Café Bezalel
One of the (many) things I love about Tel Aviv is that it is a true café culture. There is a lovely café on just about every block, sometimes two. Each one has a personality of its own, and they are always full. And unlike walking into a Starbucks in the USA where everyone is plugged into their own private-Idaho-of-a-laptop, people are talking to each other. Loudly, happily, animatedly. What are all these people talking about all the time? I don't know but I come here and I want to join in the fun!
One café I like is right near our apartment and has a fun back story
The neighborhood legend is that the owner of the cafe lost her husband and then was left with a little bit of money. She picked herself up out of her widow's weeds, and invested in her life's dream: she studied to in Paris to be a pastry chef, came back and established Cafe Bezalel, at 2 Tchernikovsky Street. This cafe is practically unsearchable on the internet: locals only.
The view from the street is very inviting, with today's specialties displayed in the window. Full lunch menu available as well. We got there rather late in the local day though early in our jet lag, but not too late to snag two delicious pieces of cheesecake–one a European style dry cheesecake made with a ricotta type cheese, in Hebrew labeled "baked," and the other our standard dense New York Cheesecake, called "cheesecake-with-crumbs."My daughter liked them both, but I find myself partial to the "cheesecake-with-crumbs." Both were done to perfection and dispatched with ease. And of course the cafe hafuch (which means backwards), or latte, was also excellent. Something of an Italian coffee culture here.
And like in Paris, it is not uncommon to see people bring their best friends:
Probably one of the reasons Tel Aviv has been hailed as the "Paris of the Mediterranean." A smaller, quieter, quirkier, and slightly grungier version of the City of Lights that can go head to toe with any famous European city's café life.
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