at the luncheonette

There’s a luncheonette on the Rua Afonso Celso, around the corner from my apartment, a few blocks past the pousada I stayed in for the first two weeks I was here. I’m talking about this one in particular because I think I’m a few visits short of becoming what you would consider a regular there. ‘Regular’ in the sense that I go there at least a couple times a week, order the same thing (sanduiche americano) every time, and my interactions are limited to a few words and short choppy sentences indicating what I want to eat and when I’ll take the check. Luncheonettes are central to the social life of Bahians, since the biggest meal of the day is lunch. The one I’m talking about is different from the others in that it seats more than most, doesn’t have outdoor seating, and serves also as a food and necessity market, with a bread and pastry counter in the back and fruits – bananas, mango and watermelon, and others – on display in the front and in the fridge on the right wall. To the left and towards the back is a fry-cook counter and a mini lunch buffet. There are two rows of square plastic chairs and tables in the middle of the floor, and there are 3 or 4 circular tables pushed against the front and back walls. On a Friday evening the place is very lively and serves as a local bar / restaurant. Behind the fry counter there’s a row of liquor bottles, so not only can you get beer but you can get mixed drinks too. One of their specialties and main attractions is the variety of fresh-squeezed fruit drinks (“sucos”) that they serve, of which there are at least a dozen different kinds. Watermelon, mango, guava, pineapple, and various combinations of these and others to mention just a few. I think the place is family run. Sadly, the status or rank of the workers corresponds almost exactly to skin tone. The man who I think is probably the owner is about mid-50s, smokes incessantly, and regularly helps himself to the coffee machine at the fry counter. When he’s not standing in front, smoking and drinking out of a little clear cafezinha cup and joking with customers, he’s sitting out back at the checkout register. He’s not what you’d call good-natured, but he’s not antisocial either, just quiet, stoic, and looks like maybe he’s got a lot on his mind. He’s also what you’d call white by Bahian standards. I think he has a daughter who also works the register occasionally as well. Same level of stoicism or ambivalence with her. She’s pretty, 35 maybe, but would be much prettier if she smiled once in a while. The two people who are there so much they probably just sleep there are the woman behind the fry counter and the guy who is the “waiter”, if that’s what you call him. They have darker skin, like indios. Whenever she deals with me (clearly a tourist) she wears an unfazable blank expression, but when she jokes with the locals her face brightens to a very friendly smile. I don’t hold this against her, incidentally – I still like her. She’s always wearing a black baseball cap and a bright yellow shirt with the name of the place (which escapes me at the moment) on it. For the most part the waiter, who wears a white shirt like a cook or dishwasher, gets and replaces customers’ 20oz beers from the bottle-shaped mini-coolers that are on all of the tables. All of this is done amidst joking and good-natured ribbing. And of course at the bottom of the labor chain are a woman and a man, both mid-20s and dark black. They wear the same bright yellow t-shirts. She serves as secondary cook and waitress, and he does the moving around of the milk-crate style boxes full of cheap beer that go into and out of the big fridge in the left corner and right side of the place. I should mention that from outward appearances, all of the workers there get treated just fine, and it`s probably as good a place to work as any because of the social scene if nothing else. There is a real sense of community – all of the locals know all of the staff, and all are treated as equals. But even in a positive environment like this you can clearly see racial and economic stratification, which in Bahia is as apparent if not more so than anywhere else I`ve been.