El Andalous - Bar by the Bridge

 

Dining Area of the Bar

One of the owners here has taken over the management of a bar just a few minutes away from our building. It’s a beautiful location, overlooking the sea towards the mountains, with the underlit pier jutting out into the water.

She somehow managed to persuade the bar owners (a local hotel) to let her run it on a commission-only basis so that she doesn’t have to pay rent. Her task is to bring it up to European standards and bring in guests. She’s not doing it for a career; it’s really something to keep her busy.

She was born in Egypt and lived in Miami, so she’s fluent in Arabic and English and switches from one to the other seamlessly.

As with everything in Egypt, there’s always a bit of wheeling and dealing, and you have to have your wits about you. There was a rumour that someone wanted to rent the bar and thus my friend would no longer be able to run it. We suspect it was a ploy to get her to pay for it so that the owners would get more money for no effort. She was alert enough to tell them to take the other offer and they ended up asking her to come back!

Similarly, the bar manager wasn’t so happy at having a woman suddenly come in and take over, so my friend has had to explain that she’s not wanting his job, or to take his money. Fortunately, the bar owner stepped in and supported my friend. On a related matter, she also has to ensure the tips get spread out equally among the staff and don’t go straight into one person’s pocket only!

Another problem has been that all of the hotels here are all-inclusive. Consequently, the staff are used to serving customers on that basis, and don't pay attention to how small or large the measures are. Similarly, they don't hesitate to water down the alcohol or buy the cheapest available. Now that it’s a bar for paying customers, they need to give consistent measures and price accordingly. And, of course, guests paying with their hard-earned money expect a quality drink. 

When I went there for the opening dinner, for example, they were charging me the same for my glass of wine as they did for my neighbour who had a glass twice the size of mine. I complained and they reduced the price, but I think they thought they were doing me a favour!

My friend is primarily catering for the residents, since all the hotels play loud music quite late at night. The residents, however, while sometimes wishing to party, don’t require the music to blare across the entire bay and prefer a quieter ambience during dining hours. 

She’s also set up a happy hour from 4pm-6pm (just extended to 7pm). This makes the drinks a reasonable price, so these days, if you fancy a drink, you can just pop along and almost always there’s someone there you know that you can join (or if you don’t know them, you can usually still join!). This was also part of the aim – to bring the residents together and to create a social hub.

She’s offering a Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day, so that’s where I’ll be this Christmas – eating turkey outside while overlooking some pretty exceptional scenery. How lucky am I!