I am aware that the term “Harare’s nightlife” could be said to be a contradictio in adjectio, like hot snow or cold fire. Two years ago, I’d fully agree. Not now. Sleepy Harare is coming out of its torpor, and not only with food riots.
Hot tip: nightlife begins and ends early because Harare is one step removed from the farming world. No champagne breakfasts in this puritan town, unless at home. So, if you want decent food, get an early start.
Harare’s best restaurant, La Dolce Vita, in Avondale, will serve real nouvelle cuisine Italian food until 11 pm. Done in Milano less-is-more chic, with metal sculpture on the walls (like pieces scavenged from the Titanic), it is elegant and, most importantly, the pasta is truly al dente, not overcooked as is the custom here.
All pasta dishes are memorable. The well- stocked bar upstairs is pleasant, also done in Titanic-metallic.
Before or after dinner, head to the Book Caf on Fife Avenue near the Catholic cathedral. No chic here, just ambience. If you are wearing a low decollete, beware of the tables against the stairwell: the cold drafts are lethal. On Friday nights you get Latin jazz or stand up comedy. Best at 8pm, dying by 11pm.
Where to go afterwards? I say downmarket. Upmarket is, like almost anything in Zimbabwe, aligned along racial and class lines. There is not one upmarket club I like. They’re either too white, too young, too rave, too smoky, too formal, too stiff, too boring.
So since my crowd is not yuppies of any colour of BMWs, I go resolutely downmarket to the rhumba palace: Enigma!
Tucked away on Richwell Drive in the middle-class residential neighborhood of Meyrick Park, 15km from downtown, Enigma features solid Zairian music for non-stop dancing. Your knees and hips start shaking at the door.
Cold beers, toilets you can use at 2am withot puking, a black and coloured over-21 crowd, and a no-hassle environment for all, including the only muzungu.
A pool table on one side for the serious crowd. A mid-size disco floor with clear sound (no thumping), breathable air (little smoke) and standard lights. Rhumba, kwasa kwasa and a sprig of souk to keep you awake, alive and sizzling until dawn.
Hot tip: the ratio is five men per woman. Males on the prowl, you won’t find many girls here. I ask why and am told that Zim men don’t bring their wives or girlfriends to nightclubs.
Single females don’t have a car to get out here, or lack disposable income, or maybe nice girls don’t fancy rhumba.
You wouldn’t think Zim women are in purdah at night, but so it seems – at least according to the guys at Enigma.
Women, take your pick. You will never be out of a dancing partner, if you want one. Check out the impressive ndombolo (often overweight) dancers. Or join the crowd of narcissistic types who dance with themselves on the mirror, and dance until you drop, oui, oui, cheri, dansons a la folie, until your legs give up.
Entrance on Fridays is Z$100 per person. A beer is Z$20 (one US$ = Z$38). Club gets hot at midnight, drunks stagger in at 3am. Time to go home, with wobbly knees and discombobulated hips.
Mercedes Sayagues is a freelance journalist based in Harare