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Cafe Riche
by Juergen Stryjak
 It is a story
like many stories in Egypt – a never ending one. A story like
the water of the Nile, flowing down the river continuously,
constantly, slowly.
More than seven years ago, my best Egyptian friend Saad and I
used to go regularly to a little coffeehouse in downtown Cairo. It
was the street café Sahret Soliman near the Talaat Harb Square.
To reach this coffeehouse we had to travel through a little
passage next to the famous Café Riche.
During this time, the Café Riche was closed because of
renovation. It had been closed since the end of the late 80’s,
and whenever we passed it, my friend would comment that there is a
rumor abroad, that the Café Riche would re-open soon, very
soon. He told me this rumor in 1994, 1995, 1996, and in fact
whenever we had a look inside, we saw the renovation near
completion or so we thought. We not only believed it, we were
sure, that the new era of the Café Riche will start soon. Then,
some years later, I can’t remember when, and moreover, I don’t
know why, my friend quit promising me the grand re-inauguration of
the Café Riche. Maybe he simply became annoyed at seeing the
tables covered with clean and nice table clothes, as if a
new set of guests would turn the corner at any moment to sit down,
have a Stella beer and begin joking and laughing together.
But nothing happened. The Café Riche remained closed in 1997 and
1998, too.
The Cafe' Riche was once famous as an intellectual hotspot in
Cairo. It is probably one of the only two cafés in town which not
only witnessed history, no, it actually wrote history, too. The
other one is the Al-Fishawi teahouse in the heart of the Khan Al-Khalili.
The Café Riche saw revolutionaries, artists, famous singers and
actors, poets and painters, politicians and important businessmen.
The famous Arabian diva Umm Kulthoum appeared on stage three
nights in 1923 and the Nobel-prize winning author Naguib Mahfouz
held his famous Friday literature gatherings here beginning in
1963.
When I returned to Cairo in August 1999, the first thing which
captured my attention was a headline in a local newspaper: Café
Riche will reopen in September. I told this to my friend Saad, but
he seemed to have lost interest, moreover, I had the feeling
he would prefer to see the Café Riche remain a legend, an
unchanged and successful one, a legend forever without being
questioned by reality.
Don‘t worry, the new one is like the old one, 100 percent,
every millimeter, at least in decoration, furniture, food – and
even a former waiter works here again, Ahmed, who has served
Naguib Mahfuz, shown in a photograph published in a
newspaper from the year 1943. The owner, for example, was
searching for more than three years all over Egypt for chairs
which are exact replicas of the original chairs. The café is
separated into an outer cafeteria, a restaurant and a cellar bar
downstairs. The food, both continental and Arabic, is very good,
prepared by using authentic Café Riche recipes. You can get
salads for 4 LE, little meals for around 8 LE and main dishes for
between 16 and 24 LE. The waiter, dressed in a wonderful blue
baladi-style Galabiyya, will bring you beer for 8 LE, Egyptian
wine for 50 LE per bottle and whiskey for 10 LE, as well as fresh
juices (4 LE), cappucchino (5 LE) and the mineral water for 3 LE.
It is not so easy to find a nice place with atmosphere for
having breakfast in Cairo, if you want to leave the hotel, but are
not in the mood for Fuul and T’ameyya. The Café Riche is one!
Only the cellar bar is unopened yet, although everything seems to
be completely ready and prepared for a buzzing crowd of barflies.
But don‘t hurry, we can wait another ten years. The wait seems
to be worthwhile!
Café Riche. 17, Talaat Harb Street, just off Talaat Harb
Square, Downtown, Cairo. Telephone: 3929793. Daily 9:30 am– 1:30
am
La Casetta
by Mariam Salama
La Casetta has been an old favorite with me for a long time,
and immediately you can see why: service is prompt, the
atmosphere relaxing and intimate, and the Italian specialties
are mouth-watering. Their garlic bread is the best I’ve had
in Egypt.
Our dinner was a delicious penne pasta with a pink
sauce for LE 19.95 and a vegetable penne pasta for LE 14.95. I
could not resist the pizza so I took a magnum pizza at LE
18.95 and a Caesar salad for LE
6.95 which was topped with wonderfully tasty chicken pieces. I
also had my favorite chicken cream soup for LE 6.95 and
I completed the dinner with the Garlic Cheese LE 5.45.
I love La Casetta’s romantic glow, with the lights
directly above your table, casting a pleasing light on your
companion’s countenance and surely inspiring some pleasant
flirtations, while waiting for the arrival of the food.
La Casetta is very busy on Thursday and Friday nights, when
the young & trendy crowd of guys, girls and couples going
out after college or school arrive. The restaurant is open
from 1 PM to 1 AM but closed
on Mondays.
Well, all went nicely until my husband got the bill. I had
to cool the tension quickly with “the food was delicious and
service was friendly
and quick” speech. However, when we paid the check,
they gave us 2
coupons worth 20 LE to come again and dine in La Casetta’s
intimate, glowing atmosphere.
La Casetta addresses:
Heliopolis
32 Abdel Aziz Fahmy St
2401555 / 2494530
Another Heliopolis branch
139 El Marghani St.
11 Road 18
3507279 / 3519076
Mohandiseen
32 Kambiz St.
3487970 / 3602488
Nasr city
13 Ismail El Kabani St.
2618151 / 2612373
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