AD: Bullona's Summer in the City Makes a Case for Staying in Cairo

Every summer, Cairo performs one of nature's great migrations. Birds fly south. Wildebeest cross rivers. Cairenes look at the temperature, quietly whisper, "Absolutely not," and head for the coast with enough luggage to survive several geological eras.

This leaves the city in an unusual position. It is still Cairo. The Nile is still there. The traffic is making a heroic effort. But suddenly everyone knows someone who is "just in Sahel this weekend," a phrase that, in Egypt, has approximately the same meaning as "See you in September."

Bullona Cairo would like to point out that abandoning the city is not your only option.The Milan-inspired restaurant at Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza is spending the season making a case for staying put with Summer in the City, which began June 30th with an evening of food, music and enough well-dressed people to convince you that perhaps Cairo wasn't such a terrible idea after all.

This is actually a very clever strategy. Scientists* have long maintained that excellent food, good music and attractive lighting can dramatically improve a person's opinion of almost any location.

(*Not actual scientists. More the kind of people who insist they're "just grabbing one drink" and are somehow still there when breakfast becomes a realistic possibility.)Bullona already understands that dinner is rarely just dinner. It starts with, "Let's grab a bite," and ends three hours later with someone ordering dessert they loudly claimed they had no room for, somebody else explaining a business idea involving artificial intelligence, and at least one person saying, "We should definitely do this more often," before disappearing for another six months.

That's essentially the philosophy behind Summer in the City. Good food gets people through the door. The rest of the evening tends to take care of itself.