Tag Archives | hamra

Unknown lady blocks Hamra street!

By Rami on January 23, 2013 in Lebanon

According to this Facebook page, some unknown lady driving a black BMW with tinted windows in Hamra today afternoon, refused to stop for the police who apparently wanted to check the tint license, and decided to block the whole street when he insisted!

No matter how important this lady is, it would be a real shame if the ISF let her get away with what she did. She cannot cause people to get stuck in a traffic jam for no reason except that she thinks she’s above the law, especially in a business center area like Hamra. I hope no one was being rushed to a nearby hospital and ended up getting stuck there!

Thanks to @ghazayel

Hotdog & Beyond

By Rami on January 15, 2013 in Reviews

Earlier last week I was invited to the opening of Hotdog & Beyond‘s new branch in Hamra. For those of you who don’t know about it yet, Hotdog & Beyond is a new restaurant that opened back in August 2012 at Le Mall Dbayeh, obviously specialized in serving frankfurters as well as burgers. They opened second branch in Hamra just last week, and I was informed a third branch is set to open in Zalka sometime soon.

When I first heard about it, I personally thought Hotdog & Beyond’s items will be close to what we’re used to eat at places like Charlie’s or Freddy’s, but I was wrong, Hotdog & Beyond offers a totally different taste and experience.

The restaurant interior is catchy and makes you feel like you’re walking into one of New York’s small restaurants. Seats are comfy, and there’s enough space between the tables. And what grabs your attention at first is probably the complimentary bucket of peanuts offered to you before making your order.

Hotdog & Beyond’s menu has around 20 selections of frankfurters ranging between 9,750L.L and 16,000L.L, along with 10 selections of burgers starting 13,000L.L and up to 18,750L.L. The owners were generous enough and served us an item from each category including the appetizers and desserts!

The appetizers are mainly platters of fries with different topping on them. We tried the Four Cheese Fries and Con Carne Fries, I personally preferred the latter which has spicy minced meat (tastes a bit like Soujouk) with cheddar cheese on top.

For the hotdog, I decided to try their signature sandwich, the HD&B, wich is made of fried hotdog, red pepper, mushrooms, onions, 4cheese & pesto mayo sauce. To my surprise, the hotdog was cut into pieces, unlike the other varieties that had the hotdog in one piece. Anyway, the sandwich tasted really good and seriously different than any other frankfurter I had elsewhere. Every bite I had was full of taste, and the bread was just perfect, fresh and soft.

As for the burger, I tried what I usually order at other places, the Swiss Mushroom Burger, which was mouthwatering and great as well! It can easily make Hotdog & Beyond one of the restaurant you will be considering when you want to have a good burger.

Finally, and although I was full, the owners still insisted that I try 2 selections of their desserts, the strawberry cheescake, and a waffle with chocolate sauce, Nestle condensed milk, and scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Both tasted good too, but I personally would have preffered the soft waffle to be crispier on the outside.

My overall experience was great, and I’m not saying that just because I got invited, but because Hotdog & Beyond are really bringing something new to town, and therefore it is totally recommended. Moreover, if they succeed at maintaining their good taste and service, I believe they will be serious competitors to big names in the market, especially that their prices are quite affordable when compared to other diners in Beirut.

Make easy money

By Rami on December 21, 2012 in Lebanon

Le Gustav 2

Here’s a quick tip to make easy money. Get some of the delicious treats from Le Gustav, preferably their heavenly good cake balls, start selling them for more than double the original price at your shop and enjoy the profit!

Shu we2fit 3leik? Second Cup Hamra is doing the exact same thing and getting away with it! Check more about this scam here on Beirutista.

Have you seen Rex?

By Rami on October 15, 2012 in Funny

Spotted in Hamra.

Massive graffiti in Hamra street

By Rami on September 10, 2012 in Lebanon

A Chilean artist called “INTI” who’s a member of “White Wall” drew this awesomely massive graffiti on a building in Hamra street!

WHITE WALL, organized at Beirut Art Center in association with Fondation Saradar and a team of three curators, is an exhibition in which one of the main objectives is to give new impetus to the Lebanese graffiti scene. Fourteen international artists, from Europe, North America, South America, together with artists from Egypt and Tunisia, with diverse visions an

d street art practices, have been invited to share their passion and expertise. Beirut Art Center will host an exhibition, while the show will also spread over the streets of Beirut, creating a dynamic interaction between the exhibition’s venue and the city.Nineteen Lebanon-based artists- the figureheads of the Lebanese street art and graffiti scene- will participate in the various WHITE WALL activities and outdoor interventions throughout Beirut.

Since the Civil War, public space in Lebanon had been occupied by inscriptions and stencils related to war and sectarian politics. Western-style graffiti appeared infrequently as of the mid-1990s. It was not until 2005 that a new scene emerged, taking on the task to create a uniquely Lebanese style of this art
form. This scene is now burgeoning and the streets of Beirut have witnessed the birth of new artists mixing caustic stencils, western influences and Arabic graffiti. These interventions contrasted with public expectations, since they promoted unity over division and maintained a humorous and often critical look at Lebanese society.

One of the key issues raised by this event is to understand how it is possible to bring an inherently outdoor and accessible art to an indoor space like Beirut Art Center, without betraying the idiosyncrasy of this art. While the first graffiti exhibition was already held in 1976 in New York City, this remains a challenge until today. The title, WHITE WALL, confronts the white walls of the galleries with
the streets of the city, a challenging prospect for a street artist.

For more about While Wall, you can check their website here.

Car crashes into Wardieh pharmacy in Hamra

By Rami on August 7, 2012 in What the fuck!

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 🙂

Picadilly Theater – Hamra

By Rami on July 17, 2012 in Lebanon

Make sure to check these cool recent photos Al-Akhbar has published from inside the Picadilly theater in Hamra. This theater is most famous for hosting several performances by Fayrouz and Ziad El-Rahbani, but a fire unfortunately broke out in it back in the 90s and has been inactive ever since.

In an ideal world, someone would take the initiative to renovate the Picadilly and Zaid El-Rahbani would come back to it for a new performance! (One can always dream..)

Real life Pac-Man in Hamra

By Rami on May 24, 2012 in Lebanon

Pretty cool!

The classic 80’s arcade game Pac-Man found its way to the streets of Hamra. The project was the senior graphic design project of AUST arts and design department student Ahmad Makary as he took an innovative approach to better understanding urban navigation and enhancing the cognitive mapping and urban knowledge of individual travelers.

The project consisted of 10 players, 5 dressed as Pac-Man and Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde – the 4 ghosts. The 5 other players, known as path-markers, are there to mark the trail of their Player as he or she runs through the streets. As Pac-Man moves from intersection to intersection, his position is being tracked, his points calculated and updated.

According to Mac, the creator of the project: “The goal is to give people the opportunity to make the city theirs by transforming it into a huge playground and harnessing the knowledge of its spatial elements. The choice was to focus on the social aspect of the game rather than the technological aspect: there is no use of any technological aid (GPS, Chats, Cell phones) each player has a partner running along his side, this allows more team play and an enhanced experience.” Source

Flash mob commemorating the Lebanese civil war

By Rami on April 14, 2012 in Lebanon

An NGO called CitiAct conducted this flash mob at Hamra street on the commemoration day of the Lebanese civil war yesterday.

A couple of drivers pretended they’re fighting in the middle of the road when people around them suddenly started dropping dead, which pretty much resembles to the situation during the days of the civil war when innocent people were dying for the warlords who are now ruling the country.

Tenzekir w ma ten3ad… nshalla!

Pasta Di Casa Clemenceau

By Rami on March 1, 2012 in Reviews

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.

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