While downtown Jaffa Road looks like a train wreck thanks to the ongoing work on the light rail, which is five years behind schedule, there are a few visionary businesspeople who are wagering on the transit line’s long-delayed opening date NOW SLATED FOR APRIL 7, 2011.
Yonah Mishaan and Gani Medad OPENED Hagov/The Lion’s Den last MONTH IN TIME FOR THE WINTER OLYMPICS. The sports bar is located on Rehov Yoel Salomon in the former premises of Goldy’s, which closed after New Year’s Eve.
“This is a dream come true to have a high-end sports bar and kosher grill in Jerusalem,” says Mishaan, the Savannah-born co-owner of the new watering hole.
“Since I came to Israel in 1984, I’ve been very involved in the sports scene in Jerusalem. I play flag and tackle football and coach Israel’s women’s national flag football team. Until now, there’s been nowhere to go after the game to celebrate. WE have eight screens and the ability to show eight different sporting events all at the same time.”
With the World Cup kick-off in South Africa slated for June 11, Mishaan has signed a contract with the international soccer tournament’s sponsor, Coca-Cola. “We’re going to be giving away hats,T-shirts and different kinds of drinks.”
As well, the sports bar plans to show NFL, NHL, NBA, pro baseball, and European and Israeli League football (soccer) and basketball matches.
“We believe that more and more, downtown Jerusalem is coming back to life; and we hope that with more of these types of businesses, we’ll see more tourists and Israelis coming downtown to spend their money,” says Mishaan.
Many of the new establishments are located on streets that the municipality has either made pedestrian-only or widened the sidewalks by narrowing the roadways and eliminating parking. One such about-to-open establishment is a branch of Katzrin’s Golan Brewery on Rehov Hillel in the entertainment district, where the microbrewery will distribute its gourmet suds. Another is Tel Aviv Kitchen and Bar, which recently opened a second premises on Rehov Rivlin following the success of its original bar on Shimon Ben-Shetah.
These bars compete with existing and new all-night variety stores that sell liquor, such as Pina 24 at the corner of Shamai and Herbert Samuel. Impecunious tipplers prefer to consume cheap booze from these outlets before continuing their revelry at area bars. But proposed regulations limiting the hours of liquor sales could end that habit, which is seen as leading to public drunkenness.
Leon Shwartz, who opened Glen Bar on Rehov Shlomzion Hamalka last winter, is intimately familiar with that sort of competition. The Mamilla 24 Market, which opened across the street from his bar, wasn’t even designed with a door or shutters, INDICATIVE OF the proprietor’s intention of never closing.
“I already survived a year,” shrugs Shwartz.
Apart from bars, several new galleries have opened downtown in recent months. The Art & Soul gallery opened several months ago at the corner of Shlomzion Hamalka and Ben-Shetah in a high-traffic site that had stood empty for decades. Another new gallery is Israel Modern Art, situated amidst a cluster of boutiques on Yoel Salomon. Owner Dan Groover sells both his own pop art and the work of local artists, with prices ranging from $200 for lithograph prints to $5,000 for original oil paintings.
“I’m trying to hang in there and develop a connection with artists and clients,” says Groover, who returned to Israel after decades in Paris and Martinique. “The process is a long one. It’s hard to sell art. In the summer, you sell more. In the winter, nothing. When there are tourists, there is business.”
Groover was disappointed to learn that the Daana Gallery on Rehov Shatz WAS advertising a going-out-of-business sale AFTER BEING OPEN FOR ONLY HALF A YEAR.
Besides bars and galleries, food venues remain another popular type of new enterprise. Three such establishments are a branch of Roladin Bakery and Café Rehov on Hillel near the eponymous Café Hillel; Grill Off Tzarfati Rotisserie on Shamai; and Dona Fresca boutique pizza on Shlomzion Hamalka.
Lior Shabbat, who produces Hotmap Jerusalem 2010, the first edition of which debuted in January, reports, “There’s a profit, thank God.” Like similar entertainment guides to Tel Aviv and Eilat, Shabbat’s glossy two-sided map is almost all in English. “It’s history,” he smiles. “It is the first 24/7 guide to Jerusalem in 3,000 years.”
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