Shopping and Dining
The city center houses more than 350 retail outlets distributed along its streets and quarters. Shopping in the city center mainly consists of upscale fashion boutique chains, world-renowned designer shops, high-end stores, and luxury boutiques boasting the most expensive designer labels. Stores sell fashion clothing, accessories, jewelry, furniture, Hi-Fi and electronic equipment, records and books, handicrafts and gifts, art and antiques. The stores are mostly at street level, but recently some have expanded onto upper floors. Buildings or group of buildings are dedicated to department stores. Starting from the conservation area, stores are spreading to other areas to finally culminate in the Beirut Souks.
There are over 100 cafes, restaurants, pubs and nightclubs open in the Beirut Central District. Restaurants offer a variety of French, Italian, American, Lebanese, Chinese, Japanese and other Asian cuisines. Sidewalk cafes are a trademark of the Downtown area, with tens of them lining the streets. They range from oriental cafes serving Turkish Coffee and Shisha to global franchises such as Starbucks.
Read more about this topic: Beirut Central District
Famous quotes containing the words shopping and, shopping and/or dining:
“Most baby books also tend to romanticize the mother who stays at home, as if she really spends her entire day doing nothing but beaming at the baby and whipping up educational toys from pieces of string, rather than balancing cooing time with laundry, cleaning, shopping and cooking.”
—Susan Chira (20th century)
“The most important fact about our shopping malls, as distinct from the ordinary shopping centers where we go for our groceries, is that we do not need most of what they sell, not even for our pleasure or entertainment, not really even for a sensation of luxury. Little in them is essential to our survival, our work, or our play, and the same is true of the boutiques that multiply on our streets.”
—Henry Fairlie (1924–1990)
“Behind her was confusion in the room,
Of chairs turned upside down to sit like people
In other chairs, and something, come to look,
For every room a house has parlor, bedroom,
And dining room thrown pell-mell in the kitchen.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)