night at Caf? Cairo is about as close as you will get to a Middle Eastern fine dining experience on the Island.

Every night the restaurant is fully booked and, when most of the diners leave, the bar is up and running and there is dancing for those who are so inclined.

Ever since the restaurant, which was already popular in Southampton, relocated in Hamilton it has become a hot spot for young hip professionals.

The decor is very hot, with hints of oranges, magentas, and maroons, Turkish carpets, voiles and other fabrics, which help create the atmosphere. Artefacts bring a good deal of old Egyptian flavour with aged solid wood blinds and ancient doors, which act as shades that allow a little light through.

All of this helps to create the ambience and set the mood.

But ambience aside, the food in the establishment is not only authentic, it is also delectable, due in part to the efforts of the executive chef Ian Friedman.

The menu has been radically changed.

"The menu in Southampton was a buffet Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we wanted to bring the buffet concept here, but decided that the difference in clientele from the country to the city has shown a lot more professional people, who are more conscientious about their health, and buffets are the evil," said the chef.

"We just decided to choose an ? la carte menu with a lot of variety. I think people out in the country are more used to getting value for their money and are very cost conscientious, but here there is a different clientele.

"I am all about ? la carte, I am not a buffet type of guy. I like a more upscale approach to dining."

There are two sides of the menu, which features global fusion and the Arabic. "With this we are able to catch the appeal of many different people," he said. "It's like opening an Italian restaurant with a sushi bar ? you are able to grasp a larger audience. I think what we are planning on doing is refining both menus. Professionals will be our main focus in the restaurant, although we want to keep our local clientele happy as well. We want to improvise the menu with as much local species of fish, such as porgy, hind, turbet, rockfish and of course the king of all hog fish ? everybody seems to get crazy when that is around.

"Also I will experiment with other species of fish, but our main goal is to wow people with the food.

"We want to change the Arabic side of the menu, because we want to keep it interesting, we don't want people to go off it and think, 'I've had all the shish kebab that I can eat'. We want to really try to mix it up a bit."

Staff will also try to provide meals off the menu ? as long as people don't make a habit of it.

"For example that is one of the successes of Port O' Call and you have to give them a lot of credit People go there and if what they like is not on the menu, they go to the lengths to make it.

"To be able to do that is great, although we are not asking people to come in and order everything that is off the menu, but we want to let it be known that we are here to serve you."

At the moment the restaurant is taking reservations a month in advance. "It's crazy," said Mr. Friedman. "We knew that the food was going to be a hit, but we didn't realise that the night club aspect of it would be so great when we moved to Hamilton.

"It is a popular place among professionals and I have seen a lot of exempt company people, locals, Government employees as regulars. It is not a place for thugs or riffraff because of the atmosphere. It is also a little bit pricey when compared with Docksiders or Pickled Onion."

Mr. Friedman is an American Jew who grew up in New York and later went to the Culinary School of America.

"I have been in the business for over 20 years and I have done everything from cater movie sets to presidential inauguration balls," he said.

"I worked in one of the best restaurants in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. before I came here. I came to Bermuda because my wife works for an exempt company and her division was transferred here. We have been living here for almost six years and we love it, although we have had some difficult times."

The chef was previously involved in East Meets West, in the Bermudiana Arcade, and also worked for Barracuda Grill before working at Caf? Cairo.

"I am back in the game again," he said, "And I am happy because there is a lot that I can offer the Bermuda culinary arts scene."

Mr. Friedman also hopes that his experiences will catapult him on to the mini screen. He recently auditioned for a Food Network programme "The Next Food Network Television Star".

In the future he sees himself possibly opening another restaurant where he can do more cuisines that are not necessarily Mediterranean or Arabic. "But a cuisine unto my own, which is more of a global fusion," he said. "I'd like to do it in memory of a chef that I once worked for ? Sean Louis Pallidian, who owned Napa, in Las Vegas. He used to be at the Watergate Hotel, in Washington DC.

"He was kind of like a mentor and an idol for me. He was a real inspiration and I wouldn't mind calling the restaurant Napa, because the area boasts so much fresh agriculture, fresh meat and fish, and the wine region. So, my next project in Bermuda would be to have a restaurant that is indicative of that region."

He originally wanted to do a jazz dinner club in Bermuda, as his thoughts are that Bermuda is such a unique place that it would do very well here.

"It could be a turnstile of entertainment that will ultimately give Bermuda a reputation of somewhere you can go to for good entertainment, which, from what I understand, is how it was back in the day. That is what I think Bermuda really should be looking for ? nice waterfront and nice restaurants that will entice people to deliver themselves here for certain time periods for different events.

"It is potentially so beautiful, that it could show the world, through real artists and real people making a difference here and not just someone sitting on a beach at a trade show."

His career goals are basic ? to get his food on the map.

"I like to combine cooking and entertainment whenever I can," he said. "To me it is a passion it is not a job and when I come to work everyday, my mind is always thinking of new things that I can do to make people happy."