"Around Amideast: LPG or The Yellow Café" by Colleen Daley
Agdal, the neighborhood where Amideast Rabat is located, is full of stores, cafes, shops, upscale housing and more. Central to Moroccan and Rabati life is the café. People of all ages, but especially men, spend hours in a café, nursing a single class of tea or coffee, meeting with friends, discussing, sharing gossip, and generally watching the world go by.
The café closest to Amideast is called La Pause Gourmande or LPG. Many AMIDEAST students, however, have come to know it as The Yellow Café, because of the distinct color of the awnings that face the street. LPG opens between 7:30am and 9:00am, depending on the weather and the season, and serves breakfast all morning. Breakfast consists of pastries and eggs to order. Some cold mornings they even serve a milk-based barley soup similar to cream of wheat known as “harira biyda” as a free add-on to their breakfasts. They of course offer various French-style coffees and Moroccan tea all day long, and their kitchen is open mostly for lunch until about 2:00pm or 3:00pm.
The clientele at this café vary depending on the time of day. On a regular (non-pandemic) morning, anyone can be seen from young families to single men to European expats. Many local fathers and mothers come in during the late mornings to pick up fresh baked bread for their families, and during Ramadan and holidays, all kinds of special pastries are for sale. During the afternoon, the clients are mostly expats from the Gulf region and some Moroccans as well, depending on the day. If there is a big football (soccer) match that day, the café and its sister café across the street are very crowded, because the owners will bring televisions out to the sidewalk, and pack in as many chairs as possible.
Of course, during the pandemic, all these rhythms have completely been upended. During the strict lockdown in the Spring of 2020, the café was only open for a few hours a day, selling bread and pastries. Currently, with a 9pm to 6am curfew in place, the café is open all day, pretty much as normal, but starts to close around 8pm so all the staff can get home in time. And, sadly, many long-time staff were let go during the lockdown and have yet to be hired back.
We all hope that as vaccines are slowly rolled out in Morocco, students and other clients of LPG will come back, and the café will be restored to its former, bustling self.
Colleen Daley is the Program Manager of Amideast Education Abroad in Morocco.
