Tag Archives | indoor

Update: De Prague to remain open for at least a couple more months

de prague hamra

Looks like tonight will not witness De Prague’s closure as the owner Raed Habib decided to give the place another shot over the next couple of months following a demonstration that was organized by around 70 of his loyal customers near his house. You can read all about it here.

I never knew the bar meant a lot to so many people. The whole thing makes you wonder if it was a publicity stunt since it got 3 articles on The Daily Star website in a couple of days, and they were overwhelmed with customers today who wanted to say goodbye to the place!

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De Prague Hamra closing today

de prague hamra

As per this article in The Daily Star yesterday, De Prague will be closing its doors today after 8 years of operating in Hamra.

The reasons of the closure as stated by the bar’s general manager Pascale Azzi are the declining number of customers as well as the smoking ban that was introduced in September last year. Moreover, in a second article published today, the owner Raed Habib added that the bar will also be closing due to the general change of atmosphere in Hamra in addition to the increasing violence incidents in the neighborhood.

These reasons didn’t really make sense to me because the economic recession and the smoking ban are affecting all the shops in Hamra, yet many places like February 30 and Main Street for example are doing pretty well and always seem to be full at night.

What I guess De Prague should have done to stand out from the competition is possibly taking advantage of the relatively large space they have to setup a small stage and host music bands to get more people to come.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure soon enough some investors will be renting the place and starting a new bar to replace De Prague.

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Enab restaurant employees break into IndyACT offices

If you think restaurants that are being criticized for breaking law 174 (smoking ban) in Lebanon might be feeling a bit ashamed of what they’re doing, then you’re definitely wrong, those restaurants are actually getting ruder by the moment!

One of these restaurant is Enab in Gemmayze, who has basically never respected law 174 and always allowed its customer to smoke indoor. In response to that, IndyACT decided to use their office, which is located right next to Enab, in order to put up a huge banner calling the restaurant to abide by the law, and next thing they knew was Enab’s employees breaking into their offices to take down the banner!

Fortunately, IndyACT later got an official permit from the municipality of Beirut to put the poster up again. But I wonder what difference will it make when these restaurants already feel like they have so much power to actually break the law and get away with it while their customers are happy! It’s maybe up to the few of us to boycott them for what they’re doing.

via A Separate State of Mind

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Car crashes into Wardieh pharmacy in Hamra

That pharmacist must be so lucky!

 

This was shot off the monitor of the security cameras of Al-Wardieh Pharmacy in Beirut Lebanon on 12 July 2011.

After midnight, while my buddy mahmoud K. (pharmacist) was walking out the door of the pharmacy, this car slid off the main road after getting into an accident and then hit the pharmacy’s main entrance and display, barely missing Mahmoud(you can see him jump away once he sees the car coming straight to him).. Nice reflex buddy 🙂

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No more indoor smoking in Lebanon

I wonder what will happen now to all these places that are mainly popular for their shisha, like Sanyour for example, when the law is put into effect.

But then again, this law might end up just like any other law that never gets implemented as it should, or probably gets implemented for a short period of time before the police starts to ignore violators. Let’s wait and see.

Source

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