Falafel Cafe: A Thick Study

Inside of Falafel Cafe

Order of kabob at Falafel with salads and pita bread sides 

When going through a list of the most non-American restaurants near me that I know, I remembered a little hole-in-the-wall Persian restaurant called Falafel Café. Falafel Café is tucked away behind the front shops that face the main road. Outside of the restaurant is a tiny garden that is mostly dead at this time of year, but a large rock structure with flowing water and several shrubs and grasses remain. Between the garden and the restaurant is an outside eating area filled with plastic folding chairs under a green awning. Plastic lights and some clear lanterns adorn the awning and a fan hangs from the ceiling. The window of the shop always has its curtains closed but has the words “Falafel Restaurant” in gold letters with an open sign between these two words. Next to the restaurant (sharing the same green awning) is a little Persian market that has a few shopping carts outside the door.

Inside the restaurant is a tight space. Behind an arch that attempts to resemble Arabian architecture there is a space for the employees to work. Several paintings adorn the walls, including one painting of a girl with a setar, and one painting of an alleyway. There are also two TVs, which typically show different Iranian TV shows (or at least shows in Farsi) that never seems to be the same show whenever we go. The way to the bathroom is down a small hall and requires you to go around a wood screen with some Iranian iconography. Three chandeliers line the ceiling. A variety of chairs are available, from wooden chairs, a bench in the back, and nicer chairs with padding. All the tables have tablecloths covered in glass. As far as looks, the restaurant is not as nice as some other Persian restaurants that we go to, but the atmosphere is different.

The first thing to note about the atmosphere is the TV shows being Iranian. It surprised our family the first time that we went, and every time that we have gone since they enthralled us. The shows ranged from simply being several things being broken in a relaxing way (such as cutting soap, churning a tree stump), to being what seemed like a drama of some sorts, although the plot was hard to follow. What makes the atmosphere so different, though, is the employees and owner. I am now going to speak of a time when we went to this restaurant with my grandpa. My grandpa is from Iran, immigrating to America after a coup in Iran. When he spoke Farsi to the employee serving us, she spoke Farsi back, and they engaged in a conversation. No one else in my family speaks Farsi, so we just watched and hoped that he wasn’t embarrassing us. They sometimes switched to English so that everyone could understand, but there was a clear connection that existed due to the shared language. After some time, she then went to grab the owner of the restaurant, and he talked with my grandpa for a while. It seems that the owner of this restaurant is himself from Iran and that he moved to America and started this restaurant to do Persian cooking and make family recipes. The owner of the market next door is also from Iran and sells different Iranian products. Although that particular experience was a one time thing, each time that we go, the employees usually talk to us. Particularly when we pay and they see our last name, realizing that we have some Persian ancestry. Other customers, people whom I assume are regulars, get visits by the owner or some employees, who talk to them at length. You pay at the front counter whenever your done, and there doesn’t feel a need to be rushed out. The end of the meal is almost always just us sipping the Persian tea or munching on cubes of sugar and there is a relaxed atmosphere to the whole experience.

This restaurant is different from La Scala. La Scala tries to be Italian by employing appropriate artistic measures, but the atmosphere was different. La Scala’s ability to be able to handle a group of our class’s size spoke to how commercialized the operation was. If our class went to Falafel, we would have filled the whole restaurant. La Scala is attempting to make money by presenting itself as an authentic Italian experience worth going to over not “true” Italian places like Olive Garden. Falafel is still trying to make money, but the owner seems more focused on enjoying himself while doing it, putting on TV shows to watch and talking with customers. Falafel is more focused on the returning customers and establishing relationships. This is just a basic analysis, and I would need to return to La Scala and talk with the Falafel employees again in order to analyze the situation more fully. At the very least, both restaurant offer not just different food, but different experiences to accompany the food.