Behind the pomp, the lack of potency in Cairo’s cocktails
Newness supplants only flashiness in determining Cairo’s most popular nightspots. Too bad too many of them can’t serve a decent mixed drink.
If going out changes by the whims of new openings – El Mojito at the Nile Hilton seems a current favorite, at least until the remodeled Sofitel El Gezira opens international brand Buddha Bar sometime in August – the one constant ought to be the quality of a cocktail, at a premium price, prepared by a bartender at an international chain hotel or a restaurant trying to imagine itself in London, New York or Dubai.
But with cocktails often tasting like mock-tails, it seems that bartenders at the city’s flashy nightspots need a brush up on mixology.
“If you order a Martini here, they’ll either reverse it, with way more vermouth than vodka, or it’ll be equal parts both, said one American expat, a two-year resident, of the drinks at La Bodega and Abu El-Sid, two of Zamalek’s lauded restaurant-bars.
There is some absurdity and disconnect in complaining about the quality of a drink in a city famous for its minarets. Trendy nightclubs and hotel bars cater to tourists, expats, and that slice of Egyptian society that likes to drink and, more importantly, can afford the inflated prices of Sequoia, Sangria or (fill in your current favorite here).
But when alcohol is more tolerated in Cairo than stereotypes suggest – look no farther than the worn, backgammon-and-Stella charm of El Horreya Cafeteria in Midan Falaki – complaining about the potency of a pricey, well-presented drink does not seem out of the question.
After all, a place that names itself after a Mexican cocktail and receives glowing local praise for it should know not only how to crush ice, mint and sugar, but how to mix the rum in too.
One late June evening ended at one of El Mojito’s new teak tables, watching tipsy tourists dance to an interplay of Salsa music and Fairuz, while we sent our designer Mojitos back to the bar. The taste of rum was fainter than the distant blare of party boats down on the Nile below.
Places like Sequoia mix the drink in front of you to prove that there is indeed gin in your gin and tonic, even if it’s rationed. The alternative suggested by the waiter – “single, or double? – often stretches the cost of a cocktail to almost LE 100, which does succeed in imitating a chic bar in a European capital.
So what are the solutions? For one, corkage fees. Many bars and restaurants – from those on the Blue Nile boat to popular Zamalek spots like La Bodega and Pub 28 to the Cairo Jazz Club in Agouza and After Eight Downtown – will allow you to bring your own bottle of booze, for a fee (between LE 50 and 150, depending on the kind of alcohol). Some charge corkage as a one-off fee, so a bottle can remain there practically on-call, which explains the glut of old men (and women) huddled around bottles of Black Label at tables around the city.
Of course, you can always just order a beer. There are no surprises, and at a place like the Greek Club Downtown, how many LE 8 Stellas would it take to equal a glorified glass of tonic water somewhere else?
