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Social Gathering with friends around the olive tree
The Gathering is one of the newest restaurants in town located in the lower level of the Gemmayze street of Beirut.
The project is a grouping of three door-to-door traditional Lebanese houses rehabilitated into an Italian cookery, a bar cellar and a butcher grill gathered around a central courtyard.
Not only aiming to serve fine cuisine, The Gathering also combines the pleasures of the palate with an environmentally friendly policy in times where sustainable development is not just a luxury but has also become a necessity.
The best thing about The Gathering and most important initiative that makes you come have lunch or dinner with the family or friends, is that it's a NON SMOKING haven.
Didn't know where to start. Italian? Grill or French? So I toured around discovering the architecture of each and waiting for my heart to beat for one.
The Butcher's Grill is a small place, with an open kitchen giving the pleasure to the guests to check on their chicken and meat being prepared freshly. I loved the simple decoration where plates are divided into two kinds one with GOUTER and the other with GRIGNOTER, the black and white floor, the writings on the ceiling, the yellow chandelier and the outside terrace. Blue is the main color around the cookery as colors will change from a place to another; Three different places, three different colored water bottles.
The Bar Cellar is my favorite with its high ceiling, chandeliers of wine bottles, the open ham and cuts bar, the drinks bar, the high wooden tables and specially the very unique wine cellar. A premiere indeed. The wine cellar is a metallic structure all over the wall facing the bar with a glass in front of the bottles reading the ceiling. Clients watch the waiter climb on the long wooden ladder to get their chosen bottle. The details of this place are catchy: clocks, books, bottles, wine names and aroma items made me wonder around for an hour. Here, the bottles color is green. In this part of The Gathering, and before accessing the restaurant you can buy interesting items from the Culti brand, specially imported from Italy.
The Italian cookery, or the Cantina, is a completely different concept. A Sicilian like house decorated with bottles, glass cups, colored wooden chairs, huge glass wine reservoirs, a wooden ceiling and the books wallpaper. Here the bottles are orange.
The Italian cookery is a cozy nice place, divided into three rooms. The main welcoming and bar area, the -what i will call- books room and the inner dining space. Inside is the best place to stay for a romantic dinner, but would prefer the books room as it has a view on the outer court and is more spacious.
Waiters were welcoming me very warmly in each of the places.
Just for a discovery, before even going into the food part, The Gathering is a place to be visited the soonest. I decided to try the Italian restaurant for my first visit.
