A Typical Local Pastime

This is one of my neighbours.

In one of the local neighbourhood dives.

Actually he is the manager (or owner, I am not sure which) of the local narghila hangout. Since I moved into the neighbourhood 5 years ago this storefront has had 5 different incarnations.

At first it was a bourekas restaurant; then it was boarded up, then transformed into a fancy shawarmah joint; then a bourekas place again; then a fancy Arab pastry shop and cafe run by the local mafia, with great knaffe - Nazareth style using shredded wheat pastry instead of semolina and dire creamcakes that were commercial and made with fake cream; then it was boarded up again; then it became a stylish baklawa shop with about 20 different variations on the theme piled into great pyramids of dripping sweetness, my favourites being pinenut and almond; then it went downhill and everything was a little, and then alot sad, plants drooping, sweets looking dusty; a few weeks ago they got new plants, got rid of all of the old pastries and brought in a supply of nargila, and now the place is populated by scary looking local mafia types, who are nothing of the sort.

The local mafia actually went under in some kind of tax investigation teamed with a gang war that never even came close to home. The only reason this war was noticeable was that all their enterprises went out of business, including the appalingly named Godfather - with its larger than lifesize handpainted murals of Al Pacino - the worst being taken from a scene in Scarface. Truly tasteful and just the sort of place you would want to hang out...