NEW in Dakar, Senegal: A Hi-Fi Listening Bar (Diamono) and Downtown Club (Groov) Reimagining Nightlife in the City

AMPR is pleased to introduce two new openings reshaping Dakar’s nightlife: Diamono, a hi-fi cocktail bar at the seafront Hôtel Terrou-Bi, and Groov, its downtown counterpart. Both are the work of Ludovic Rahal, raised between Dakar and Los Angeles, whose years immersed in LA’s record stores and DJ culture brought him back home with a clear vision: to build spaces where sound, design, and service operate as a single language. Terrou-Bi is his family’s hotel, celebrating 40 years as one of Dakar’s landmark properties on the Atlantic coast, and Diamono is his way of evolving it from within, introducing a new layer of experience that sits naturally alongside its existing identity.

They arrive at a moment when Dakar is earning its place among the continent’s most exciting cultural capitals buoyed by the Dakar Biennale, Chanel’s landmark 2023 Métiers d’Art show, and the recent Saint-Louis International Jazz Festival, and when a younger generation is actively shaping that conversation.

Diamono, meaning “the present moment” or “generation” in Wolof, reimagines the Japanese kissa as a love letter to “Afro music with a capital A.” The design of the space combines bespoke Harbeth speakers, ROTEL amplifiers and an acoustic-mirror ceiling with a vinyl-led program of soul, jazz, afro-funk, reggae, and R&B. The cocktail menu, developed with Hôtel Terrou-Bi’s Resident Barman Bilal Abou Saleh, turns Senegalese ingredients into global classics: highlights include the Sossu Kaani Margarita built on Wolof chili, the Madd Martini using the iconic Saba senegalensis fruit, and a zero-proof reinterpretation of the Senegalese Ataya tea ritual.

Groov is the high-energy counterpart downtown, providing a social playground built as a cultural crossroads for locals and travelers alike. The menu leans into refined soul food and sharing plates, elevated enough for a proper dinner but relaxed enough to enjoy standing, while live Afro-jazz, DJ sets, and a punchier custom sound system carry the room from dinner into a full night out.