming here by land because of the danger. People are also afraid to come here because of the things they hear. In actual fact, we are living very normally, but the uncertainty about what is happening in Syria is making people afraid to come here. Thank God we have the Lebanese expats and the people who always come here, because they know that even with the uncertainty it is safe here. The situation is therefore not too bad.

Do you think the outlook is going to improve?

I believe it will improve; it cannot get worse than before. Every year in the past ten years has been better than the last one, so I believe it will improve.

What do you see as the major problems in development? We have interviewed a lot of people, Intercontinental Phoenicia, for instance, and they were saying that the Ministry still does not understand destination marketing. Destination marketing is carried out by all the players in the sector and you work together to promote the place as a destination instead of Phoenicia promoting Phoenicia itself and so on.

That is totally true, and as owners of the places here we have discussed this many times, because at the end of the day our government is not that rich, or at least they are not spending a lot on tourism, while the tourism sector is doing very well – it think it is the best sector in the country, with many venues and companies doing well. Destination marketing is still non-existent here, which is a problem. However, all the players in this industry are well educated, they have traveled and they are experienced, so I am sure if this is done well it will be a huge plus for the country and for tourism.

So how do you try to promote Lebanon yourself without having the vehicle for it?

Social media helps a lot. With the introduction of social media it is much easier to reach the whole world with one simple click. We have some of the best nightlife in the world in Lebanon, with a lot of big names, and the parties are very good. In the past, three or four years ago, it was not easy to advertise this. Now you can advertise anywhere on YouTube, on Facebook, and this has helped a lot. The big places like us are very active on social media; we do a lot of promotion on it. We invest, we pay and we do a lot to put ourselves into the international scene. We get a lot of visitors on our website, for example. I was shocked when I saw how many people had looked at our Facebook page; we had very good figures, more than I would have imagined. I think the nightlife in Lebanon is very well known and it is one of the best now, so people are visiting and they want to know what is happening here.

Of course you are not the only one, you have SKYBAR and some other big competitors, or colleagues, so how do you reconcile the competition?

I call them colleagues. I think we have some of the nicest, healthiest competition ever. I have been open for seven years and SkyBar has been open for six, and we have both been full every night since we opened.

The competition is more about who has better music, who has better entertainment or who is getting more events than about who is getting more people. There is plenty of room for more than us and SKYBAR in the country, especially in the summer.

You are a visionary. You have established multiple venues including White’s. How have you done it? What is your personal touch? What keeps you going? It is you and no other person who has established this company.

Actually, it is not just me, it is me and my partners and my team, who have been with me since we started. The good thing was that when we started in Lebanon nearly ten years ago, there were only four or five bars and a couple of restaurants in the country. In terms of bars and new venues there was nothing, so we could take the market from the beginning and we started learning from the beginning. We traveled and looked at other ideas from outside, and then another bar opened, and it was nice to see how the situation grew. Now I imagine there must be more than a thousand bars. So what we do is see where the next location will be, as the locations change a lot in Lebanon, and what the people want. I was born and raised in Lebanon, so I know the Lebanese mentality and I know what the people like and do not like. You have to know the local market to be successful here. The local market is first and the tourists are second, not the other way round. If you do not have the local people, you cannot survive, so all your concepts have to fit in with what the local people would ask for. Thank God the tourists like it as well!

One of the major challenges is to always exceed expectations. People expect the big stars like Lady Gaga to come and visit the country. How do you always exceed their expectations year after year?

What we are doing is this: this is the new location of White, which is triple the size of the old one. We invested perhaps a million dollars in the first location; in this one we invested five times as much. We are really investing in everything. We get external consultants in for lighting, for entertainment, for visual effects and for DJs. Everything we do now is much better. I remember how I used to work when I started six years ago and I see how I am used to working today. Now I work with five companies from Europe and from the States. We get a lot of events, we invest much more in everything, and we learn from our experiences.

Everything seems nice and rosy, but what is the challenge that you are most afraid of? What keeps you awake at night? What are the internal and external problems? Externally it is probably the uncertainty…

Here in Lebanon you get used to the fear that you live with. We have a tremendous instability issue, and we live with it. My parents lived with it and I have lived with it. We thought that it would be over for our time, but it was not. We had the war in 2006 and saw that one day the bars could be full and then you could be empty for a month, with no idea when it might end. However, there is one thing in Lebanon, and that is that one day, everything ends, and when it ends, it booms. I remember when the war ended, I opened White five days later and it was packed like crazy for a month; we are talking about 1,500 people every night. This is not something you can see anywhere else in the world. This is what keeps you going. What we are afraid of is the instability, and we have some problems with the regulations too, because we have some old laws for tourism, although they are working on them. For example, rooftop bars are a new trend; it did not exist fifty years ago and they are creating new laws for it. The good thing is, you can always find a way and the government is mostly understanding if you are a good player in the market. They will help you continue with your business. The only fear is instability.

What are some of the surprises for 2012 and 2013? What ideas do have for new events or venues?

We are actually opening a new beach, which I think is going to be something extraordinary. It will be a beautiful new beach, with a pool inside the sea, very small, very cute, with very good, European cuisine. We are preparing a lot of new things for White and we are also opening another new beach in the Batroun area. This is a beautiful area, and we have also revamped another beach there with a pool and so on.

Do you concentrate mostly on the summer events?

The summer is triple the winter season. We do have indoor venues for the winter, but our main work is in the summer. We do very well in the winter, but things are much better in the summer.

What do you do with your staff?

I have an indoor club right under here called Mad. The old White is now called Iris, and it is also an indoor venue, so I have the staff. We are also getting a franchise from London. There is a new trend in Lebanon to get all the big franchise names from London and Paris. The new place is going to be a Japanese bar-restaurant called Nozomi, right next to Iris.

And have you thought about franchising White or taking the Lebanese thing abroad?

We have thought about it. We get a lot of requests, mostly from Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Syria and Jordan. We actually have a place in Abu Dhabi, but not White. We are also opening a new place ourselves in Dubai. However, the problem is that you cannot open a rooftop bar outside of Lebanon, because you do not have this weather except in Beirut. Even in Dubai you only have three months. Our location here is in an industrial area, so we do not have a noise problem because of the music and so on. In Dubai it has to be in a hotel; we cannot have a rooftop bar. We are therefore opening an enclosed version of White in Dubai.

What makes White one of the leading clubs around?

A lot of work and a lot of nice staff who believe in it. White did not just appear like this. We had a lot of places before White, and we worked a lot on the concept before opening White. From the beginning we wanted to have a new concept and invest in something new. When White opened for the first time it was a big thing in the country, a new thing, and every year we have tried to change it and do more with it. We work with a lot of consultants, so we are a big team; it is not just me at all.

Let’s talk about Iris and the new beach in Damour, the Iris Beach Club.

The nice thing about Iris is that it is like the old version of White, because we started White as a lounge-restaurant-bar, and it turned into more of a nightlife destination. When we moved White here, we re-did Iris to realize our original plan for White as a lounge-bar for the sunset – we open at 6pm and it is extraordinary really: you can go to Iris on any day at around 7pm or 7.30pm and it is always packed. This is unprecedented in Lebanon. It is super nice, you can sit there and see all of downtown Beirut with the beach and the mountains; it is one of the nicest places to watch the sunset from. There is a whole range of ages there – it is one of the places where you can see the father and his son going out in the same place, which does not happen much in Lebanon! It is a very happy place. We wanted to create this on the beach as well, which is why we are opening the Iris Beach Club. It is the same mood and the same feel. Iris is very chilled-out, not showing off, a very relaxing place to be. The beach will be the same atmosphere with a very nice pool, some private pools and excellent food. We have Greek consultant for the food. It is really going to be something.

Is it going to rival the best beach in Lebanon?

You mean Eddé Sands? Never. Our beach is as big as the pool at Eddé Sands. It is totally different concept: Eddé Sands is big and Iris beach is a very intimate place for just 400 to 500 people, with a very village feel to it, like a small Greek-Lebanese village.

Finally, what is your vision for tourism or for your business?

I started in Lebanon with a bar large enough for 25 people; we ended up just ten years later with eight places, one of which accommodates 2,500 people. I think this country is amazing. As much as people say it is difficult and so on, it is a place where you can really grow. We are an example of this, and there are a lot of other people who are examples of how you can start in Lebanon and go on to be successful. Lebanon is a promising land where you can really make a lot of your dreams come true.