Tag Archives | achrafieh

The french onion soup at Duo

By Rami on December 28, 2012 in Reviews

French onion soup is one of the upsides of winter for me. Most restaurants here serve it in regular soup bowls along with croutons, while few other serve it in bread bowl after scooping out the inside of it, and one of these restaurants is Duo (Downtown, Verdun, ABC Ashrafieh, and ABC Dbayeh).

I recently had Duo’s onion soup and found it pretty good. It was thick enough to my taste with the right amount of cheese on top of it, and the portion is relatively big and completely fulfilling. Totally recommended even though it’s a bit overpriced at 15,500L.L but worth the money.

Duo by the way is also quite famous for their rich salad bar priced at 22,000L.L.

Discover Rmeil/Geitawi

By Rami on November 2, 2012 in Events

Rmeil will be a car-free area this Sunday November 4th and “Achrafieh 2020” is inviting everyone to discover it on foot, bicycle or roller/skateboard.

There will be several activities throughout that day including the following:

8.30 Running race
9.15 cycling race
10.30 Awards distribution
11.30 Open air zumba class
12.30 Open air yoga class – Bring your mat!
From 11am to 4.30pm Children activities in the Jesuits public garden
From 8:30am to 5pm: Artisans display
From 8:30am to 5pm: Garage sale
From 10am to 5pm: Souk el Tayeb eatery and artisans displays
From 1:00pm to 5:00pm: Bands playing live music on the stage next to Souk el Tayeb
From 9am to 5pm: Human space
From 8:30am to 5pm: Green zone in William Hawi’s public garden
From 8:30am to 4:00pm: Bicycles and Segway Rental
3:00pm Skateboard, Rollers
4:15 Hip Hop, Breakdance

And below a map showing the perimeter of the car-free area.

Raw footage of the second explosion at Achrafieh

By Rami on October 20, 2012 in Lebanon

Here’s a raw footage from OTV showing how the second explosion happened yesterday in Achrafieh following the first big one that killed Wissam Al-Hassan. I don’t it’s due to another bomb but rather to some kind car gas tank maybe…

Thank god the people who show in the video were not much closer to the fire.

Photos from the explosion in Achrafieh

By Rami on October 19, 2012 in Lebanon

Here are some photos of the aftermath of the explosion that erupted a while ago near Sassine square in Achrafieh. I’ll try adding more photos as I get them from my twitter timeline.

Update:

As you probably all know by now, the ISF intelligence chief Wissam Al-Hassan was killed in this explosion.

Update:

You can check the BBC website and reddit for more high resolution photos.

Will “Fetih 1453” be banned in Lebanon?

By Rami on September 28, 2012 in Lebanon

Seems like it’s now the Christians turn to get upset over a movie!

“Fetih 1453” is a new Turkish movie that started showing yesterday in Lebanon about the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans led by Sultan Mohammad II. And I’ve heard several times on the news that some people are finding it insulting because of how the Romans were shown in the movie.

With a budget exceeding 18 million dollars, “Fetih 1453” is a Turkish action film and one of the most important movies showing the conquest of Constantinople from the Turkish point of view.
However, the Byzantine Church in Lebanon seems not to agree with the Turkish analysis, and considers that the film insults Christian sanctities and symbols.

In the past few days, a number of activists on Facebook have been protesting against the reformulation of the history of Constantinople in the film “Fetih 1453”, which, according to them, contains false historical facts.

These activists will be holding a sit-in on Saturday September 29 at 4 pm at Sassine Square in protest of what they consider “an offense to the Christian civilization”. They will also protest outside the movie theaters that will be showing the film expected to be released on September 27. Source

The movie is showing at City Mall and Empire theaters by the way, and I just found it available online here on Vimeo.

The most beautiful days of my life | أجمل أيام حياتي at Metropolis Cinema

By Rami on June 12, 2012 in Events

Metropolis cinema is holding the first edition of a Lebanese retrospective dedicated to productions of Lebanese cinema of the years sixties and seventies, “The most beautiful days of my life”, which will be held from the 13th to the 22nd of june.

During these 10 days, a total of 11 films will be screened as per the following schedule

Wednesday 13 (OPENING)

8:00 PM Beirut Zero 11 by Antoine Rimi, 1967, بيروت صفر 11 لأنطوان ريمي | ’90 Tribute to Ihsan Sadek

Thursday 14

8:00 PM Interpol in Beirut by Constantin Costanov, 1966, 90′ | أنتروبول في بيروت لكوستانتين كوستانوف

Friday 15

7:00 PM Lebanon through Cinema by Hady Zaccak, 2003, 15′ | لبنان من خلال السينما لهادي زكاك

7:15 PM An Amateur by Habib Chams, 2011, 35′ | هاوي السينما لحبيب شمس

8:30 PM The Colossi by Hassib Chams, 1963, 105′ | الجبابرة لحسيب شمس

Saturday 16

7:00 PM Welcome, Love by Mohamed Salman, 1970, 85′ | أهلًا بالحب لمحمد سلمان

9:00 PM The Guitar of Love by Mohamed Salman, 1974, 120′ | غيتار الحب لمحمد سلمان

Sunday 17

8:00 PM A Bedouin in Paris by Mohamed Salman, 1966, 95′ | بدوية في باريس لمحمد سلمان

Monday 18

8:00 PM The Gang of Women by Farouq Ajrama, 1970, 101′ | عصابة النساء لفاروق عجرمة

Tuesday 19

8:00 PM The Bitter Honey by Rida Mouyassar, 1964, 90′ | العسل المر لرضا ميسر

Wednesday 20

8:00 PM The Black Jaguar by Mohamed Salman, 1965, 92′ | الجاكوار السوداء لمحمد سلمان

Thursday 21

8:00 PM The Melody of My Life by Henry Barakat, 1975, 110′ | نغم في حياتي لهنري بركات

Friday 22 (CLOSING)

8:00 PM The Most Beautiful Days of My Life by Henry Barakat, 1974, 111′ | أجمل أيام حياتي لهنري بركات

All films are in Arabic without subtitles, except “The Black Jaguar” and “An Amateur” with English subtitles, and “Lebanon through Cinema” and “the Colossi” with French subtitles.

Tickets will be selling for 5,000L.L and a festival pass is available for 40,000L.L. You can check Metropolis Cinema’s website or page on Facebook for more information about the event.

Sursock

By Rami on June 8, 2012 in Lebanon

“كان شارع ذو طابع تراثي / Etait une rue à caractère traditionnel” Spotted in Sursock near St. Nicolas stairs.

With all the new buildings popping in the area, whoever altered the sign definitely nailed it!

Gou: A good place for tea in Achrafieh

By Rami on January 7, 2011 in Reviews

Finding a good cup of coffee is an easy job in Beirut, but finding a good cup of tea where most places serve you a hot cup of water along with a Lipton tea bag is a totally different story!

A friend of mine introduced me a while ago to a place in Achrafieh called “Gou”, a Restaurant/Patisserie/Salon de Thé, or so says the sign at the entrance. Anyway the place has several menus for food an beverages, and totally separate one for tea only containing at least 30 different selections! Each with a brief description about the ingredients and it benefits, along with the recommended infusion time.

On my first time there I order “thé du Hammam”, a Turkish blend I guess, and on my second time I had a Russian selection called “Anastasia”. The former was my favorite, although the latter was not bad at all.

Any tea you select is priced at 8,000 L.L (almost double the price than any other place), but you’ll actually get served a hot pot of water, along with the tea to infuse, that will make you at least three good cups of tea guaranteed to make an hour of your afternoon. I know it worked for me! 😛

If you’d like to try it, Gou is located at Tabaris, Saint Nicolas street, right behind IBL bank.

New parking system at ABC Achrafieh

By Rami on December 26, 2010 in Lebanon

I went to watch TRON at ABC Achrafieh last night and was surprised to see that they have deployed a new system for their parking spaces, a system that I have been wishing for the Lebanese malls to have because of its effectiveness especially during peak times of the year.

Several boards are installed at the mall entrances to display the number of empty parking spots on each floor, and then above each spot there’s a small light to indicate whether the spot is free (Green) or occupied (Red), so you’ll directly know where to go depending on parking availability.

The system will definitely reduce the traffic problem at times where the parking gets really crowded (e.g. Saturday’s and Sunday’s). I hope the people at City Mall get jealous and install a similar one too!

I’m not sure though how will system reacts when someone occupies two parking spots, should it probably be configured to display an “Asshole” sign when it detects such thing..?

Update: According to Tarek & Mustapha, a similar system is already available at Beirut Souks.

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