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Located at the newly opened Dubai Opera in Downtown Dubai, Sean Connolly’s new brasserie, pointedly called “Sean Connolly at Dubai Opera”, serves steak and seafood in a venue with a mid-century aesthetic and an oceanic ambience. Designed by Sydney-based studio Alexander & Co in partnership with Tribe Studio, the 350 person restaurant includes a Raw bar serving oysters and other shellfish, a Fire bar where you can enjoy a selection of pizzas from a wood fire oven as well as private dining and a chef’s table. There is also an outdoor terrace where patrons can dine under the gleaming monumentality of the Burj Khalifa, making it one of the most coveted dining settings to enjoy the New Year’s festivities. Photo by Brooke Holm. 
Occupying a curvilinear space at the top of the Dubai Opera’s “bow”, a glass and steel building that resembles an Arabian sailing vessel, the restaurant’s design draws inspiration from the building’s maritime form as well as Chef Connolly’s passion for oysters. A palette of pink and cream leather and light grey marble in the main dining area elicits the oysters’ sensual interior while a range of darker greys, greens and black hues in the periphery, bring to mind the weathered texture of the shells. The oceanic theme is further enhanced by the tiled vaulted ceiling, which resembles both the rippling shape of the oyster husk and billowing sails, and the handmade woollen carpet dappled in blue that Alexander & Co designed especially to emulate the ocean waters. The oceanic palette is perfectly complemented by the greens, greys, blues and whites of the leather and fabric upholstery of the mid-century furniture originals that the designers have eclectically chosen to furnish the restaurant. Along with natural walnut finishes and mid-century lamps of such as Serge Mouille’s spider-arm floor lamp in white enamel, the restaurant is a pearl of modernist elegance. 
British born, Australia-based Chef Sean Connolly’s main menu has a distinct Antipodean flavour with entrées such as slow-cooked New Zealand lamb and Australian Saltbush organic lamb cutlets, which the designers have paid tribute to by incorporating artwork by two distinct Australian artists, Tracey Deep andJacqui Fink. Deep, whose floral installations celebrate Australia’s native flora, created three hanging sculptures reflecting the beauty of the underwater world, while Fink, who pioneered extreme knitting with thick yarn and oversized needles, has made a grand piece out of Australia and New Zealand Merino Wool that hangs from the ceiling like the tentacles of a giant sea creature, encapsulating, in artistic abstraction, the restaurant’s thematic amalgamation. 
Photo by Brooke Holm. 
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