CULTURE
BUSINESS UNUSUAL | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS
Ahmed Tahnoon, founder, Spheerz
Inspired pursuits Spheerz founder Ahmed Tahnoon couldn’t find an establishment serving Japanese takoyaki to his liking in the UAE- so he created his own by ABY SAM THOMAS
A
hmed Tahnoon exudes excitement as he remembers the first time he got to taste takoyaki, a popular Japanese snack made out of a batter from a special kind of wheat flour, which is cooked as balls with fillings containing octopus, green onion, and pickled red ginger, and then finally topped off with mayonnaise, takoyaki sauce, and bonito flakes. It was March 2014, and Tahnoon was in Japan’s culinary capital of Osaka when he was treated
to a serving of takoyaki, blissfully unaware that this was the moment that would transform his life as he knew it to be then. Tahnoon remembers: “After taking the first bite of the takoyaki, I had only one thought on my mind: ‘How come I’ve never tried this before?’” This was the question that Tahnoon, an Emirati electronics engineer working with the government, tried to answer on his return to the UAE, as he attempted to find places in the country that served this dish that he was so taken up by. But his quest
for takoyaki didn’t yield any satisfactory results, and this story would have ended here, had it not been for Tahnoon donning his entrepreneurial cap. Tahnoon decided that if there was no place in the UAE serving takoyaki to his liking, then he’d create one of his own- and this endeavor began with him importing a takoyaki stove, along with some of the ingredients, from Japan. Experimentation with takoyaki recipes soon followed, with his friends and family becoming the test audience for the same, who reacted in the same manner as A behind the scenes shot with Aly Mazhar
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he did: “How come we never tried this before?” And it was this reception that cemented Tahnoon’s belief that starting up an F&B enterprise serving takoyaki would do well in the UAE. “I had confidence in the product, and I was absolutely sure that I had no competition yet,” Tahnoon says. “And then, I started the first takoyaki kiosk in UAE at the Global Village, Dubai, in 2016.” Tahnoon decided to name his enterprise Spheerz, a nod to the round shape that is characteristic of the takoyaki, and it was only a matter of time before his kiosk at the Global Village began to garner a fan following. In fact, the overwhelmingly positive feedback was what led Tahnoon to grow Spheerz further- September 2018 marked the launch of the Spheerz restaurant, armed with a full-fledged Japanese street food menu (which includes, besides its signature takoyaki, okonomiyaki and taiyaki as well), at Marina Cubes, a new leisure development located in the Port Rashid neighborhood of Dubai. In addition, Spheerz now also has a takoyaki cart that makes its presence felt at various pop-up events in the country, as well as a sub-brand called Yaki Box by Spheerz, which Tahnoon declares to be “the first Japanese BBQ box available through delivery” in the UAE.
IMAGES COURTESY SPHEERZ
"THE MOST UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION OF SPHEERZ IS THE FACT THAT IT’S IN THE PERFECT SPOT BETWEEN ADAPTABILITY AND TRADITION. IT KEEPS THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE JAPANESE DISHES, BUT ALSO CATERS FOR THE GENERAL TASTE IN THE REGION.
