some guy in lebanon

Hamra pub has weathered 44 years of wars and sieges

By yours truly – This is the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything. Ever. Pictures are my own and were not featured in the original article.

Click here for the Original Article from the Daily Star, Published December 2nd, 2008

BEIRUT: The speakers filter over the noise of the crowd at Captains Cabin on Saturday, shuffling between Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead. “Of course, I have plans for this place. I told you – I’m the past and the present,” says Andre Toriz. The bar’s manager, Toriz is not so much defiant as observant. It is an existential declaration from a man whose whole life is the pub his father opened in 1964.

In 1987, British journalist Robert Fisk wrote that Captains Cabin, one of the few remaining bars in Hamra that held out through the wars and the siege, “has the feel – even the smell – of the late 1960s.”

As Andre tells it, while he hands out one Almaza after another, Captains has weathered every conflict Lebanon has thrown at his inheritance in the past 40 years, the doors always open. Twenty years after Fisk’s article, things are changing, for Andre, for nightlife in Hamra, and for Beirut. Though it still seems to have the feel of the past, one cannot help but notice that the present has caught up with this shabby little bar off of Sadat Street, as wave after wave of young people filter in, buying drinks late into the night, even during mid-week.

Business hasn’t been this good in a long time. A Syrian checkpoint near the bar kept the crowds away even after the wars subsided in Beirut. Old regulars have been replaced by a new, younger group. Yet even these new customers admit readily that something has changed in the past year, perhaps even in the past month. “Even last year,” notes Derek, “on a Saturday night there might be a few people in here, ordering one drink and just sitting around for hours. Yeah, it’s been filling up but this was our private bar for a long time. But we don’t really care – It’s good for Andre.”

Indeed, everyone knows that what is good for Andre Toriz is good for Captains Cabin.

How does the bar reflect Beirut’s past and present? When asked, “I am the connection,” Andre says matter-of-factly. He continues, “My father was sick. He gave me the keys – He wouldn’t give them to anybody else. I don’t know why.” Andre and his heirloom have remained in business even as many others in Hamra closed their doors. Regarding this, he merely states, “People go, people come. But there are people who stay all the time.”

When asked about the younger people who now keep him busy until late in the night, he reflects, “Before the war, in the 70s, I asked somebody – he saw the kids coming, replacing the older people – and he said don’t worry. Now [those same young customers from the 70s], they’re ministers! I have customers who have been coming here for 30 years! But time changes. The wars and the siege and the checkpoints kept the young away. Now they’re back.”

It is obvious how much Captains Cabin means to Andre. What is equally obvious is how much he and his bar mean to its younger and growing number of customers. Their behavior does surprise him sometimes, but Andre keeps a firm and almost fatherly hand.

“My father and my generations, they were always well-behaved. The younger generation surprises me. They’re crazy sometimes. They can have no manners. But I surprise them,” says Andre with a twinkle in his eye when he relates this, “by being firm. ‘Sit properly,’ you know?” Andre smiles. It doesn’t take long for new customers to understand who is in charge of this old bar.

The bar does have a timeless quality, but Andre is Beirut’s past and present. The beer is still served cold, but now business is good. Andre has even noticed a new increase since the all-night soirée he hosted for the American elections.

Time is no longer standing still in Hamra, and Andre has plans. What are they? He won’t say. But through the dense cigarette smoke and past the empty bottles that signal the increase in business, Bob Dylan sings, “The times they are a changing.”

Update

This article as linked to by the Huffington Post! “Service Taxi” Across the Syrian Border: Damascus to Beirut

See these fine folks talking about Captains’ Cabin at Boston.com: Beirut or Bust Slide 11

Here’s Now Lebanon’s take on Captains’ Cabin: A Long Night