Cafe Di Mara Analysis

Introduction

For the Mini Ethnography, I’ve chosen Cafe Di Roma which is a cafe that serves specializes in coffee but also provides food and it is located in Shangri-La, Between two bridges in the city of Abu Dhabi. The roles that participate in this scene are very limited but that doesn't mean that this scene is not rich in culture; In Addition, this scene includes two vital roles which are that of the staff and the customers. This ethnography aims to study and examine culture from the perspective of the people who belong to the scene being studied. Furthermore, an Ethnography can be defined as the study of culture through the thoughts and practices of a group of people, Ethnographies in the past have been mostly focused on the study of
Il caffè di Roma is just one of the many creations of the Italian Coffee Company Lavazza which was established in the city of Torino in the year 1895 by Luigi Lavazza. The Cafe di Roma in the Shangri La Branch resembles all its other branches in the United Arab Emirates. The Cafe possesses the same warm orange and forest green walls with dark brown tables and chairs scattered around the place on the inside and in the outdoor area. Moreover, different kinds of behavior, beliefs, and worldviews can be found in a cultural scene like Il caffè di Roma. The kinds of behaviors that can be found in the cafe are passive behaviors and non-passive ones; some people mind their own business and are in their own bubble when spending time there but others like the males are there to “socialize” or harass females that pass by the cafe or female
Other Middle Eastern Countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have locals working in fast food places like McDonalds and in restaurants but that doesn't seem to be the case in the UAE. Getting information wasn't as difficult as I perceived it to be before conducting interviews I only had to approach the manager to get permission to ask the staff questions; However, with customers it was challenging because some refused to be interviewed. Overall I think the interviews went as best as they could. I got a good amount of information from the interviews with customers and the staff at Di Roma ,but they could have been better if there was more time; also, to improve the interviews I think I’d interview more people because I think I’d get a better perspective of the cultural scene as well as trying to come up with more open ended questions instead of questions that lead yes-or-no answers. On top of that, the special problems I went through during this project was some catcalls and stares from the males at Shangri-La which is the building where Di Roma is. The stares and the catcalls made me extremely uncomfortable despite it being typical at this place but other than that I did not have any