La Bodega: A True Classic in an Age of Cheap Knockoffs. By Hind Wassef, Diwan Bookstore Co-founder

This year La Bodega turns ten years old. My first instinct is to rush into ‘my bodega’ and crack something open to come to terms with the fact that, yes, I’m getting old. After the initial wave of panic, I start to contemplate, brood, and meander down memory lane.

At the same time as La Bodega was being created, I, along with my sister and three partners, were setting up a new business too: Diwan, was conceived of as a neighbourhood bookstore, and like La Bodega, it sought to reinvent the consumer experience that had, up till then, prevailed in Cairo. It combined an unprecedented variety of books and other products with unique surroundings, and even a little coffee shop!

For me, that early time was one of entrepreneurial innocence full of youthful vivacity, optimism, and the big C: creativity. Allow me to relive the excitement of that moment (yes, with unashamed nostalgia): no task was too daunting, no concept too novel, everything deserved a chance and before you asked the question, the answer was, “yes we can.”

Hind Wassef, Co-founder - Diwan Bookstore

(photo courtesy of Enigma Magazine)

The market was full of infinite possibilities. There was a hunger for new concepts, places to experience—they inspired me; I fueled them with praise. La Bodega filled a void and Cairenes embraced it with undisguised delight. It was experimental, unabashedly toying with its identity and above all it had unmistakable character. It hosted art exhibitions, commissioned artists to do installations and murals used in its interior, had its own CD, “La Bodega Lounge,” and even welcomed Ilham al-Madfa’I, Iraqi singer and guitar player who revives old Arabic love songs with a twist of Spanish guitar. It repainted the façade of its host building, the Baehler Mansions, thus redefining the profile of the entrepreneur as socially responsible. In short it pioneered in everything it did.

The inspiration was contagious. Today, Cairo has become crowded and not just with traffic. Lounges, bars, cafés, restaurants, brands, chains. Have we reached saturation point? Are we unknowingly afflicted with retail fatigue?

It takes a lot to please us now. It also takes a lot more money to build anything. If the number of zeros in your plan is less than 7, you know that your listener is tapping his feet to Shania Twain’s “that don’t impress me much.” Consequently there is more to lose. The game has become more serious but less fun.
In the midst of all this La Bodega continues to shine. The blood and sweat of its creators still runs through its veins infusing it with creativity and individualism. Only ten years old, it is already drenched in history and has a memory for each one of us. It is a true classic in an age of cheap knock offs.

Hind Wassef
Co-founder, Diwan Bookstore
www.diwanegypt.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Diwan-Bookstore/105024246196742?ref=ts

Ordinary Girl to Extraordinary Woman! By Amy Mowafi, Writer

It’s the whimsy and charm of colonial fantasy - the bird-cage ascenseur, the syrupy sensuality of its wood-panelled bar, the soaring Zamalek ceilings - secret havens for the shadows of the past. Like a soft-focus sepia-toned photograph made reality. It’s a corner table, wine and whispered conversation. Those are the evenings when I love La Bodega most. When – unlike the multitude of other Cairene haute spots that jostle for attention in an increasingly Westernised landscape – La Bodega is serene and stoic and has little desire to impress. Those muggy Cairo nights when it feels like the setting for an epic and exotic romantic saga set against the backdrop of some war laced with dazzlingly dangerous liaisons; as if one had sashayed in straight after drinks on the terrace of The Shepheard. An old-soul in a young establishment.

And yet there have also been nights, when I have perched on a battered-leather bar stool and watched with amusement as La Bodega has nonchalantly bent to the will of the achingly hip; speaking easily to a clientele for whom cool is the lingua franca. It sizzles and sparkles, and does what a cosmopolitan hot spot is supposed to do. But it does so with a sense – one senses – of irony. As if humouring these gorgeous young things that flitter and flirt through its sumptuous spaces, all the while keeping a protective watch over the city’s languid literati, with their talk of art and books and culture and Cairo; the powerful men in loosened ties brokering big deals amongst the pretty things; the wide-eyed foreigners with their fantasies of La Belle Époque. All loyal, all loving La Bodega with none of the flighty fickleness for which the Cairo crowds are so renowned.

Amy Mowafi

I came to Cairo nearly 10 years ago with exotic dreams of love and adventure bred of literature and grainy black and white movies and an over-active imagination. And La Bodega – fatefully located in the Baehler building right by my office – indulged me. It set the scene for those early trysts with men who spoke of things I didn’t understand. Because those worldly smooth operators your mother warned you about always invited you to dinner at La Bodega. And for a few hours, that space seemed to have the power to transform an ordinary girl into an extraordinary woman.

Later on, La Bodega’s cool rooms would envelope and inspire me on those hot summer weekend afternoons when the city had emptied out. I’d sit alone in the alcove, lean against that beautiful bay window, notebook in hand and work on the column that would one day unwittingly turn into a best-selling book.

And as I grew confident of my place in this city, learning to negotiate its harsher realities with my youthful daydreams, La Bodega played host to my after-hours adventures with the friends and acquaintances I had somehow amassed. Smart, fun, daring and flirtatious, a motley crew of characters for whom La Bodega was the only place to share a laughter-fuelled nightcap.

Finally, on the eve of La Bodega’s 10th year anniversary, and my own nearly-decade in the city, La Bodega would gather all my girlfriends, some from Cairo, and many having flown in especially for the occasion. They would pile onto the sprawling sofa at the back of the lush private lounge and they would toast my upcoming marriage; my last days as a single woman in the city that had transformed me. And - though they may not have realised it - they would so in the very space that had allowed me to realise my ultimate fantasy… to become a woman of Cairo.

So here’s to 10 years of love, adventure and La Bodega…

Amy Mowafi
Writer & Managing Editor for Enigma Magazine

http://amymowafi.com/

http://www.enigma-mag.com/

How it all began! By Dagher Al Sakr, La Bodega Co-founder

Terra-Nullius, Pommes de Terre or The Saucy Sue. These were the three names I recommended for our new restaurant and bar. The first was very close to my heart. The second close to my stomach. The third a homage to Suzanne who was the perhaps the heart of the operation. Maher of course being the brain, and driving force. Whereas I was very much the joker in the pack.

All three names were laughed down. And I am not sure who came up with ‘La Bodega’ but it was the path of least resistance. The one name that none of us really hated. So Bodega it was. I guess it worked. It became our little bodega. We were there every night, eating and drinking, along with were our friends and families. I guess this is why La Bodega has survived for 10 years. It quickly became, as someone recently said: “the clubhouse to Cairo’s compound.” Making money was our target. But to be perfectly honest I doubt we made any the first 2 or 3 years. But we had fun. Me at the DJing decks and Sue behind the bar.

La Bodega was also a spectacular departure from what existed before it. A dreary looking Asian-food restaurant, and around the corner was small darkish bar called the 'German Corner'. A lively establishment where working-class expatriates arrived alone and left with one of the many Ethiopian women who frequented the bar nightly. The pair to be whisked efficiently by the long queue of taxis waiting downstairs.

La Bodega Co-founders: L-R Maher, Suzanne & Dagher, La Bodega's 10th anniversary party, 2010

La Bodega Co-founders: L-R Maher, Suzanne & Dagher, 1998

For 18 months we ripped the place apart, then rebuilt and redecorated. Then re-ripping and rebuilding again. It was an endless and tedious process. Sprinkled with a few odd fun ‘meetings’ like the one where we were meant to trial the new range of home-made flavoured-Vodkas (courtesy of Tommy, our Italian barman) and interview some Swedish girls who were seeking jobs waiting tables. You get the picture.

Opening night was fun. Or so I heard. For I actually missed it. Was out of the country and got a phone call saying ‘sorry but we are opening tonight’.

A few days later and as I walking in for the first time post opening, I was stopped at the door by the new manager. She had been hired the day of the opening, after the previous one proved a complete failure. Do I have a reservation, I was asked. Hmmm... “No.. I’m your employer” seemed a bit too smug so I had to resort to the indignation of saying “I’m a close friend of Maher and Sue... please let me in... please.” Danielle, this new manager, whom I secretly called ‘The Whip’ has been letting me in ever since... without reservations. For that I thank her. I also thank her for being as good a reason as any for nurturing La Bodega into what it is today.

And finally, to the one person who was there every night during those first few weeks and was most certain and vocal in giving us “six months max” before we would fail and close down...

...Well, here’s to another six months. Cheers!

Dagher Al Sakr

La Bodega Co-founder

Welcome to the new La Bodega blog!

Ten years ago, a group of us got together to create a new restaurant concept in Cairo. Between us, we shared a passion for great food and a clear vision of where we’d love to dine: we wanted to hang out at a ‘neighborhood’ restaurant where people of all ages could enjoy a delicious meal, or a drink, in surroundings that were beautiful yet friendly and undemanding. And when we couldn’t find this venue on the Cairo dining scene, we decided to create it ourselves.

So, in 2000, we set about establishing La Bodega: an elegant contemporary dining spot that wasn’t hidden away inside a five star hotel; a comfortable, easy venue that wasn’t part of a chain and didn’t serve fast food. At the time, we didn’t know if this new concept would appeal to anyone outside of our little crowd of friends. But, a decade on, and the story of La Bodega has taken on a life of its own, far surpassing any expectations we might have had back then.

Today, the La Bodega group includes two of Cairo’s best-known contemporary restaurants: The Bistro serves Mediterranean cuisine and Aperitivo offers a range of traditional Italian dishes. La Bodega is also home to some of Cairo’s best loved bars: these include Egypt’s first ever Milanese-style Aperitivo bar and The Lounge which, when it first opened, was the country’s very first lounge bar. Each of these venues is unique. But, together, they celebrate great food and the culture of dining in a way that is original, fresh and relevant to Cairo.

People often ask us about the secret to our success. Well, at La Bodega we pride ourselves on a very special secret ingredient: our community. Unlike many of our peers in Cairo, La Bodega enjoys a large and ever growing network of regulars. They have supported La Bodega over the years and they make our venue what it is today.

That is why we decided to launch this blog: it is for the La Bodega community and about it, and as far as we can tell, it’s the first restaurant blog of its kind in Egypt. We’re dedicating it to stories from our regulars and have invited many of you to contribute ‘guest posts’ on what La Bodega has meant to you over the years. During the next few months, writers, artists, photographers, business people, students and many others will be sharing with us their accounts of how La Bodega has featured in their lives.

We’ll also be using this blog to tell you about the things that we love: our favorite ingredients, the art that we admire, the amazing people and places that inspire us, every day, to continue doing what we do.

We hope you will share with us the things that inspire you too - because, like our restaurants, this blog won’t amount to much without your participation. So please share your thoughts and your content and help us take the unique La Bodega experience online.

Thank you!!!!

The La Bodega owners