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Welcome to Facebook, The Pub

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008 | 05:29 PM ET

By Nahlah Ayed

In just over four years, Internet users from around the world have made Facebook a household name and one of the 10 most popular sites on the web. But Lebanese people can now take credit for bringing the online social networking tool to a whole new level — real life.

Charbel Mouannes owns the Facebook Pub. (Hussein Alameh, CBC)

Actually, it’s one Lebanese person in particular: Charbel Mouannes, who took Facebook off the computer screen, and blew it up into a cozy, two-level, three-dimensional meeting place that's creating quite a buzz.

The Facebook Pub on Beirut's glitzy Monot Street is believed to be the first in the world inspired by the online version. Like its digital counterpart, the Facebook Pub is done up in navy blue and white; it has a "wall" on which people leave messages on their whereabouts and their plans. Every new customer gets a "profile picture" taken upon arrival to be added to the list of the pub’s friends. When the customer comes in, their profile picture is put up on a big flat-screen television that sits at the end of the bar, so that their friends see that they're "logged in." The real-life version also comes with funky, ambient music and, a well-stocked bar.

I suppose it was bound to happen. And in particular, it was bound to happen here.

Lebanese individuals are very social, and in all age groups they have embraced Facebook in droves. I even know people who had rarely used e-mail who are now spending hours logged in. The pub's familiar blue-and-white logo in one of Lebanon’s most popular nighttime destinations, as well as its fast-growing online group, easily draw in the customers.

"Among Lebanese, who always like to know what's happening with their friends, I think out of every ten people, nine are on Facebook," says Mouannes, straightening up on his barstool with a smile. "If you don't have Facebook, it's like you don't live in this world."

Mouannes spends up to six or seven hours a day on Facebook online. Added to his long hours working at the pub, he lives in the Facebook world virtually full time.

He says although he doesn't have a formal relationship with Facebook, the folks there gave him their approval to use the name and the site's attributes at his pub. Our own attempts to reach Facebook about the pub and its namesake have so far gone unanswered.

Patrons enjoy the Facebook Pub's well-stocked bar. (Nahlah Ayed, CBC)

If the comments on the Facebook Pub's online group are any indication, Lebanese people not only love Facebook proper, they're also embracing the real-life version as well: the pub opened five months ago, and its online group already has nearly 3,500 members.

"This is so cool," writes one participant. "I've always wanted a place to meet up with my Facebook friends, now I know just the place."

"You don't feel like you're coming to a bar, just to pay money and have a drink," Patrick Kiyakidas, who is a regular, told me one night at the pub. "It's like a coffee shop, a café, like a home."

A place to meet freely

In some parts of the Middle East (certainly not all, but some), going to any kind of a public establishment to meet people is difficult, if not impossible. So Facebook online has been a boon in places where interaction may be hampered by societal conservatism, or by political control.

In Egypt for example, Facebook has become a popular way for activists to rally support or inform their members of coming events. Strikes planned in April and May to protest rising food prices were publicized by several Facebook groups, one of which reportedly had more than 70,000 subscribers. However, this type of information exchange has its drawbacks. The administrator of the group was arrested on the accusation that she was one of the strike’s organizers.

Facebook on the web has also become a way for people of the opposite sex to meet. Facebook, the pub, takes all of this one step further.

Lebanese people who have met online have started to use the pub as a place to meet up for the first time and go on a date, says Pierre Fadi Karam, who works behind the slick bar.

The pub itself also provides customers with some of the online tricks to getting someone to pay attention.

On the menu are shots with names like "Poke," "Superpoke," and "Pinch," (which are all actions you can take on Facebook online to make contact with other people). To make contact with someone in the real world of the Facebook pub, all you have to do is ask Karam to make one of the shots, and send it to them, and voila, you’ve (hopefully) made a new friend.

You could do the same online, but this is a lot more fun, say the customers. And for the time being anyway, it's available only in Lebanon.

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Comments (6)

Maje michael saba

Australia

Contrary to popular belief The Lebanese people have always been innovators. The country isn't always about war and turmoil!
Lebanese people living in different parts of the world have always been inspirational when it comes to the world of business.
For a country who has been burdened by countless conflicts,often instigated by countries like Iran and Syria and by inside traitors,Hezbollah, Lebanon and Lebanese people can showcase their legendary tenacity.....

Posted July 26, 2008 12:53 AM

caroyne kyalo

kenya

This is a wonderful innovation, the Facebook pub. i think it's a wonderful way to get the Lebanese out of their painful memories and hardships that war has brought to their country.
We all deserve some peace and normal life and i think this is a good headstart to "normalisation". So people ....have fun.

Posted June 27, 2008 01:10 PM

Wael Hassan

I read Nahlah's column quite frequently, not because I love to, but I feel a sense of obligation.
Mostly because I am glad that CBC has Lebanese reporter. I care about what views she presents to the world. The other reason is that I find that she is professional, she does not seam to be affected by narrow minded local political views. In fact, I like her displays of the fancy, fun, and bustling Lebanon.
I suppose that there is world where she can speak to talents, the arts, theatre, and Lebanese opera. I also would like to see her cover some news items from Syria that are non-political.

Posted June 22, 2008 10:18 AM

Ian Ross

Canberra

All the turmoil in Lebanon is actually one of the reasons to run a story like this. It reminds those of us in other parts of the world that Lebanon is not just about turmoil. It has real people doing ordinary and silly things.

Posted June 21, 2008 03:41 AM

Matthew M.

Ottawa

Unlike Tony Arz, I thought it was a useful article. Virtually all the news out of Lebanon is about the turmoil and economic unrest; a story about a unique new pub casts Lebanon in a more favourable light in my eyes. It shows that despite the obvious struggles and challenges in the country the "regular" aspects of life still continue. As I see it, the fact that a live Facebook incarnation emerged in Lebanon does not make it any more or less newsworthy than if it had happened in Canada, or Sweden, or Tanzania.

I agree that the article does advertise to some extent (Although I am not convinced that the CBC site is one that people in Beirut visit when picking their watering holes), but I think it primarily comments on society. Facebook did not start out to be a hub of activism, or to inspire bars, but it has grown into those roles quite unexpectedly. Keeping abreast of the way its influence is changing helps us understand how the internet is changing Human interactions as a whole.

To be honest, I never saw much value in the online version of a Poke. Now that the concept is entrenched in culture, though, I think it fits in perfectly as a drink to buy someone interesting. More seriously, it strikes me as a good thing that people have not forsaken actually meeting in person for sitting alone seeking social interaction by writing on virtual walls.

Posted June 21, 2008 03:15 AM

Tony Arz

Toronto

There are far more worthy news to be covered from lebanon than this story of one pub,

With all the turmoil and social and economic unrest, Lebanon deservers better coverage than this

Did the writer get a free drink and is doing a free AD for this pub?

Posted June 20, 2008 01:37 PM

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