What I love and hate about... Cafe Zarah

By Christine Laskowski (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-09 10:16

It is a little slice of Brooklyn in my neighborhood.

The music is just the right volume and ambient enough, the wi-fi fast.

On any given day, various European languages are being spoken by Olaf's from Germany or Collette's from France, sipping their espressos and lattes.

And it has something that too many establishments neglect - big windows that let the light in.

The decor is modest with exposed wooden beams and white walls, and there is a photography exhibition this month of Malian children.

Zarah's menu is very reasonably priced for the servings it offers.

The breakfast menu supplies sumptuous platters of European treats, but the Good Morning Beijing is so far my favorite (they also offer croissants and Nutella). For 40 yuan, it is enough for two people.

What I hate about it has nothing to do with Cafe Zarah itself and everything to do with me.

Every time I ride my bicycle past, I see its patrons hunched over MacBooks with headphones jammed in their ears, wearing cardigans and scarves and randomly glancing up and out of the window. It is a hipster hive, but what does that make me?

To even have to ask, "Am I a hipster or not?" is a hipstistential one, and indicting.

But it's a place like Cafe Zarah that has really forced me to confront the term.

I like: to get out of the house and do my work aided by a good cup of coffee and music; going to places because they are full with others just like me; bread, cheese and meat, and this place has plenty.

If this makes me some kind of China ex-pat hipster, then so be it.

At least I've found a place where I can be just that, and lucky for me, I'm not alone.