JOEY GHAZAL
Commercial developer, serial gastropreneur and all-around tastemaker, Joey Ghazal has dedicated the past 15 years of his life to creating authentic & inspired experiences. His work on wildly popular concepts across two continents, have launched nearly a dozen dining fads and has been crowned the Top Restauranteur in the Middle East 2018 by Caterer Magazine which also recognized him as the 4th Most Powerful Independent Restauranteur in the Middle East in their yearly ‘Power 50’ issue for the impact he has made on the Middle East Dining Scene. Born in Montreal and raised in Dubai, Joey's love for the restaurant business started at the young age of 18 and has endured for over 20 years. He has worked his way up the ranks from busboy, to waiter, to manager to head of concept development and marketing for the Morentzos Restaurant Group (MRG), a Canadian based restaurant development company that has opened over 80 outlets since 1989. After leaving MRG in 2010, Joey set his sights on his native Lebanon, where he created, owned and managed four unique concepts, namely Brgr Co, The Angry Monkey, Cro Magnon Steakhouse & Bar and St. Elmo’s Seaside Brasserie.
“Esquire Top 100” - Esquire Middle East
Joey Ghazal moved to Dubai in 2014 to set up Fighterbrands Ltd., a restaurant development that developed The MAINE, Dubai's first homegrown New England Seaside Brasserie which now has three locations in Dubai with a third scheduled to open in London in 2020. Inspired by the summers he spent vacationing in Vermont and Maine, Joey transformed an undesirable garage location into a city hot spot. Aside from being the owner operator, Joey also designed the space himself an was very involved in all aspects of brand creation, menu development, recruitment and training. Most recently, Joey developed BARBARY Deli + Cocktail Club which has already cemented itself as a bastion of serious cocktails, excellent food and great music. Over the years Joey has combined the most sought after talent to create some of the most compelling and sustainable brands in the industry. Having earned a reputation for his ‘fearless creativity’, ‘keen intuition’ and entrepreneurial spirit, Joey Ghazal founded FighterBrands as a way to ‘pay forward’ his passion and experience in creating, building and activating brands. FighterBrands continuously benchmarks best practices and monitors market trends in retail design, branding, menu development, food styling and marketing strategy.