The first visit is not the prize

Every new café along the waterfront in Manama is asking for the same thing. Try us once.

It is a fair request. Nobody gets anywhere without a first chance, and a guest's first visit is exactly that: an hour of attention, a little goodwill, and a willingness to be pleased.

From the guest's chair, though, it is plain that the visit is not the prize. It is the start of a test the guest did not announce.

The guest who walks in has come because a friend mentioned it, or because the terrace looked pleasant from the road. What they will remember is entirely smaller. Whether anyone noticed them come in. Whether the drink matched the description. Whether the table was cleared while they were still there to see it. Whether, on leaving, they felt like someone who had been looked after or someone who had been processed.

Most places put enormous effort into earning the visit and very little into what happens during it. The sign, the opening, the photographs, the invitation to come and see. Then the chance arrives and is spent on an ordinary afternoon.

A chance does not stay a chance for long. It becomes either a reason to return or a reason not to bother, and it becomes one or the other within the hour.

So the request worth making is not only to be given a chance. It is to be ready for the one that is already sitting at table four.