DRVN Coffee, Dubai’s well-known automotive-themed café located on Bluewaters Island, has strengthened its partnership with Porsche by intensifying its collaboration and officially rebranding it “DRVN by Porsche”. The brand’s regional office, Porsche Middle East and Africa FZE as well as the official Porsche importer in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, Al Nabooda Automobiles, recently signed a collaboration agreement with DRVN’s management.
Few places have embraced the social and cultural phenomenon of “cars and coffee” more than the United Arab Emirates, bringing together an appreciation of fine coffee created by artisan baristas with rare, classic and desirable motor cars in a family-friendly environment.
Commenting on the association, Dr. Manfred Bräunl, Chief Executive Officer of Porsche Middle East and Africa FZE, said: “Our relationship with DRVN Coffee has been a very successful one which we embraced last November in the lead-up to our ‘Icons of Porsche’ event when DRVN displayed some of our most unique Museum cars from Stuttgart during the first days of opening its new location in Dubai. The atmosphere is welcoming for everybody, including families and automotive enthusiasts, and we believe it is the perfect, holistic platform to bring the community together by using the synergies and passion for fast cars, perfect coffee and delicious cuisine.”
A mix of classic and rare cars, similar to the models that helped celebrate one of the region’s largest classic car gatherings, “Icons of Porsche”, will be on continual rotation ensuring there’s always a reason to visit DRVN by Porsche with its mix of Museum and personal collectors’ cars. These will set the tone for a series of seasonal activations throughout the year to recognise key moments including the holy month of Ramadan as well as “Porsche x Art”. One rotation will also lead up to the brand’s second instalment of “Icons of Porsche” set to take place towards the end of this year.
Rashed Al Fahim, founder of DRVN Coffee and passionate car collector himself, said having cars from Porsche’s vast racing history as well as classic road cars is a perfect fit for his vision to incorporate the motor car with local and international art: “Porsche understands the theme of DRVN Coffee and our partnership has been a perfect symbiosis of two like-minded brands since day one. I am excited to see the next planned themes and display cars. Beyond that, DRVN by Porsche looks forward to showcasing the work of regional artists such as Dozi Dreams and Rami Afifi who are already confirmed to exhibit among the Porsche collection.”
Emirati citizen and former B777 commercial pilot, Rashed Al Fahim, inherited his obsession for cars from his father who collected cars for over 50 years. His vision initiated from the desire to share the collection and his passion with people of all ages, genders and interests which led to the founding of DRVN Coffee. With three branches, located in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the success of his dream speaks for itself.
For Porsche Centre Dubai, the partnership is a natural collaboration with many patrons of DRVN Coffee who are also Porsche customers, embracing the ‘cars and coffee’ weekend routine that allows enthusiasts to not only display and admire their cars but also indulge in a family-friendly lifestyle beyond a traditional car enthusiast outing.
Mark Sinclair, General Manager of Porsche Centre Dubai, said: “We look forward to hosting a variety of exhibitions, activations and events at DRVN by Porsche throughout the year. We see this as a strategic partnership which will bring a lot of new ideas, concepts and creative approaches over the coming months. In addition, visitors will have the opportunity to purchase select items from the Porsche Lifestyle range.”
Additionally, visitors of DRVN by Porsche will be able to purchase limited edition merchandise items that will be produced exclusively for this partnership.
DRVN by Porsche is located opposite Caesars Palace and in front of Ain Dubai, the world’s largest and tallest observation wheel, on Bluewaters Island and is open from 8am to midnight, 7 days a week.