Exploration ran in two directions at once. One was the landscape: current Arabic cafés, how they are naming themselves, what the category already looks like and where it repeats itself. The other was conversation. Long sessions with the owners, listening to their own stories about coffee and the rituals built around it, and their memories of drink service at home, at family gatherings and through Ramadan. The same thing surfaced every time: the subject was never really the drink. It was gathering, and having something good in your hands long enough for the conversation to open up. That became the brief.