There are cafés, and then there are spaces that feel like intention made physical. What Not Café and Concept Store belongs in the second category. Tucked into Abu Dhabi’s evolving urban fabric, not far from spots that matter to the city’s creative community, it isn’t just a place to grab coffee and flowers – it’s a design project realised in real time. Evidence of that is everywhere, because the interiors are furnished almost entirely by Klekktic, the Dubai-born studio that has rapidly become one of the UAE’s most talked-about practitioners of bespoke furniture and material-forward spaces.
What makes What Not stand out is how unapologetically it wears its design DNA. This isn’t a sterile Instagram set piece. It’s a café and concept store where seating, tables, display units and moments of sculptural presence feel like bespoke pieces first, functional bits second – and all deeply tethered to Klekktic’s material language. Think brushed steel frames, rich woods and surfaces that seem sculpted rather than applied. Even the plant pots and ceramics feel curated with a furniture catalogue in mind.
For Klekktic, the project represents a logical extension of its commercial work. Founded in Dubai in 2019 and rooted in in-house craftsmanship, the brand has built its reputation on pieces that feel alive to both material and moment. Rather than decorative layering, Klekktic’s furniture tends to emphasise proportion, surface and technical care – qualities that translate into an interior that is at once wearable and distinct.
Walk in and the first impression is one of calibrated restraint. Seating arrangements are measured but informal; stools and low benches mingle with more sculptural armchairs that feel at ease in a gallery as much as a café. Tabletops in brushed metal or wood seem to occupy the room rather than sit on it. Even the coffee bar itself holds a quiet presence, framed by shelving that balances utility and display.
The result is a space that manages to feel both familiar and formally considered, a café that could just as easily be featured in a Milan design week roundup as it could a local lifestyle guide. It doesn’t shout. It inhabits a register – curious, unforced and quietly confident.
It’s also a reminder that in Abu Dhabi the design scene isn’t just about international names importing styles. Local and regional studios are shaping how the city looks and feels from the ground up, and places like What Not are the proof points.
10am – 10pm, Qareyat Al Hidd, Abu Dhabi; @whatnotconcept
Dubai-based Isabella Craddock is the founder of Near+Far, a founding Academy Chair for The World’s 50 Best Hotels, former Condé Nast Traveller editor and a hotel-obsessed, design-devoted travel planner—for friends, loved ones, and readers alike.
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