An article in ArabianBusiness.com today shared some information about Beirut City Center shopping mall which is located in Hazmieh and expected to open early in 2013.
The mall will house 200 stores including the first Carrefour hypermarket in Lebanon, in addition to 40 international restaurants, cinema theaters, and a family entertainment center. There’s no confirmation however whether IKEA will be opening there or not, and I really hope it does!
Pasta Di Casa has got to be one of the best restaurants I’ve been to over the past months, a true gem! Located at the end of Jounblat street in Clemenceau, the restaurant’s exterior doesn’t look pretty much appealing, but the inside is really nice, it has a quiet simple decoration with old family photos on the walls making it feel so cozy.
Upon receiving our order, a couple of appetizers and a main dish for each of us, were surprised by how generous their portions are, in fact 3 our of the 4 of us didn’t even finish their meals.
I personally had a half portion of lasagna and tasted a bit of one of their steaks (“coeur de filet” I think) and shrimp pasta, all of which were really really good.
A meal for two with soft drinks at Pasta Di Casa will probably cost you 50,000L.L or even less, and the place if definitely recommended.
“Worlds Alike” is a Lebanese new annual film festival that will be showcasing each year films from a country with a similar recent history to Lebanon. And in its first edition, 9 films from Ireland (listed below) will be showing at Emprire Sofil Cinema in Achrafiyeh.
Tickets will sell for 5,000L.L and you can check Metropolis’ website for more information.
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!
According to this article in The Daily Star today,the municipality of Beirut is planning to start constructing an underground parking (with a capacity of 2,000 cars) at the Martyrs square by the end of 2012, to “improve” the appearance of the downtown area. And a garden will later be created in the square once the project is done.
“Work will start before the end of this year. Once finished, the parking space will accommodate between 1,500 and 2,000 cars,” Hamad said, adding that a Build, Operate and Transfer contract would be signed by the company selected to carry out the project. Under the BOT contract, a company will build and operate the facility – earning revenue – before the municipality assumes ownership. Source
There’s no reference however to what’s going to happen to the current parking spaces around the Martyrs square, Solidere might be planning to build some new towers there?
The article also mentions a similar project in Ain El-Mrayseh where a parking space with a capacity of 680 cars is set to be built, in addition to a 7,000 square meters produce market between Tayyouneh and Shatila.
Photo via Stefania Facco
You probably have seen this at several places in Beirut “ليش حرش بيروت مسكر؟” (Why is Beirut park closed?) among other stencils as well, which appear to be part of a campaign to open Beirut park to the public.
You might be surprised, but I’m actually with keeping people away from this park until they really deserve it. I mean look at all the public spaces in Beirut, are we treating them good? The corniche at Ain El-Mrayseh for example looks like one big shisha cafe now! Young boys come in their 1990 BMW and Golf cars, turn up their radios to Ali El-Deek songs, set their shishas, and start dancing Dabke! Wala anawran min heik.
The possibilities are endless with what they may do to Horsh Beirut. Littering? BBQ parties on weekends? Ripping out the plants?
So until we learn how to treat our public spaces really good, keep Horsh Beirut closed please!
Good catch by @__marwan__! “Avenue des Français” is by the way what we now know as the Saint George area in Beirut.
And believe it or not, vibrators were believed to be of medical use to cure what was called “Female hysteria” in the past!
The sushi menu at O&C includes a Lebanese sushi that is made of Philadelphia cheese, avocado, crab, cucumber, and mango, all wrapped in Lebanese bread!
Does this qualify as sushi? It’s more like a sandwich cut into small chunks.
As per this article in The Daily Star today, minivan drivers decided to raise their fares from 1,000 to 1,500L.L yesterday.
“The drivers are no longer capable of keeping the fares at a low level. At LL1,000, they can barely make ends meet,” he said. “They [drivers] do not benefit from the [recent] wage increase decision but will suffer from the consequences of the measure in terms of increases in prices and rent.”
And although it is stated at the end of the article that service taxi and bus fares will remain unchanged at 2,000 and 1,000 L.L, I highly doubt they will. Even since 2006, we got used to one of the three (Taxis, buses, or minivans) increasing their fares with the other two following shortly after. Which means that we might soon start paying 2,500 or 3,000 L.L for a taxi ride.
Photo via Note Connection
Update:
Buses already increased their fares to 1,250L.L, and some taxi drivers started charging 3,000L.L as per some people on Twitter.
Here’s how Dbayeh’s Waterfront City should look like in a few years from now.
According to this article in The Daily Star, the project will be complete in 4 phases over a period of 15 years (too much??), with the first phase set to be complete with 7 buildings in 2 years from now.
I just wish this project and the alike outside Beirut would consider creating more office spaces to take some load off the suffocating areas in Beirut such as Hamra, Achrafiyeh, and downtown.