The first Friday after Eid

The first ordinary Friday after Eid is the most honest night in a restaurant's year, and nobody books a table to watch it.

Walk the same street twice. During Ramadan the places with the set menu and the tent out the back are full at sunset, three sittings deep, a waiting list, a queue on the pavement by half past six. A fortnight later the same rooms are half empty on a Friday night, while the small place with no occasion offer, no tent and no set menu has the same forty covers it always has.

The month did not lie. It answered a different question.

A full room during Ramadan means the occasion was in demand and the room was available. People needed somewhere to be at sunset with fourteen relatives, and the kitchen was a detail. That is a lease on a moment, priced by the calendar, and it expires when the moment does.

The ordinary Friday is where the kitchen gets asked about directly. No occasion, no obligation, nothing on the calendar making the choice on the customer's behalf. Whoever comes chose the food, or the room, or the way they were treated the last time they were in it.

Which is why I count that Friday and not the peak. The peak tells you what the month wanted. The quiet Friday after it tells you whether the place has a customer base, or spent thirty nights as somebody else's venue.