Ask A Local is a new series where we ask clued-up insiders to share their top tips for the place they call home.
“I like to show people the beautiful sides of Riyadh—it’s a really underrated city,” says Rae Joseph, founder of 1954 by Rae Joseph, the first vintage fashion retail platform in the Gulf. While she splits her time between Riyadh, Dubai, and New York, she loves to spend hometown weekends (Friday and Saturday in Saudi Arabia) hiking, gallery-hopping, and scouring historic souks in search of antique finds.
Hiking above a sea of palms
“Whether it’s Friday or Saturday, we have to do a hike. I pick up a couple of my friends, and then we go to DQ—the Diplomatic Quarter, or Al Safarat, as we say. The hiking trails are not too hard, but it’s enough to get your body moving. The views are spectacular: It overlooks some farms, and you have a sea of palm trees and beautiful rock formations.”
Breakfast, dates, and coffee
Rae’s go-to for a post-hike breakfast is Bateel, a much-loved chain of homegrown Saudi cafés and restaurants. “The way they make Arabic coffee and the types of dates they serve are super authentic,” she says. The branch in the DQ is always full of familiar faces: “We meet other people by coincidence and the table gets bigger and bigger.” As a sufferer of celiac disease, she seeks out gluten-free options that are “tasty, not just healthy” and the staff here are “really well-educated” in choices that are safe for her to eat. Rae loves the salads, but the breakfast menu here also includes organic date and yogurt bowls, date French toast, and truffle scrambled eggs. After breakfast, she’ll drink Arabic coffee made in the authentic way with fresh cardamom, served with organic dates from Bateel’s farms outside Riyadh. “My first coffee in the morning is more like a let’s-get-the-day-started, let’s-go-on-a-hike coffee, but the coffee after breakfast sets the mood for the day,” she says.
Shopping malls and concept stores
When the city heats up, Riyadh’s residents hit the malls. For high-end designer brands, Rae heads to Centria and the new Via Riyadh, a much-hyped collection of luxury boutiques, restaurants, and cinemas. For a mix of designer and everyday items, she’ll go to two of the city’s most iconic buildings—the mall at the Kingdom Centre and Mode Mall, attached to the Faisaliah Hotel. But far more exciting are the city’s concept stores. To discover an interestingly curated selection of local brands, Rae recommends Eastway Market, an elegant, modern, colorful space with “a refined aesthetic.” She also loves Pattern, for its young, cool vibe and sneaker lab.
