The place has changed its name - it's no longer Amazonia, it's Corner Kitchen now - but bars in Nairobi rename themselves the way people change jobs, hoping a fresh title fixes something structural. It's upstairs at Lavington Corner Mall, which I've always liked for the same reason I like Kinoti, the friend I was meeting – neither of them tries too hard.
There were four of us and we were the only ones there all evening. This sounds sadder than it was. Something quietly luxurious happens when a bar belongs entirely to you—the music, the rain hammering the roof in a furious torrent, the waitress with nowhere else to be. The music streamed from YouTube—ads and all. Nobody touched their phone to fix it. That felt like a small victory.
