Just off the busy boulevard that runs through central Riyadh, an Italian restaurant called Forchetta lay empty and dusty for months. Less than a year after it opened, the branch succumbed to Saudi Arabia’s economic slump as disposable income fell and unemployment climbed to the highest level in more than a decade.A few doors down, Draft cafe looks right out of Brooklyn or Beirut. Women smoke cigarettes on the terrace as a soundtrack of American pop music plays in the background. A medium espresso costs the equivalent of $2.90, while a quinoa and beetroot salad is $7.70. Forchetta used to charge $13 for a Margherita pizza.“People are still going to have a cup of coffee even when the economy is bad,” says Wadha Al Rashid, the 34-year-old businesswoman who opened the cafe in July last year and recently added a second location. “We kind of serve a niche for the young creative individuals. I think that really serves us as well.”The stark contrast of failure and success is an increasingly familiar sight in the Saudi capital as the 86-year-old kingdom undergoes the biggest upheaval in its modern history to adopt a Western-style model of capitalism. Since the government trimmed subsidies… Read full this story
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