Photo : Mohamed Ouda — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Cairo · Talaat Harb, Downtown
Groppi
The tea room of cosmopolitan Cairo, faded and now under restoration. Come for the decor and the story.
Giacomo Groppi, a Swiss confectioner, opened his first shop in Alexandria around 1890. His first Cairo address followed in 1909, and the house on Talaat Harb Square in the mid-1920s; until the 1950s that room was where European Cairo arranged to meet, over chocolates, ice cream, tea dances and officers on wartime leave. The mosaic, a few glass cabinets and a room of a size nobody builds any more have survived, though the rest had aged long before the builders arrived. Restoration has kept the house on the square shut for several years now, so what you see depends on how far the works have got.
The extra bit
The mosaic front is worth a minute from the pavement, and costs nothing. Should the room be open, look down at the floor and up at the plasterwork before you take a table; nobody hurries you past the pastry counter.
Know before you go
Sadat metro is a short walk away, whereas parking anywhere near the square is a trial. When the place is serving, the room and the name are what you pay for — prices sit well above those of a neighbourhood ahwa, for ordinary coffee. Bring cash.
