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

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