We’ve been hearing for quite some time about a community of pubs and restaurants opening in Dbayyeh and it looks like it’s finally happening. The Village Dbayyeh is opening next week and will include more than 15 pubs and restos which are: Crepaway, Divvy, Nasma, Bodo, BistroBar, Toto, Lina’s, 190, Barcelona, EscoBar, Faze II, Rural, The Bar, The Mayor, The Oak Cocktail Bar and Trumpet.
The venue looks really nice with stone houses, fountains, outdoor public spaces and greenery and I like the variety of places opening there. The Village is ideal for families as there’s plenty of space for kids to play around and for individuals who just want to go out and have a drink in the bar/pub zone.
There’s one thing that I’m not comfortable with though, the amount of traffic that this venue will cause and the lack of parking spaces. The people behind The Village are saying there are two parking lots nearby and there’s of course a Valet Parking service but we all know that things always go wrong when there’s Valet Parking.
The official opening is on November 12 so I will hopefully have more info by next week. If you wish to read more about the Village, click [here].
while i think the idea might be interesting, to some extent, i fail to see how the restaurant/pub chains that we see everywhere in lebanon would have an added value to the experience of this “village”.
Crepaway? Nama? Bodo? BistroBar? Toto? Lina’s? Escobar? really?!
in my opinion, the food and beverage sector in lebanon is becoming extremely boring. it is like they found one working formula that everyone decided to safely stick to.
barely any ethnic food, no exotic ones, no real fusion cuisine. no new experiences.
and to make things worse, as you pointed out Najib, the valet parking service… which basically destroys the neighborhood (eg: gemmayzeh, mar mikhael, downtown beirut), add traffic jam and frustration to an already too crowded and tight street, and gives you an insight about the clientele targeted by this project.
what happened to daring, new experiences?
Marc,
I think what we really need in Lebanon is a huge green open area with small food kiosks. Small tables and BBQs and that’s about it.
I agree, we need something very down to earth..a big public garden with some kiosks where we can have a sandwich for 5000LL and a beer for 3000LL
enough with fake / modern concepts and overpriced restaurants and pubs
the food and beverage sector has become so expensive in Lebanon, all my friends from Europe are shocked with the prices we pay over here!
Paris, Rome, Madrid, Athens,,, you can have an amazing dish in an authentic restaurant for around 15 euros,,same amount you pay to have a BURGER in roadster or crepaway and lets mention the quality of the food in Europe
Supply and Demand!
If you Lebanese stop being so pretentious and stop thinking that going to a restaurant is the only experience in life; those places will not open. Rather you’d have cozy, real and authentic places with intrinsic value.