Gulf cities are often described as a landscape of “enclaves”, characterized by the discontinuous character of urban development and the forms of spatial and social segregation it brought about (Dresch, 2006; Gardner 2010; Ménoret, 2014). Most works focus on the production of residential enclaves, from labor camps to gated communities, showing how they reflect divisions of the urban population along the lines of nationality, ethnicity, gender and social class. In comparison, little attention has been given to the way urban policies also mobilize moral and religious norms as a principle of spatial organization. Through a case-study of alcohol sale and consumption in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this paper explores how certain places of leisure and consumption are segregated on the basis of such norms. I contend that this form of segregation paradoxically allows the appropriation of these leisure spaces by diverse categories of residents, beyond their intended users – thus turning them in practice into cosmopolitan spaces. In the UAE, alcohol sale is restricted to specific spaces, namely license-holding hotels, restaurants, and a few retail shops. Alcohol consumption is also reserved to certain categories of the population, defined in religious and national terms. Only non-Muslims can obtain a liquor license to legally buy and drink alcohol – with citizens of officially Muslim states having to demonstrate their affiliation to another religion. In addition, bars and pubs must publicly display a set of rules that includes prohibiting the wearing of the national dress on their premises – as well as headscarves. At the same time, in a country where foreign residents represent more than 80% of the population, a great diversity of social norms regarding alcohol consumption coexists in cities like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and alcohol is a lucrative business. Based on an ethnography of the Arab youths of Abu Dhabi, and on interviews conducted with bars and hotel managers, this paper explores how the territories of alcohol draw a moral geography of the Emirati capital which is both overlapping with and challenging other forms of segregation. In parallel, I show how the very existence of these distinct territories, alongside with the diversity of Abu Dhabi’s urban society, favor the transgression of moral norms relative to alcohol consumption. Appropriating the spaces of “others” in the city can thus become a way, for young adults, to bypass dominant norms and experiment with other lifestyles while evading social sanctions.