Summer in Dubai has a way of shrinking the city. Plans move indoors, afternoons slow down and leaving the house requires a little more motivation than usual. Luckily, this week offers a few good reasons: a thoughtful exhibition, a Biennale conversation, a long-awaited deli opening, a community dinner and a workshop exploring stories that deserve a larger place in the region's history.

Where? Hudson & Rye

New York deli culture is finally making its way to Dubai. Hudson & Rye opens this week, bringing together everything that makes a proper neighbourhood deli worth coming back to: house-cured meats, slow smoking, careful pickling and sandwiches that don't try too hard to impress.

The menu sticks to the classics — hand-sliced pastrami on rye, a generously filled Reuben and a crispy fried chicken cutlet. Comfort food, done with patience and good ingredients rather than unnecessary twists.

Where? Gallery Isabelle

Most people know Mohammed Kazem through his large-scale installations and Venice Biennale presentations. This exhibition goes back to where it all began.

Scenes from the 90s brings together a rare selection of works on paper created during the artist's formative years, when he was working alongside conceptual art pioneer Hassan Sharif. Produced in the 1990s, the pieces reveal the ideas that would come to define Kazem's practice: close observation, repetition and a fascination with the quiet potential of everyday materials.

Among the highlights are three atmospheric landscape paintings made in Hatta in 1999 and four intricate collages created in the Al Qusais studio Kazem shared with Sharif. The latter would eventually evolve into his celebrated Scratches series, making this a rare opportunity to see one of the UAE's most influential contemporary artists before his signature visual language fully emerged.

Where? Efie Gallery

If you didn't make it to this year's Venice Biennale, Efie Gallery is bringing part of the conversation to Dubai. The gallery takes a closer look at María Magdalena Campos-Pons' newly unveiled Biennale commission, Anatomy of the Magnolia Tree for Koyo Kouoh and Toni Morrison — one of the standout installations in the international exhibition.

The work unfolds through a series of sculptures inspired by the life cycle of the magnolia, alongside monumental portraits honouring writer Toni Morrison and curator Koyo Kouoh. Together, they become a meditation on memory, ancestry, resilience and renewal — themes that have shaped Campos-Pons' practice for decades. The evening offers a chance to look beyond the headlines of the Biennale and explore the ideas, symbolism and personal histories behind one of its most talked-about works.

Where? DM to find out

On Friday night, Chef Halawa takes care of dinner while Saad Kabbara sets the mood behind the decks, creating an evening that feels somewhere between a dinner party and a listening session.

Reservations are required.

Where? Bayt Al Mamzar

Bayt Al Mamzar continues to host some of Dubai's most thoughtful community gatherings, and this one is no exception. Building the Afro-Khaleej Archive explores a part of the Gulf's history that has long remained underrepresented, inviting participants to preserve personal and collective stories through zine-making.

Led by Farah Fawzi Ali, the workshop combines photography, writing and collage to transform family photographs, documents and memories into small, portable archives. More than a creative session, it's an opportunity to reflect on identity, heritage and the histories that are often passed down through conversation rather than preserved on paper. All materials will be provided, though participants are encouraged to bring personal photographs or keepsakes if they have them.