Writer David Kauffman
left the USA behind to
move to Tel Aviv, lured
by the city’s cool edge

DURING MY THREE YEARS of living in Tel Aviv I’ve often
felt as if I were existing in a bubble. Difficult to define but
almost impossible to ignore, the bubble is Tel Aviv’s calm, yet
hedonistic urban sphere. The Bubble is also the name of a
recent hit movie directed by Israeli director Eytan Fox, which
explores a wilder side of Tel Aviv’s social life that’s rarely seen.

Although the ‘bubble city’ label isn’t new, it has never been
more fully in swing. Indeed, buoyed by a soaring local stock
market and rapidly-rising real estate prices, Tel Aviv is flush
with cash, opportunity and excitement. Much as in Manhattan
or the Marais in Paris, part of Tel Aviv’s resurgence is the result
of once-derelict districts coming back into fashion. Another
part of the trend has been fuelled from the outside – namely
by Unesco, which in 2003 declared the historic Bauhaus core
a World Heritage Site, and some 4,000 Modernist buildings
worthy of preservation and restoration. Dozens are now under
scaffolding, mostly for sale upon completion to foreigners
with deep pockets and an appreciation for this aesthetic.

The new hipsters are mostly local, however, living in the
grungy Gan HaHashmal quarter, located moments away from
posh Rothschild Boulevard, which is now emerging as a warren
of indie fashion boutiques, cafés and small-scale nightclubs.

alt="Neve Tzedek, which is the equivalent to hip districts like Hoxton in London or Manhattan’s Tribeca"align="right"src="http://www.bmivoyager.com/images/2008/may/voyager_may_009.jpg">
Nearby Neve Tzedek – Tel Aviv’s oldest Jewish quarter – is
another historic district flourishing with youthful vigour. Long a
haven for artists and intellectuals, now its low-slung, Arabianstyled
structures are filled with a clutch of new businesses that
could easily hold their own in New York or London.

The city’s first boutique hotel, Nina Cafe Suites (29
Shabazi Street, +972 52 508 4141; www.ninacafehotel.com),
debuted recently in Neve Tzedek. It’s a luxurious retreat,
hidden within an original, red-tiled building, with a style
picked up by the owner during a youthful stint in Paris.
A minute’s walk north, Catit Restaurant [4 Heychal
Hatalmod Street, +972 (0)3 510 7001] displays the
luxe-Levantine creations of Cordon Bleu-trained chef Meir Adoni.

Although local entrepreneurs have led Tel Aviv’s recent revival,
the city’s relative calm has also provided global brands with the
confidence to finally take a chance on the Israeli market. Much
of the cash is flowing into real estate, and foreigners poured
some £710 million into the Israeli market in 2006, mostly in Tel
Aviv. Their targets are increasingly grandiose projects, such as
the Philippe Starck-designed Yoo towers apartment complex,
rapidly rising in the city’s posh north. Or even newer, citycentre
developments like the new skyscrapers currently under
construction by ‘starchitects’ I.M. Pei and Richard Meier.

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Other firms betting on the Tel Aviv bubble include hip US
clothing retailer American Apparel, which opened its first
Middle Eastern outlet in this city last year [Dizengoff Centre,
+972 (0)3 620 0481], and Sushi Samba – the Manhattan-based
restaurant chain made famous by Sex And The City [27 Habarzel
Street, +972 (0)3 644 4345; www.sushisamba.com].
Right now, Mexican-style burritos and organic quinoa
are replacing passion fruit and pomegranates as Tel
Aviv’s current ‘it’ foods. Or forgo eating altogether for
one of the new after-hours lounges, like Lima-Lima [42
Lilenblum Street, +972 (0)3 560 0924], or Levontine 7
[11 Levontine Street, +972 (0)3 560 5084], where Tel Aviv’s
young, skinny jeans-clad ‘bubblers’ rock all night long.

David Kauffman is former editor of Time Out Tel Aviv and
author of the Wallpaper* City Guide: Tel Aviv (£4.95, Phaidon)