Tag Archives | downtown

Amarres shuts down at Zaitunay Bay

By on May 2, 2013 in Lebanon

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Back in 2012, several websites started posting about a possible closure of Zaitunay Bay closing down due to the slow economy and the low numbers of tourists visiting Lebanon. This however was denied by the people behind Zaitunay through twitter and the media.

Yet just today, Ziad Kamel, the co-founder of The Alleyway, confirmed on twitter that Amarres in Zaitounay Bay will be shutting down due to the instability the whole country is currently going through, which is eventually causing tourists and Lebanese expats to abstain from visiting the country, whereas Zaitunay heavily relies on them.

So while Zaitunay Bay might be staying, one this is for sure, which is that restaurants owners there are definitely struggling to make ends meet, except for Classic Burger Joint probably which always seems to be full! (khamseh bi 3youneh)

Anyway, back to Ziad Kamel, he claimed a second branch of Couqley will soon be opening in Dbayeh on May 15th, which is great news to all those who live north of Beirut. I’ve been once to Couqley in Gemmayze by the way and totally enjoyed their French menu.

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Riding Beirut

By on March 15, 2013 in Lebanon

It takes some balls to take your bicycle on a ride from the mountain road to Beirut! This guy seems really good at it passing by Arayya, Jamhour, Hazmiyyeh, Dahyeh, and then all the way to Hamra, Clemenceau, and Beirut Downtown.

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The french onion soup at Duo

By on December 28, 2012 in Reviews

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French onion soup is one of the upsides of winter for me. Most restaurants here serve it in regular soup bowls along with croutons, while few other serve it in bread bowl after scooping out the inside of it, and one of these restaurants is Duo (Downtown, Verdun, ABC Ashrafieh, and ABC Dbayeh).

I recently had Duo’s onion soup and found it pretty good. It was thick enough to my taste with the right amount of cheese on top of it, and the portion is relatively big and completely fulfilling. Totally recommended even though it’s a bit overpriced at 15,500L.L but worth the money.

Duo by the way is also quite famous for their rich salad bar priced at 22,000L.L.

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A proposal flashmob at Beirut Souks

By on December 14, 2012 in Lebanon

This video was made back in November but didn’t go viral probably because it didn’t have the best dance out there… still, the smile on the girl’s face was definitely priceless!

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Downtown’s famous street seller

By on February 24, 2012 in Lebanon

If you go around the Nejmeh Sqaure at night, there’s a high probability you will be frightened by a street seller yelling “BEIRUT!!!” from behind your back in an attempt to later sell you images of old Beirut. To my knowledge, this man, Saadallah Basha, is probably the only street seller in Downtown Beirut…

It was probably about time someone writes about him, and yesterday he made it to The Daily Star!

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Michelle & Noel Keserwany – 3al Jamal bi wasat Beirut

By on February 2, 2012 in Music

Michelle and Noel got well known last year with their song “Jagal el USEK”, and they just released a new video called “3al jamal bi wasat Beirut” a few days ago.

You can check Michelle and Noel Keserwany’s website here, it has more of their songs, but be careful from clicking on the “microwave” link!

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The ice skating rink at Beirut Souks

By on January 26, 2012 in Lebanon

I was at Beirut Souks last night and thought of passing by the new ice skating rink to check it out but was disappointed by how small it is. It’s like 20 x 20 meters and looked a bit crowded to me with like 20 people on it. Not to mention the overpriced tickets at 20,000 L.L.

The rink is lasting till the end of February, and opens from 12PM till midnight.

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Beirut parking meters – 3tineh khamsmiyyeh

By on December 19, 2011 in Funny

This has got to be the perfect stencil graffiti for parking meters in Beirut, especially the ones in downtown Beirut where you can’t park until very late at night.

Thank you Raissa

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Here’s to launching the 3G service in Lebanon!

By on September 20, 2011 in Lebanon

Last day I got a phone call from a gentleman in MTC Touch telling me that I will be granted the 3G service for a 1 month free trial period, and so right now I’m among the lucky people who got to participate in the pilot testing of this service in Lebanon. An yes I’m so excited about it!!

The service got activated at around 1PM today on my phone and didn’t require any special configuration to run. I randomly started loading websites and found the connection to be pretty fast compared to home ADSL and the crappy GPRS. Below are two tests done using speedtest.net after I shared the connection with my laptop.

As you can see, download is @ 1.7Mbps which is superb compared to the current internet speeds, while upload is varying between 0.11 and 0.22Mbps. Ping is of course higher that it is supposed to be, and I hope it’ll improve soon. Note that I was in Beirut central district at the time of this test, and I guess speed might vary depending on your location.

3G subscriptions will be available for both postpaid and prepaid lines, and data transfer will be limited to 4GB/month. It isn’t clear tough how much will the operators charge for it.

I’ll hopefully be posting more updates on the connection quality and speed throughout this trial period.

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Beirut city center to be demolished in the few coming days?

By on July 27, 2011 in Lebanon

I just saw this post on Facebook about the possibility of demolishing Beirut City Center (also known as “the egg”) over the next few coming days.

“The egg” was designed by Philippe Karam in 1965 and served as a cinema for a short time before the eruption of civil war in Beirut. For some reason it survived the demolition works during Beirut’s central district reconstruction in the 90′s and remained standing until some artists started using it in the last few years to exhibit their work inside it. And now, rumors has it that it will demolished very soon.

I’m not sure I’ll be sad to see it going, though if it were to me I would have renovated it instead, but I’m certain it will feel awkward to pass by the martyr’s square and not see the egg laying there at the end of the street.

Thank you @SeenKaf

Update:

Solidere denied any plans to demolish the egg anytime soon. They even claimed they’re against the demolition and that the dome will be integrated in the new design.

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