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Meridian House
The café bar

The café · 07:30 – 21:00

Our café. Not a concession.

We run it, we hire the baristas, and we take the coffee as seriously as the room. Members and their guests only.

Specialty, properly

Single-origin espresso and filter, a rotating second bean, and staff who can tell you which is which. The machine is on from 07:30.

A short menu

Eight drinks, a breakfast plate, two lunches, and something sweet at four. Short enough to do well, long enough to sit all day.

Members and guests

No walk-ins, no queue at the door, no laptop-hunting for a table. Two guests per member per day, received at the bar.

Specialty coffee · AED

Espresso
18
Americano
20
Cappuccino
22
Latte
24
Flat White
24
V60 Filter
26
Cold Brew
26
Matcha Latte
28

Charged to the member account, settled monthly. The café is the one part of the house a member pays for by using rather than by belonging.

Espresso extraction

Better ideas brew here.

The line is on the wall behind the bar. It is also the reason we kept the café in-house: the first hour of the day sets the tone of the room, and we would rather own it.

The kitchen

Eleven dishes. All of them fast enough to eat between meetings.

Labneh, za'atar, sourdoughFrom 07:30
42
Eggs, brown butter, chivesFrom 07:30
48
Grain bowl, preserved lemonFrom 12:00
62
Chicken shawarma plateFrom 12:00
68
Sea bass, fennel, oliveFrom 12:00
88
Date and tahini cakeFrom 16:00
32

Five more rotate weekly with what the market has. Nothing on the menu takes longer than twelve minutes, because the alternative is a member eating at their laptop.

A day at the bar

The room changes four times before dinner.

07:30
Machine on, papers out, three or four members reading. The quietest and, for most of them, the best hour.
10:00
The bar becomes the meeting nobody booked. Two stools and a flat white beats a room with a projector.
13:00
Lunch service. The house team seats members who should know each other — the single most useful thing we do.
18:00
Coffee gives way to a short wine list and the courtyard doors open. The kitchen keeps going until nine.

Four rules at the bar

  • No calls on speaker, ever — the booths are eight steps away.
  • Two guests a member a day, received at the bar, not the door.
  • The barista's recommendation is the right order.
  • Everything is charged to the account. No cards come out in the club.

The visit in your application starts with a coffee at this bar.

Apply for membership