Venture Group talks expansion of their hospitality cluster model in Lebanon and beyond

Marwan Ayoub and Rabih Saba—and their hospitality company Venture Group, specialized in developing and operating purpose-built restaurant clusters—have covered a lot of ground in the past seven years. Today, their team is playing in the premier league of regional hospitality. Geographically and financially, Venture Group’s cluster business started small. In 2011, Ayoub and Saba began operating a traditional cluster in Beirut’s downtown, meaning they developed a master concept plan for a string of pubs on Uruguay Street. Calculating this project to be worth a few million dollars, they took a gamble on the immediate future. They only had sufficient funds for their first contractual payment when they signed their agreement with Solidere, the Lebanese company for the development and reconstruction of Beirut Central District. Luckily for hospitality culture in Lebanon, and despite the fact that the Uruguay Street pub cluster did not survive, Venture Group was able to spread its