Café Naderi

Café Naderi, on Naderi Street (now Jomhouri Avenue) in central Tehran, is the oldest surviving European-style café in the city — a remnant of the era when this street was the bohemian heart of a city that saw itself as a bridge between East and West. The café opened in 1927 and has been serving tea, coffee, and sandwiches in more or less the same form ever since.

The interior — dark wood, mirrors, old photographs, and a slow-turning fan — belongs to another era. The clientele includes older Tehranis nostalgic for the pre-revolutionary city and visitors who have read enough Iranian literature to know the names associated with these tables. The food (sandwiches, pastries, tea) is simple and good. Come for the atmosphere rather than the menu.

bars and cafes bar
A story
In the 1950s and 1960s, Café Naderi was the intellectual centre of Tehran — a place where writers, painters, film directors, and poets met daily. Sadegh Hedayat, author of *The Blind Owl*, drank coffee here. Ahmad Shamlou, Iran's greatest 20th-century poet, wrote poems here. The café's signature sandwiches were said to be the meal that sustained a generation of Iranian literary culture. The intellectuals are mostly gone; the sandwiches remain.

Other places in Bars and Cafes