A lively district and a flashy clientele. (Credit: Nada Ghosn/L'Orient-Le Jour)
A Saturday evening in December in Downtown Beirut. The ballet of luxury cars crowds the road without respite, as the end of the year celebrations approach. On the terraces of the posh cafes-restaurants, which have opened one after the other over the last few years, a glittering clientele swarms, dressed in the latest collections of the high-end international brands, retail outlets of which are well-established in the neighborhood.Unlike the traditional alleys of the upper part of the city center a few dozen meters away, which have been abandoned for years, and even more so following the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion at the port, the “golden square” of Beirut, i.e. the entire northern part bordering the waterfront, has been rapidly renovated. This is because in the highrise residences built in recent decades, reside the elite of the country:...
A Saturday evening in December in Downtown Beirut. The ballet of luxury cars crowds the road without respite, as the end of the year celebrations approach. On the terraces of the posh cafes-restaurants, which have opened one after the other over the last few years, a glittering clientele swarms, dressed in the latest collections of the high-end international brands, retail outlets of which are well-established in the neighborhood.Unlike the traditional alleys of the upper part of the city center a few dozen meters away, which have been abandoned for years, and even more so following the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion at the port, the “golden square” of Beirut, i.e. the entire northern part bordering the waterfront, has been rapidly renovated. This is because in the highrise residences built in recent decades, reside the elite of the...