Cafés in Downtown & Saifi

Saifi Village and Backburner

Saifi Village lies at the southeastern edge of the center, bounded by Rue Charles Debbas, Rue George Haddad, Rue Gouraud and Rue Ariss & Kanaani, where the wartime Green Line began.³ Destroyed in the war, it was rebuilt by Solidere in a vernacular style to a plan by the French architect François Spoerry, with cobblestone streets, townhouses, gardens, wooden benches and fountains.³

Its shops run from designer boutiques to car dealers, with a few art galleries and Lebanese design studios such as Bokja and Nada Debs.³ Since about 2023 the area has had a commercial revival, with restaurants, coffee shops and bars opening in its lanes.³ Backburner, at the heart of Saifi Village, serves artisanal coffee brewed from freshly roasted beans, with a food menu to match.⁴

Around Martyrs' Square

The square's names track its history: Sahat al-Burj after an old watchtower, Place des Canons after the cannons placed there from 1773, and Martyrs' Square since 1931, for the men executed there under Ottoman rule.² The tramway, built in 1906, put the square at the center of the city's transport, and in 2005 an international competition was launched to redesign it with its axis open to the sea.²

Kahwet Azmi (قهوة عزمي) and Afif cafe are a short walk north of the square, and GRID | Coffee Matrix and Chez Paul a few streets to the northwest. Mhanna Café and Centerville Cafe are also in the center, and Starbucks, EL&N, Espressolab and Joe & The Juice have branches in the center.

Zaitunay Bay and the waterfront

Zaitunay Bay is a quayside strip around the West Marina with 17 restaurants and cafés, five shops, a yacht club and a boardwalk.¹ Its upper promenade links the public sidewalk with the marina boardwalk through seven pedestrian entrances, with no cars.¹

قهوة زيتونا (Zaitouna Café) is just inland of the marina, and كافيه ابو الذهب (Café Abou el Dahab) is farther west. Karakna.lb is near the port end of downtown.

Walking on from downtown

Downtown is the hinge between east and west Beirut. Rue Gouraud runs east from Saifi Village through Gemmayzeh toward the river,⁵ and in Mar Mikhael it becomes Rue Arménie on its way to Bourj Hammoud.⁶ To the west, Hamra Street begins at Rue de Rome and connects the center with the Ras Beirut neighborhoods.⁷