The Cairo café where Naguib Mahfouz held Friday meetings

Café Riche, located at 17th of Talaat Harb Street in downtown Cairo, has been a prominent landmark since it first opened in 1908. While it began its life in the early 20th century, it was renamed Café Riche in 1914 when Frenchman Henry Recine purchased it. Shortly after, Michael Nicoapolits took ownership and introduced theater to the venue, hosting famous performers like Monira il-Mahdiyya and Umm Kulthum. In 1962, the café saw a significant shift in ownership when Abdel Malek Michael Salib became the first native Egyptian to own the establishment.

The café served as a primary gathering place for intellectuals, lawyers, and revolutionaries. During the 1919 revolution against British rule, resistance members met in the basement to organize activities and print flyers. The location was also the site of a failed assassination attempt on Egypt's last Coptic Prime Minister, Youssef Wahba Pacha, in 1919. High-profile figures like Gamal Abdel Nasser frequented the café while planning the 1952 overthrow of King Farouk, and the novelist Naguib Mahfouz was such a regular patron that the café would close on Fridays specifically so he could hold meetings there.

In recent decades, Café Riche has faced various challenges, including a court case regarding a public passage, damage from the 1992 earthquake, and a period of closure in the 1990s. Today, the rise of digital media and the popularity of shopping malls have changed the landscape for traditional meeting places. Nevertheless, the café remains a significant site of history, having served as a refuge for protesters during the 2011 revolution.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons