I Love Lebanon: Gemmayzeh

How do they fit so much fun on one street? And how, even when you’ve visited the quarter a dozen times, weekend on weekend, can you always manage to find something new, some hidden treasure that you’d overlooked? There’s always a surprise to be unearthed in Gemayze, where, despite recent tensions between residents and business owners, hundreds flock every night to wine, dine and drink in the streets ample and eclectic tableau of nightlife.

The street is a reveler’s menagerie, a midnight corridor of light and music swimming with beautiful people cutting loose and stretching their wings. Few districts in Beirut can compete with Gemayze’s popularity, which continues to grow, as evidenced by seemingly weekly appearance of a new bar, restaurant or club on this already jam-packed avenue.

From end to end, Gemayze is replete with some of the city’s best bars, clubs and restaurants, and its expanding – upward, outward and onward. A few highlights include the delectable Omi sushi restaurant, jazz classy Bar 9 and Mystique.

On any given night of the week you can see the parade unfold, cars bumper to bumper as if forming a congo line while svelte women in precipitous heels and plunging necklines cut across streets and sidewalks. The dining starts late, the drinking later, and you’ll be lucky to find a club or a dance parlor open before one or two – but hey, this is Lebanon.