Basel Street is home to what most people call Basel Square, although its official name is City Builders' Square because there is a memorial to the people who built Tel Aviv in the center of the square. When walking around the Old North of Tel Aviv you might be surprised to suddenly come across a very European-looking square of cafés and shops that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the Middle Eastern city.
This is where the wealthy and fashionable come to get a coffee or indulge in some great sushi. Thanks to its location it tends to be completely devoid of tourists, a real Israeli hangout. The square fills up quickly at the weekend, so you'll have to come early if you want to get a seat at one of the great cafés and restaurants lining the square.
Basel Street is named in honor of the Swiss city in which the first Zionist Congress was held in 1897. Headed by the father of modern Zionism, Theordore Herzl, this ultimately led to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 and Tel Aviv was built as the physical representation of Herzl's dream laid out in his book Altneuland (in Hebrew: Tel Aviv), in which he describes the ideal Zionist city.