Giraffe restaurant designer set to launch London BBQ and rum shack

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 19 February, 2014

The designer behind the Giraffe restaurant group branding is opening Dub Jam, a jerk BBQ and rum shack in London's Covent Garden, with a second site already in the pipeline.

Dub Jam concept Dub JamThe fast casual BBQ and rum shack concept Dub Jam is set for launch in London later this month, with a second site already earmarked for development.

Food and drinks design agency Mystery has teamed up with Adventure Bar Group, which runs four sites in London, for the launch, which takes place later this month.

The Covent Garden outlet, which bills itself as a tiny BBQ shack, will be opened in association with reggae music label, Trojan Records, who have had a long-term relationship with Mystery, as the company have designed over 100 Trojan album covers. As well as providing music for the site, Trojan album cover artwork (designed by Mystery) forms a key part of the venue's décor. The group is also preparing an app which would allow customers to tune in to what's playing in Dub Jam and download tracks.

Having raised £120,000 in investment, the company is keen to expand further and has already earmarked their second site ahead of opening the 16-cover Covent Garden venue.

Dan Einzig, chief executive of Mystery, developed the successful Giraffe restaurant brand, working with the group from their first site and through their aggressive UK expansion, which culminated in the sale of the business to Tesco in March 2013 for £48.6m.

Adventure Bar group, founded by Tom Kidd in 2005, has a turnover of £4 million across its four sites in Clapham, Covent Garden and East Dulwich.

Dan Einzig of Mystery said: "The idea for Dub Jam was born over a few rum punches and a fried conch when I was in the Caribbean on a photographic assignment. Having designed concepts and branding for clients' venues for over 15 years, we have more recently been incubating a stable of brands with partners in F&B businesses, and so it is thrilling to be launching our own concept.

"At Mystery, our approach is to create a strong brand 'personality' that the audience emotively connects with: Dub Jam will have an upbeat, chilled out vibe, sharing our love of reggae food and music with everyone.

"Having worked with Adventure Bar on their branding for a number of years, we are delighted to now be partnering with the group on this new concept. They provide incredible customer service geared around creating amazing atmosphere in their venues, as well as an extensive knowledge of operations and the wider hospitality sector, which I admire greatly."

The Dub Jam bar will serve a selection of rums and Caribbean drinks, including Red Stripe, Carib Beer, Sasparilla and Coconut Water served in colourful hand-painted tin cans. Its signature Wray & Nephew Reggae Infused Rum Punch(£6), is made with Overproof Rum, then "gravity-fed through the sound-system wall of speakers, slowly infusing it with genuine reggae sound waves and 'bass filtering' it".

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