Cairo: Egypt’s 107-year-old Café Riche, a favourite haunt for intellectuals, continues its shutdown more than two weeks after its owner’s death with question marks hovering about its fate.
“The café is closed for annual maintenance” reads a small sign pasted on the shutters of the coffeeshop situated a few blocks away from central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the 2011 revolution that forced out long-time president Husny Mubarak.
Keepers of neighbouring stores and buffs of the café, set up in 1908, have no the faintest idea about when the venue will re-open.
“The coffeeshop has been closed since its owner Majdi Abdul Malak died on May 2,” said Hossam Shawki, a manager of a nearby travel agency. “Many patrons show up everybody to ask about the fate of the shop and when it re-open its doors. But no-one knows anything about the agenda of the new owner.”
Abdul Malak, an ex-air force pilot, is survived by his brother Murad, an émigré in the US. It is not clear yet if the latest owner will return home to run Riche,a Cairo landmark nicknamed the “Café of the Intelligentsia.”
“There are rumours that the heir will sell the café to one of the real-estate developers because he does not want to return to Egypt for the sake of Riche,” said Fady Shukri, an employee at a nearby bazaar. “Others say that the government will lay its hands on the place as a heritage site that must be protected. But, there is nothing certain so far.”
Since Majdi’s death, Riche fans have launched an online campaign, urging Egyptian authorities to list the coffeehouse as a heritage site, thus blocking any bid for its sale. The government has yet to stake out a position.
Since its establishment inside a European-style building, the ownership of Riche has changed hands. The café was set up by an Austrian, who sold it in 1914 it to a Frenchman, who was later succeeded by a series of Greek nationals in owning the place.
In 1960, an Egyptian man, called Abdul Malak Mikhail, bought Riche and has since been a family business. His son Majdi took over after his death and managed the place for years.
Noted for its wooden panelling and glass windows, Riche located in Talaat harb Street, one of Cairo’s busiest commercial attractions, has long been a hub for intellectuals and politicians from across the Arab world.
Egypt’s King Farouk is said to have met his second wife Nermin there.
Jamal Abdul Nasser and army comrades planned for the 1952 overthrow of Farouk at Riche, according to historians. Nasser ruled Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970.
Iraq’s Saddam Hussain used to sit at the cafe when he was student in Cairo.
Egypt’s Nobel Laure Naguib Mahfouz, who died 2006, used to hold a weekly literary salon in Riche in the 1960s.
Walls of the coffeeshop are decorated with framed pictures of writers and actors, who were among its patrons over the years.
At the entrance to the Parisienne-style cafe, well-known books welcome customers. Riche still has a printing machine, which historians say was used in 1919 by nationalists to print leaflets calling for ending the then British occupiers of Egypt.
The cafe was a refuge for activists from crackdowns by Mubarak’s police and loyalists in the 18-day uprising that erupted in late January 2011.
