Is This Cairo Bar Scene Month, or What?

Just a couple of weeks after The Huffington Post ran a nostalgic piece longing for the vanished bars of central Cairo, now the BBC comes along and runs a nostalgic piece longing for the vanished bars of central Cairo. Different byline, same basic theme. Some of the same experts interviewed: the novelist who wrote The Yaqoubian Building, evocations of Naguib Mahfouz and belly dancing joints.

I don't know whether there was a press tour involving bar-hopping, or this is just pack journalism, or what. The BBC article does interview the Doss family, who run the Barrel Bar at the old Windsor Hotel, one of the truly great relics of the British colonial era. But otherwise it's the same theme: longing for the good old days.

Hardly the first time journalists have come up with the same idea, but interesting. I hope no one is offended but I'm creating a new tag on "bars," not because I plan a lot of posts on them, but because it seems to be an emerging theme for Western journalists.

WHOA — UPDATING: the wave of articles has sparked a post and a long (and lengthening) comment thread at Arabic Media Shack debating the accuracy of the characterizations, the question of who drinks, and much else besides. A real coffeehouse debate is going on over there. These folks are taking it very seriously, and one even mentions the buza place in Ataba I recall visiting once. Go take a look if you have an interest.

Also I gather the Huffington Post piece may have originally appeared in the Christian Science Monitor.