Brummana lures crowds of summer tourists from Beirut, Gulf

04 August 2008

BRUMMANA: Late Friday afternoon, a parade of late-model sedans clogs the winding road from Beirut up to Brummana. The cars are filled with Beirutis seeking an escape from the crowds and heat of the city amidst the pine trees - and bars - of this mountain town. For most of the year, Brummana is a sleepy town full of people who've known each other for years, said Kareem Demiane, 17, a local resident. But as the summer approaches and the air turns thick, weekenders from Beirut and vacationers from the Gulf fill the sidewalks and furnished apartments along the town's main road.

Aside from the expansive grounds and stone buildings of the Brummana High School, a Quaker school founded in the 1870's, the town has few prominent attractions.

But what the area lacks in beaches and historic ruins, it makes up for with a wealth of restaurants, a moderate climate, and a sweeping view of Beirut. On a clear day, you can see from Antelias to the airport and every detail in between.

There is no town center, only a main road lined on either side with small businesses and concrete apartment buildings designed to seize as much of the view as possible. At night, the road becomes an elongated valet parking lot, as visitors and residents descend upon the town's two main strips of bars and restaurants.

Although the venues are different and the air is cooler, the partiers may look familiar to anyone who frequents the clubs of Monot and Gemayyzeh. "They're the same people," Demiane said. "You see them there, you see them up here, you see them everyday."

This shared target audience has posed a challenge to many Brummana businesses this summer. Now that the protesters are gone, the downtown area in Beirut has seen a revival and is pulling away customers, said Paul Eid, the manager of Copas bar and restaurant. This year, though, the town has seen an increase in tourist from the Gulf and Lebanese visiting from abroad, according to Fouad Hijazi, a high school student from Beirut. "Last summer was all people running from the war," he said. "This year is all people coming from the oil countries."

Alongside the revealing dresses and open collar shirts of the Monot crowd, women in abbayahs and men in dishdashas crowd the town's restaurants.

"They go crazy because they're restricted [in the Gulf.] Here they do whatever they want," Demiane said.

Brummana has long served as a refuge for those that refuse to except restrictions on their freedom.

When violence broke out in Beirut in May, club goers kept that party alive at places like Copas, Eid said. The town experienced a similar boom during the summer 2006 war. "Everything was packed," Demiane said. "You could hear the bombs and people were out cruising around."

For some people the town's attraction is not the bars or the view, but simply the weather. "It's too damn hot down there," one local resident said.