Predictable guide for an unpredictable city
The newly-published City Guide Tel Aviv fails to deliver on its promise to fully capture the locals’ approach to their town, but is nevertheless a beautiful compilation that would warm the heart of any Tel Avivian patriot
About a year ago, I had the pleasure of entertaining a beloved family member from New York during his stay in Tel Aviv. My distant cousin, a 40-something author and journalist from the Big Apple, arrived for a three-week visit to Israel, and my husband and I were anxious to show him the hip and fashionable side of our hometown.
On his first night here, while he was still recovering from a vicious jet lag, we took him to dinner at the Brasserie, a very popular, posh restaurant on Rabin Square. After we were escorted to our table, my cousin took a look around and proclaimed, “This feels just like Manhattan!”
After that, me and my spouse decided that this would be our last attempt to boast of Tel Aviv’s cosmopolitan nature by taking my relative to places no different than those found in NY, or for that matter – in any other big city in the world.
From that day on, he had the pleasure of being dragged to indie music venues, alternative galleries and underground clubs. We figured – hey, this is the Tel Aviv we know and love, why not let him get a taste of it too?
Hip and fashionable city
The newly-published City Guide Tel Aviv, a beautiful and elegant guide for tourists, declares itself to be the reader’s “guide to approaching the city as the locals do – with a light-hearted, open minded and relaxed attitude.”
The book is divided into six sections, each dedicated to one of the town’s quarters, starting from the North End, to the City Center, the Heart of Tel Aviv, the South End, Downtown and Jaffa. Adorned with marvelous photos, each section opens with an introduction that describes the area’s special character, major attractions and places of interest.
The introduction is followed by segments on a select number of places – mostly restaurants, cafes, fashion boutiques or design shops. At the end of each chapter, the author includes a list of additional places recommended for a visit.
What most of the places listed in the City Guide have in common is that they are all hip, chic, and, well… expensive. From the trendiest restaurants and bars, to the most stylish fashion, jewelry and design stores, the guide seems to have in mind a very particular target audience – well-to-do tourists whose one purpose in visiting Tel Aviv is to explore and exhaust all of its poshest wining, dining and shopping opportunities.
However, is this really the way in which the locals approach their town, as the guide pretends to convey? The answer would have to be no.
Although it was obviously compiled by someone with a genuine love for, and profound knowledge of, the city (Lisa Goldman), the City Guide fails in capturing the true character and atmosphere of the Tel Avivian street and does injustice to this sometimes scruffy and very Israeli urban center, which remarkably combines traditional and alternative lifestyles.
An alternative Tel Aviv
The true Tel Aviv can be found in its indoor and outdoor markets (to name a few: The flea markets in Jaffa and Dizengoff Square, the food markets on Levinsky and in Dizengoff Center, the Hacarmel and Bezalel markets, the Nahalat Binyamin arts and crafts market), in its music venues and bustling music scene, its second-hand shops, art galleries and museums, the beach, the parks and small city gardens, its gay bars and street food stands.
While the City Guide makes brief mention of some of these places in the introductory section in its chapter, it fails to grant them the attention they deserve.
The City Guide seems to turn a blind eye to Tel Aviv’s shabbier and “less attractive” corners, focusing its attention on the glam and glitz of the city’s nightlife. And while, granted, a very important component of Tel Aviv is its wild night life, there is much more to the city than this hedonistic aspect. Moreover, it appears that some of its funkiest night spots were shunned by the guide specifically for being a bit “underground” in nature.
However, and despite its shortcomings, the City Guide is a wonderfully-written and engaging book, which succeeds in conveying a true love for the town and its inhabitants, and genuine familiarity with its subject matter. The Tel Aviv that emerges from the guide is a pluralistic, cosmopolitan and sophisticated metropolis, and hey – I wouldn’t argue with that.
City Guide Tel Aviv
Produced and edited by Dalit Nemirovsky
Research and text: Lisa Goldman
Crossfields Publishing, 2006
152 pages
