Restaurant review: Not quite it Serene Assir is unimpressed by the falsity of 3al Qahwa There is little doubt that the old-school street café, or qahwa, holds immense appeal. Once you grow accustomed to a qahwa, it becomes yours. At once inside and outside, Cairo's best qahwas are straightforward, unpretentious and yet full of history. Alone or accompanied, your presence is diluted into the street, and however rested you are, still you remain an active contributor to the city's texture. And that action is exactly what 3al Qahwa café tries to contain. Opened just four months ago, 3al Qahwa functions as a weak copy of the concept of behind-the-street cafés that populate the Arab world. Catering mostly to the moneyed teenage bracket, board games -- from dominos to Scrabble -- are provided to guests free of charge, to play as they take extended puffs from their plastic shishas. One corner of the café has been set up to resemble a Bedouin-style sitting area, just like scores of other Cairo locales, without a hint of originality or warmth. However, most of the café space is actually occupied by rows upon rows of wooden tables and chairs. The layout suggests a classroom, not a coffee shop. The décor, which apparently tries to resemble traditional Egyptian art, is sparse, plastic-based and incongruous. But where 3al Qahwa hasn't failed is the kitchen. Granted, most street cafés do not serve food, but then again the only way to enjoy 3al Qahwa is by assuming that the place doesn't really want to be anything but a coffee shop catering to people in their late teens. In Cairo there are few cafés charging relatively accessible prices which serve all kinds of Egyptian dishes as well as good Lebanese mezze. The combination, given that the food is well made, works. Far from sophisticated, the menu succeeds precisely because it is simple and fresh. Sharing various portions of fteer, tabouleh, fatoush, labneh and Um Ali for dessert we could well have been guests at an Egyptian-Lebanese family home for an evening snack. The bread was fresh, made in the café oven, thus adding to the quality of the food whose beauty lay in its simplicity rather than in its inventiveness. Meanwhile, the staff was friendly and willing to help. The trouble was, however, 3al Qahwa's over- reliance on concept, which is what makes it weak, serving as a constant reminder to the visitor that it has failed in trying to be something. Perhaps time will transform the place and give it more warmth. As it stands, beyond the menu there is too much in this café that is contrived to make it worth its name. For one, guests are warned, as if threateningly, that they will be charged extra for the bread. At this point, you remember the capitalist West, where you are charged for the air you breathe, and think twice about the entire nature of the café. After all, why borrow the concept of the traditional Arab coffee shop if it's going to be capitalised so glaringly? The taste the warning left in our mouths was bitter, no matter how sweet and fresh the bread was. Unfortunately, 3al Qahwa is little more than a reflection of the falsities imbibed daily by the top echelons of Cairo's upper class youth. Neither here nor there, the café has little to offer but a lukewarm simile of its street counterpart. Sure, koshari tea is on offer, but it seems like an addition made too late to save the place from becoming a DIY sample of the darkest breed of Orientalism that the late Edward Said so well described. Now that we've had enough of the West mocking our traditions, let's mock our own, the place seems to say. That's not to say 3al Qahwa is beyond redemption. A lot has happened to Cairo's streets in recent years that challenges the continuity of many of its cafés. Perhaps 3al Qahwa could seize the opportunity to turn itself into a warmer locale with greater beauty and spirit. But don't mind me. I am, after all, biased. Let's make things simpler. Anyone for tea in a downtown qahwa ? 3al Qahwa Amr Street Mohandessin Price for two: LE75
