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Gan Hahashmal: Israel’s Hippest Neighborhood

‘The Telegraph’ knows what’s up in Tel Aviv

by
Hannah Vaitsblit
November 03, 2015
Flickr
Flickr
Flickr
Flickr

According to The Telegraph, Tel Aviv’s Gan Hahashmal neighborhood is the 10th most ‘hipster’ locale in the world, calling it a “growing community of young indie fashion designers and other artist types.” (Last year, Gan Hahashmal was deemed the second sexiest neighborhood on earth by Thrillist.)

Trendy Gan Hahashmal—whose name commemorates its coveted status as the first urban neighborhood with a power plant—used to be among Tel Aviv’s most neglected, but then its Bauhaus-clad borders were shinily renovated and repurposed to accommodate design studios and shops. Thus, “bohemian” Gan Hahasmal was (re)born.

Here’s a taste of hipster Tel Aviv:

— Aba Gil Organic restaurant makes organic hummus with “NO soup mixes, baking soda, lemon salt, sugar & refined fats. NO frying, NO microwave oven.” So no electricity in that garden. Oh, and it’s vegan, gluten, dairy, and egg free too, obviously.

— Gan Hahashmal is home to some innovative child-related activities

— There is no need to flash your drawn-on Converses to stand out in the Gan. At Arama Shoes you can buy handmade illustrated footwear. It’s unisex, of course; gender norms are so yesterday.

— Artist Ido Michaeli, created this contemporary take on the age-old blue and white silk print ceramic tile tradition, which doubles as a map of the neighborhood.

— One piece of sophisticated graffiti in Gan Hahashmal condemns “meat as murder,” and is signed “with the help of Heaven” (because why not evoke God? Who knows when faith will be the next big fad…)

— If you like music and art—let’s be honest, why else would you be in Tel Aviv—there’s Kuli Alma, a “nightlife institution” that might as well be a Talmudic hub (the name is in Aramaic).

— For a radical fashion makeover, there’s Gan Hahashmal’s resident Uzbek designer Frau Blau (meaning, “drunk woman” in German), whose trippy spring collection was called “Incense” (a biblical reference?).

See you there… or in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which came in at #1.

Hannah Vaitsblit is an intern at Tablet.