In a Historic Cairo High-Rise, Apartments That Might Inspire a Longer Stay

28.08.2024 - 10:50 / nytimes.com

Travelers don’t tend to linger in Cairo once they’ve seen the sights — the city can be notoriously tricky to navigate. But a new collection of serviced apartments from the team behind the luxurious Set Nefru dahabiya boat on the Nile, as well as Al Moudira, a charming hotel in the southern city of Luxor, is giving visitors a reason to stick around.

The four apartments — ranging from one to three bedrooms — are located on the eighth, 10th and 11th floors of downtown’s Immobilia Building, which was Cairo’s tallest structure when it was completed in 1940. Back then, the neighborhood had numerous cafes and cabarets, attracting society from the Middle East and beyond. Now it has “a faded-glory feel mixed with contemporary energy,” says Florian Amereller, 58, the Cairo- and Florence-based lawyer who owns the apartments.

He started buying properties in the building seven years ago, drawn to its Art Deco design, rich history and sweeping views. Now he’s in the process of adding three more suites on the fifth floor. While “the entrance to the building is grand but also dusty and in need of renovation,” he admits, the apartments themselves are exquisitely furnished with help from his Al Moudira co-founder, the Italian Lebanese hotelier and designer Zeina Aboukheir, 75. She and Amereller decorated the interiors with a mix of antiques from historic homes in Cairo and Alexandria — in addition to contemporary art and local crafts. There’s vintage Christofle silverware and Limoges china; a 1920s Moorish-style desk and chair set inlaid with mother-of-pearl; a tribal Veramin carpet from Iran; ceramics from the Cairo-based shop Madu; pieces by the contemporary artists Hany Rashed and Adel El Siwi; and photographs from the city’s Tintera gallery. The bespoke Egyptian-cotton bed linens, by the brand Malaika, feature hand embroidery from Threads of Hope, the company’s program for training and providing ongoing work to marginalized women.

A former butler to the American ambassador in Cairo presides over the daily housekeeping service, as well a fleet of chauffeured cars ranging from S.U.V.s to a 1951 Jaguar. He can also arrange personalized tours, not only of the monuments (and the new Grand Egyptian, which is said to be the world’s largest museum devoted to a single civilization), but also of under-the-radar antiques, textile and culinary spots. The food on-site, however, is perhaps most impressive: The chef Karim Abdelrahman, known for showcasing heritage ingredients from across Egypt, curates breakfast offerings and cooks meals for special events. One recent dinner on the terrace of the Embassy Apartment included foie gras — an ingredient thought to date back to ancient Egyptian times — braised in grape leaves and