That is the name of the new “refreshment” store in the active neighborhood across the street from the offices of The National.

I walked out late the other night, and was hit in the face by the brilliant lighting of the new place (next to the barber shop), and the remarkable name.

“Vitamin Palace”.

Don’t you have to go in and load up on your vitamins?

This is the sort of eatery/juice bar that is a very much a subcontinent thing. India, in particular, from what I can tell.

These appear to be independent establishments all doing pretty much the same things:

1. Offering dozens of sorts of juice.

2. Offering dozens of kinds of sandwiches.

3. Offering a place to sit and eat, as long as no more than three or four people do it at once.

I have written about one across the street from where we live, which also has a great name — Desert Burger. Desert Burger has 146 items on their food menu and 36 kinds of juice.

What these little places seem to do is cater to local bachelors, as single expat men here are invariably known.

The guys may not feel like cooking, or aren’t good at it,   and they feel like a tasty drink. So they drop by the cafeteria — and every block has one. Or two.

A few more observations:

–All of these juice/sandwich shops are garishly lit. Like, you can see them from a hundred yards away. They seem to say: “Tasty stuff here; cheerful place here; not dark and gloomy.” Which probably is exactly why they are garishly lit.

–They feature big, spotless windows, so you can see right into the interior and notice the mounds of fruits they have artfully stacked.

–Juice seems to be the hook. Can’t underestimate how important fruit juice is, in Muslim countries like the UAE, where alcoholic beverages are banned or limited in availability. If you want a cold, tasty drink that isn’t a soda, juice is what you are looking at.

How many vitamins do you pick up, at the Vitamin Palace? Lots of vitamin C, certainly.

The thing about juices, though, is that they do have a lot of calories. If you are a 25-year-old laborer, the calories won’t hurt you. But if you are a sedentary office worker, you may not want pints of fruit punch, day in and day out.

But all these shops have this in common: They get your attention. You will not walk past and not see them.