Hurghada - SubZero

Geraldine and Fiona in SubZero. Photo (c) Geraldine Thompson

One new thing (for me) that Geraldine and I did while she was over was to try out SubZero – the new bar totally made out of ice that has opened up by South Beach in Hurghada.

I’d read a bit about it online and I’d heard that your feet can get uncomfortably cold, so we took socks along with us. This turned out to be one of the wisest things I’ve done in a while (it doesn’t happen often!).

We arrived and were the only people there. I negotiated a discount for being a resident, showing them my Sahl Hasheesh resident’s card, and they let Geraldine have the discount too, so that was a good start.

They explained that the entrance fee included the price of a shot and one cocktail (at first I thought they were saying a shot and a Coke too!). Both drinks were alcoholic, so I’m not sure what happens to people who don’t drink alcohol. Anyway, for us this was fine!

We were then taken into the next room, where they handed out heavy capes with hoods and some gloves for you to put on. The staff was suitably impressed when we both whipped out our socks. Apparently, they plan to provide socks at some point and my guess would be that it would be quite a good merchandising trick as well. The capes and gloves weren’t really the sort of things you’d want to buy as they were very heavy duty!

They ushered us into the ice bar; there’s a time limit of 25 minutes. As you might expect, the bar isn’t huge, but there are a few ice sculptures to look at and ice benches covered with white fur for you to sit on.

To my surprise, the shots weren’t schnapps, but flavoured alcohol and you could choose your flavour. I can’t quite remember the options, but they were quite interesting – perhaps caramel, parma violet, and blackberry were among them.

Apparently, the guy at the bar downed his in one so Geraldine did the same. I was focusing too hard on trying to pick the glass up, which was made of ice. I don’t know how the other two managed to do it with one hand while wearing those huge gloves (I now see from the photo that maybe Geraldine didn’t wear hers!), but I had to use both hands to ensure a firm grip (I wasn’t going to lose my alcohol!). Consequently, I was lost for a while in my own little world and just took a sip of the stuff, only to look up and find that the other two were watching me with empty glasses and waiting.

The man serving us was very personable and told us that the ice was brought in from Dubai (isn’t that weird!) as it was a special ice that was transparent. The temperature was maintained at -5 degrees celcius. They’d had quite a bit of trade in the summer when temperatures outside were in the 40s and really it’s probably best to go when you can get the optimal contrast between heat and cold. We went in the evening in November, when temperatures had already cooled quite a bit outside (relatively, of course! For those of you in Europe or the USA, it was still fairly hot). 

It must have been a bit of a shock for the owners of SubZero when they opened only to find that almost immediately afterwards the government decided to increase electricity costs by something like 100% over five years, starting immediately. I did ask them about this but I can't remember their reply now, other than I think he gave me an example of an astronomical electricity bill!

We had our delicious cocktail next, picking from a list provided to us. As Geraldine pointed out, the cocktails were all premixed and in plastic containers behind the bar, presumably because it wouldn’t have been too easy for the barman to mix them in sub zero temperatures. It felt a bit strange not seeing them being mixed in front of you, but they were really good, so no complaints from me!

Maybe because we were the only two, and maybe because Geraldine drank quickly (ha, ha), we were even given an extra shot for free. The guy pointed out that although the drinks looked colored, they were actually transparent – they just took on whatever the current hue was of the alternating lamps shining through the ice bar counter.

It was hard to know how to pace yourself as we had no idea how much time was passing or how much time we had left. When we came out, there was a group of six people just putting on their cloaks, so I was pleased to see that they had a stream of business, as I would like to see the place thrive. We chatted with the new group for a while as they dressed and we returned our cloaks.

All in all, it’s a great place to go in Hurghada; I can’t praise the staff enough. And it’s just next to South Beach, which means you can stay on afterwards for a well-priced meal and even listen to the live band at 10pm and make a night of it.

I guess writing this blog in December doesn’t make the concept of an ice bar very tempting to those shivering in Europe or the USA just now, but over here, it’s all quite a novelty!