Dining · Cairo
Café Riche
A historic café in a building dating from 1908 near Talaat Harb Square, long a gathering place for intellectuals and politicians and a witness to the events of 20th-century downtown Cairo.
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The story
Café Riche stands at 17 Talaat Harb Street in downtown Cairo, in a building dating from 1908, and has become one of the area's best-known landmarks. Sources indicate the café was established between 1908 and 1914 and took the name Riche in 1914, after a famous Parisian café; a Greek merchant later bought and expanded it. It was a meeting place for intellectuals and revolutionaries, and it is said that resistance members gathered in its basement around the 1919 revolution to organise and print leaflets. Patrons included the novelist Naguib Mahfouz, and Gamal Abdel Nasser is said to have been a patron before he became president.
Good to know
- The building housing the café dates from 1908, on Talaat Harb Street.
- Accounts say members of the resistance met and printed leaflets in its basement around the 1919 revolution.
- Its patrons included the novelist Naguib Mahfouz.