Reif Othman explains how CRISP. found its identity within REIF Japanese Kushiyaki and where the concept goes next
It’s been a few months since CRISP. opened. What has surprised you most about running a bakery compared to your other concepts?
The patience. I’m used to kitchens where there is a lot of energy and you can react very quickly. Baking doesn’t care how impatient you are. If the dough needs time, you give it time.
What I love about it is that something that looks very simple can actually be extremely technical. A good shio pan might look like bread, butter and salt, but getting the texture exactly right every day is another story.
CRISP. has definitely made me more obsessed with the small details — which is probably dangerous because I was already obsessive enough!
Has anything on the CRISP. menu changed since launch, based on what customers have gravitated towards?
I’m always changing things. If you know me, you know I cannot leave a menu alone for too long. But there are products people immediately understood. The Shio Pan has become a hero for us, and the Pandan Kaya Jam Doughnut is very personal because those are flavours I grew up with.
That is really what I want CRISP. to be. I’m not interested in making another bakery full of the same croissants everybody already has. If we add something, there needs to be a reason for it to be there and it needs to feel like us.
CRISP. runs inside REIF Japanese Kushiyaki rather than as its own standalone space. What has that shared-site model taught you about running two concepts under one roof?
The biggest lesson is that a brand doesn’t need four walls of its own to have its own identity. CRISP. lives inside REIF, but it isn’t REIF bakery. The product, packaging, attitude and customer experience all have to stand on their own.
From a business point of view, it also makes sense. We already had a strong kitchen and infrastructure, so why spend a fortune opening another box before understanding the concept properly?
Use what you have, build something good, and then grow it.
Bread and pastry work on a different clock to skewers or ramen, early starts, proofing times, timing windows. How did you build a production rhythm for CRISP. around that?
You respect the dough. You can’t tell it, “I have 100 covers tonight, please proof faster.”
Everything starts much earlier than the guest sees. Fermentation, resting, proofing, baking, cooling — you have to build the whole day backwards around the product.
It has created a completely different rhythm inside the kitchen, but I like that. At REIF there is fire, grills, noise. CRISP. starts with patience. Then eventually the chaos begins anyway.
Is there anything about CRISP.’s early reception that’s shaping what comes next, whether that’s a second location, a wider menu or a new format?
I didn’t create CRISP. to keep it in one corner of one restaurant forever. The response has shown us that the brand has much more potential, and I definitely see CRISP. growing.
What that growth looks like is the interesting part. It could be another location, a different format, more products, collaborations — there are a lot of directions we can take it.
But I’m also very protective of the brand. I would rather have one CRISP. that people actively seek out than ten average bakeries everywhere. So yes, there are bigger plans in my head. There always are. So stay tuned!
Delivery has been part of CRISP.’s offering from day one. Has demand through delivery told you anything different from what you’re seeing dine-in?
Delivery is the real test. In the restaurant, everything is perfect when we hand it to you. On delivery, the product has to survive the box, the car, Dubai traffic and then still make you happy when you open it.
If it doesn’t travel well, I don’t want to sell it for delivery. Simple.
It also gives us another view of what people actually want. Nobody is standing there pointing at the pastry and telling you how beautiful it looks — you are choosing purely because you want to eat it. That information is very useful.
What would you tell another operator thinking about adding a bakery concept onto an existing kitchen, rather than opening one from scratch?
First: don’t open a bakery because bakeries are trending. There are already enough croissants in Dubai. You need a reason to exist.
CRISP. came from something genuine. I spent time in Copenhagen, became obsessed with the bakery culture there and came back wanting to reinterpret it through my own world — Japan, Singapore, Dubai, everything I’ve eaten and experienced.
And secondly, don’t underestimate the operation. Having an existing kitchen helps, but bread and pastry are their own discipline. If you don’t respect that, the customer will know very quickly.
