The Marsa Malaz Kempinski hotel on the Pearl is set to take its first guests from Dec. 1, signaling a return of alcohol sales to the island in some capacity, three years after a ban was first imposed.
The Alfardan-owned hotel will have 281 rooms, including 73 suites with 24-hour butler service, as well as meeting-conference facilities and an 1,100 sqm Grand Ballroom.
Leisure facilities will include a 150m private beach with a cafe and pool bar, outdoor swimming pools, water sports facilities, a tennis court, yacht jetties and a Clarins spa.
The spa, hair salons for men and women and spa cafe are not scheduled to open until the first quarter of 2015, according to the hotel’s website.
Soft launch
For the first few months, only a few of the hotel’s 11 bars, cafes and restaurants will be open, including Arabic family restaurant Sawa, European-style Cafe Murano and Bohemia bar, with the rest set to open early in 2015.
These include a roof-top nightclub; Levant-inspired restaurant; Spanish tapas restaurant; Toro Toro, which will provide Latin American fare; an Italian restaurant; and a branch of Japanese eatery Nozomi, which is based in Knightsbridge, London.
Construction of the long-awaited five-star hotel, built on a man-made island next to Qanat Qartier, appears to be on schedule, as the hotel previously said it would open in 2015.
Alcohol ban
The Four Seasons was also set to open its second Doha hotel on the Pearl, but it said last year that plans for the project had been put on hold.
It did not explain why building on its Porto Arabia site had halted, but the announcement followed a ban imposed on selling alcohol across all eating and drinking establishments on the Pearl in December 2011.
Previously, 12 0f 15 restaurants on the island sold alcohol before they were ordered to go dry. The directive had initially been touted as a temporary decision, but the ban remains today.
After it was imposed, many restaurants complained of falling revenues, while some big names including Gordon Ramsay’s Maze restaurant, closed down.
Thoughts?
Note: This article was updated to correctly state that the hotel will have 11 cafes, bars and restaurants.
