People don't exactly yell, "Norm!," but still.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that on the first Friday morning after the boys started school, I stopped at Cafe Duvshaneet, a well-known coffee shop on Rachov Palmach (Palmach Street), for some "natool" and a few minutes relaxation outside. On each subsequent Friday morning, once I have left the boys at school I've gone to Cafe Duvshaneet before doing my typical Friday morning errands (e.g., getting food for dinner, finding good challah, and doing some grocery shopping) in that same block on Palmach. I get some "time alone" before taking care of things and Pentheus gets a few uninterrupted hours of work while I am out of the house.

At any rate, it's official, I am a regular! When I entered Duvshaneet yesterday morning and said, "Boker tov" (Good morning), the owner said, "Boker tov" back to me and then said, "Natool gahdol, chalav cham, blee sucar" (large decaf, warm milk, no sugar)! I laughed and said, "Todah" (Thanks).

Here's where I sit:

I had a couple cups of natool (OK, and a cinnamon roll) while I continued reading "Home to Stay." When I motioned to the owner that I was ready to pay the bill, he came over to where I was sitting and told me he appreciated that I came to the cafe every week and that it is always nice to see me. We chatted for a bit about how I was in Israel with my family for a few months and I how I came here Friday mornings after the kids were at school. I told him how honored I was that I am a "regular" and then showed him the pictures of the cafe I was putting in my blog. When he saw the pics, he asked me what size shirt I wore for a Cafe Duvshaneet t-shirt. The t-shirts are for employees only and not for sale, but he wants me to have one as a present. It was very sweet and actually kind of cool. To add to the coolness, I must add that the entire conversation was in Hebrew, which  makes it even cooler!

(By the way, in case you were wondering about the ash tray, I do not smoke. I included the ashtray in the picture though because smoking is very popular in Israel, Almost every restaurant and cafe allow smoking, even though it makes the rest of the place smell disgusting.)