Restaurant review: Instinct to return Serene Assir finds a space to relax, laugh and talk Nowadays it feels like although there are hundreds of cafés in Cairo, they work along copycat prototypes -- no surprises. Generally functioning along the unattractive line of themes, the fact remains that the perceived quality of a given café is ultimately determined by the cost, alongside how well it emulates being somewhere other than right here. Of course, that's not what a café should be about. Integral to Mediterranean culture, a café serves to heighten the sense of being here, not escaping your town or city, but simply resting in surroundings in harmony with the street and soul of the present. Cairo's hundreds of qahawi (coffee shops) famously achieve this fusion of rest and presence to perfection. It is actually surprising on the first visit to find that La Pietra is not about falsity and escapism -- and therein lies its success. Simply put, there's a beautifully decorated inside, and a chilled outside for the shisha -smokers. The menu is varied, the food and drinks tasty. A minimum charge only applies on weekend nights; the rest of the time use the space to read over espresso in the sunlight on the balcony. The desire to return is real. Seated inside, you feel inevitably like you have a lot of space to yourself. At many of the tables you are seated on comfortable sofas, and there's often a sense that it's only your friends and you at the café, given the distance between tables. What makes this work is the fact that the décor is indeed so warm and earthy that it balances the distances out, and the two combined work to make you want to stay for hours. Outside, the atmosphere is rowdier, especially as La Pietra regulars take advantage of the very last of the summer. It is also tighter, resembling a qahwa in that the tables and wooden chairs are all squashed into a tiny space, aiming to fit as many shisha -smokers into the balcony as possible. But that's also what makes it a lot of fun, and a complete contrast to the calm of the interior. There are of course plenty of facets that are common both to the balcony and the interior, and among them is the tastiness and simplicity of the food. The menu does not strive for much -- the place is, after all, just a café. However, what the menu does attempt, it does well. Aside from offering pasta and pizza, there is also a good selection of starters and salads, among them the La Pietra salad, accompanied by warm goat's cheese. On the other, heavier side, you might want to take your pick from the selection of main dishes on offer, all of which are offered with a choice of potatoes, rice and vegetables. Especially tasty for the carnivorous among you was the black pepper steak. No doubt this dish will feel even better once the winter seeps in. However, La Pietra is not a café whose menu takes precedence over atmosphere. Instead, it appears that this is an in-between-hours place in some ways, one where relaxing does not feel like a problem or a waste. During those hours, the variety of cakes on offer, including chocolate cheesecake, makes it hard to resist staying on a little longer. If La Pietra has but one drawback, it is that only a select few in the city feel they are at home here -- even though the atmosphere screams for a greater variety of customers. Granted, cafés in Cairo do target certain classes; but, as mentioned earlier, La Pietra doesn't seem to want to be like any other café. Perhaps it would be good for others to try the café out, and add greater colour to the atmosphere than it already has. As it is now, there simply isn't enough of what the café reminds you of constantly -- visually or in the atmosphere -- and that is nature. No doubt in the creation of locations to relax as time pushes on, you want to see people reflecting different walks of life. So come on, what are you waiting for? La Pietra 34 Al-Hegaz Street Mohandessin, Cairo Bill for two: LE150
