Only established in 1909, Tel Aviv—Israel’s largest metropolitan and economic area located on its Mediterranean coast—boasts a short history compared to other major cities but has risen in prominence as a cultural destination. Perhaps little offers more evidence of that fact than its relatively robust hotel industry, which has proven to be the country’s most resilient in the face of geopolitical unrest, according to HVS’ 2016 Israel Hotel Market Overview, which reports a Tel Aviv pipeline of approximately 2,150 rooms as of June. And it’s not only hotels that are hot, according to our guest editor Jason Pomeranc. “Israel is an incredibly young country with generations of cuisine, architecture, and nightlife—not hundreds of years of history, but it is interesting how quickly it has become a power in this world.”
Take the fact that Tel Aviv’s White City—the world’s largest collection of Bauhaus buildings (more than 4,000)—was designated a World Heritage site in 2004. “There’s an eclectic mixture of European, American, and Western cultural influences in a Middle Eastern society,” Pomeranc adds. “You have this clash but really a melding of different things.”
Here’s a look at a handful of his Tel Aviv standouts.
Eating Around Town
The city’s dining culture reflects its melting pot status. “You will have an Israeli chef trained in Europe, reinterpreting the original ethnic food to create a very exciting combination of things,” Pomeranc says, explaining that the cuisine is much more Arabic than it is Jewish. “The food in Tel Aviv is closer to what one would be eating in Beirut than a New York Jewish deli.”
Because the area’s climate cultivates great produce, “farm to table is an assumed part of the culture,” he says, and “a cuisine that’s conducive to the share plate, social atmosphere.” He points to people like Eyal Shani (“as much historian as he is chef,” he says of the celebrity chef and owner of upscale fast food franchise Miznon) as figures transforming the scene.
Also making waves is Sarona Market, Israel’s largest indoor food hall at more than 93,000 square feet and 91 vendors—including shops, stalls, and full restaurants. Developed by Gindi Holdings, it channels locations like Chelsea and Borough markets in New York and London, respectively, featuring local and international products and produce, and drawing thousands of visitors every week since its opening last year in Tel Aviv’s historically rich Sarona neighborhood.
Night Owls
In line with what Pomeranc calls a youth-driven culture (there’s a surf movement, a burgeoning arts scene, and it is a growing tech hub), the nightlife scene reflects the social environment. “People are out every night. It is closer to the attitudes of Spain and southern Italy. It is a café culture, the idea of sitting at a restaurant and socializing” is the norm, he says.
A couple of years ago in the Hotel B Berdichevsky’s lobby, local F&B impresario Ariel Leizgold—who’s also behind 223 (the first and oldest cocktail bar in Israel), Kalamata Mediterranean restaurant in Jaffa, and events brand DuckFace—opened Bellboy, modeled after classic 19th-century cocktail bars. But the space, crafted by Tel Aviv designer Alona Eliasi, has a whimsical bent, with details including leather hippos, rubber ducks, and ceramic parrots adding to its speakeasy aesthetic.
Rest Pretty
On the corner of Yavne Street and Rothschild near the Great Synagogue and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in a circa-1925 private residence, the 15-room Alma Hotel’s bohemian style is representative of Tel Aviv’s boutique hotel boom, which Pomeranc ties directly to that youthful zeitgeist. “There are a bunch of young people who have a lot of disposable income and who are looking for a new form of luxury,” he says. In fact, just about a five-minute walk away is the Norman, designed by local architect Yoav Messer, “which to any global standard is a wonderful lifestyle hotel,” he adds.
