Hanging Out
Cafes, bars, cool locations to wander about in
Where to Hang?
Cairo is huge, dusty, chaotic, and very, very polluted. It is also definitely one of the world’s greatest and buzziest cities. However, transfer times can be seriously long between the major localities of the city, and often you will just have to choose your hangouts by where you want to be for that particular day. (One to one and a half hours by car from Heliopolis to Zamalek, for instance, is common – in and out of the rush hour!) Fridays and Saturdays are better to move around, because all offices are closed Fridays, and some on Saturdays as well.
Heliopolis
Heliopolis is one of the oldest residential areas of Cairo (also known in Arabic as Masr El Gedida, or New Cairo). It takes its name from the Greek word Helios, or sun – so it sort of means Sun City (but not in the South African sense!) Korba (of Harris Café fame, above) is the oldest district of Heliopolis, and the whole locality was build by the Heliopolis Oasis Company, owned by Baron Empain, about 100 years ago. Korba is the site of the annual Heliopolis Festival, held in winter, and patronized by the President’s wife, among others!
Heliopolis - www.tripadvisor.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopolis_(Cairo_Suburb)
Formerly almost entirely residential apartments and mansions, it now has multi-story apartment buildings, offices, and lately, major shopping malls (City Stars, for one) and hotels (Intercontinental, and others). Indeed, the President himself lives in Heliopolis, in a very green, gated community on Maraghani Street.
Zamalek
A relatively affluent, Europeanised district of Cairo located on the island of Gezira. Great restaurants, cafés and easy to wander around in on foot, though crowded, and very polluted with car traffic especially around 26 July St because of the overpass. Look out for the “Fish Garden” (also known as Aquarium Park officially) – a small public open space – but mainly for its surrounding residential areas that really give a flavour of this part of Cairo.
Garden City
Redolent of pre-War Cairo, the graceful buildings on the edge of the Nile mostly now house many of the city’s embassies - (the Italians, the Brits and the Yanks are all there). As a result, car access is restricted and difficult in consequence due to security concerns. With its marvelous old trees, marble facades and the marble steps worn down in the middle with the passage of so many feet, Garden City is very special.
Garden City - www1.aucegypt.edu/.../housing/neighborhoods.html
Dokki
An upper-middle class residential area near Agouza, but which has a number of shanty towns around the edges of it. In the direction of Giza and Mohandesseen, and the locality of the (rebuilt) Cairo Opera House.
Cairo Opera House - www.hotelsbycity.net and www.tripadvisor.com
Mohandesseen
A relatively new residential area originally developed for engineering professionals but now open to anyone to live there (who can afford it! Cairo rents and real estate prices are high!) Now a middle class area with masses of restaurants, shops, etc, it is a buzzy locality.
Some of ChI’s favourite hangouts are….
• The Naguib Mahfooz café in the Khan el Khalili (corny, but a must-see)
• El Fashawy coffee shop in the Khan, for shisha, narghileh
• Harris Café in Korba, Heliopolis. Next to Thomas Cook on the corner of
Baghdad and Ramses Sts. tel 241 76796. Nina Simone on the sound system,
good Italian coffee, free netsurfing – but beware the “well-thumbed” menus!
• Shepherd’s Hotel bar, because of its history. Although run-down, it’s a
must-visit. Take a short felucca ride on the Nile from the banks of the river
across the road from the hotel. Magical at sundown with a few cold beers in
the bag!
• The old Greek Club, housed in an apartment downtown in the same building
as Groppi’s. Frequented by intellectuals, painters, writers, its drinks are
priced for impecunious pockets. Theoretically members only, but foreigners
will usually be allowed in. You will always come across someone you know
there. It’s simple, cross-generational, and cool retro shabby-chic in feel. On
Soliman Pasha Square.
• The current hot fave nightspot is the club in the Four Seasons, Giza,
where you will see glamourous Gulfies boogie-ing on down next to equally
glamourous Euro-types, and “bc-bg” (bon chic, bon genre) Egyptians, with a
sprinkling of moneyed “street” thrown in.
• There is also the golden oldie After Eight Club, which has been going strong
since the 60’s (the Annabelle’s of Cairo, in its day, for London ChI’s!). Good
live jazz nights and live fusion music, with reasonable prices. On Kasr El Nil
St.
• In Heliopolis, the Alfredo Coffee Shop which bizarrely offers “German coffee”
just before Sidra, on Shams el Din Zahawy St.
• Groppi’s on Adly Pasha street, downtown (whose chocolates so impressed
the late King Farouk that he sent the British (then) princesses Elizabeth and
Margaret 100kg of them!) Whilst it has sadly somewhat deteriorated since its
heyday, it is still a good meeting place if you are down town, and has both a
café and a take out patisserie.
www.egy.com/landmarks/96-06-15.shtml
Once known as the world’s ritziest tea room, and as a magnet for Egypt’s high society, branches of Groppi in the centre of Cairo still retain their original mystique although their interiors are somewhat faded. Cairo’s answer to London’s Fortnum and Mason’s, created by the Swiss patissier Giacomo Groppi, it was the much-loved haunt of the 50’s, known for its Petits Suisses (fromage frais) and marrons glaces. (For those of you who read ChI’s other sites, you will know that ChI has a thing about good marrons glaces! Fellow-addicts - check out Rome, and Beirut entries, for example….)