While Clenzo and Tamvaco have metamorphosed into something different, legendary Baudrot, once upon a time opposite the Mohamed Ali Club, has ceased to exist at all. But it, too, had started out with a different name.

This description of a bar as “perhaps one of the most beautiful places to drink whiskey in under a large tree in the garden and there is a handsome black barman who speaks seven languages.” (Beer in the Snooker Club, p. 14) sounds like a typical Alexandrian text. However, it is a description of Groppi written by Waguih Ghali, a Copt from Cairo.

We may wonder why the description “sounds like a typical Alexandrian text”, and the answer is: because it echoes the all too familiar heartbeat of the city where Groppi first set up shop; a city with a spirit to reckon with the bottles at the bar. Maison Groppi first originated in Alexandria!