Ask the people behind three homegrown brands what it means to build in the UAE, and the answers rarely sound the same, even when they land on the same idea. Tokyo Express, The Chimi, and El Carmelo are three independent brands operating out of KitchenPark, and for each of them, being homegrown ties to community, prestige, and the simple discipline of getting the food right every time. It comes down to “being part of the community, giving something back, something from my culture, from my own place, where I’m coming from,” as Ivan Sanchez, founder of El Carmelo, puts it.
H2: What Home Means to Each Brand
For Jorge Rivero, the co-founder of The Chimi, building in the UAE carries a certain weight on the world stage. “Every time you mention UAE, that actually gives prestige to your brand,” he said, describing how friends abroad react the moment they hear a business is based in Dubai. That prestige only holds up, though, if what happens in the kitchen backs it up.
At Tokyo Express, that responsibility is treated as the whole point. “Building in UAE, our brand, especially Tokyo Express, means serving the right food to the right customers, giving the right quality to all the people in UAE.”
The Challenge
Launching and growing a homegrown F&B brand in a competitive market rarely comes down to the food alone.
- Standing Out: Building trust in a specific identity, whether coastal Mexican cooking or Japanese-inspired fast casual, among far more generic options
- Operational Hiccups: Working through early equipment issues without the support of a large in-house team
- Consistency at Scale: Keeping quality and service personal even as order volumes grow across more than one location
The team at Tokyo Express felt the second point directly in its early days, when KitchenPark stepped in to help: “They have supported us day in, day out. During the start of our time, we had some equipment issues, but they supported us also on the equipment issues and [other] things.”
The Solution
Operating from delivery-only kitchens gave each brand a way to get up and running without the cost and delay of building a full site from the ground up. For Tokyo Express, that meant regular, hands-on support rather than being left to work through problems alone: “When we started, the supervisor always comes and asks us what are the different challenges we have, [if] they can help us or no.”
El Carmelo, founded by Ivan Sanchez, saw KitchenPark support go further still, covering the entire setup process. “I see it as an incubator of local talent. They facilitate so much the process to start a business. They help you with the kitchen, with the setup, with all the requirements, from A to Z.”
The Results
The impact of working alongside KitchenPark is easy to see in how each brand describes their own progress.
- Consistent Quality Control: Direct feedback calls with customers help Tokyo Express keep delivery and quality consistent across its locations
- Faster Market Entry: Getting from documentation to opening day felt close to plug-and-play for The Chimi
- A Distinct Culinary Identity: El Carmelo’s coastal Mexican food carves out a niche built around a specific regional culinary heritage
As these brands take on more volume, access to Kitchen’s multi-purpose kitchen spaces gives them a path to scale production without losing the setup that got them started.
Looking Ahead
El Carmelo, The Chimi, and Tokyo Express are three very different brands with three different stories, yet each points back to the same foundation. Built in the UAE and with the support of KitchenPark, all three are proof of what a homegrown brand can become when the groundwork is already in place.
