nicollet’s jinn

Sinbad’s Cafe and Deli on Nicollet Ave has been closed for months, maybe years now. The Middle East fare was smashing, a fond destination for foodage in the early-mid aughts. (Yes, that was me, involved in the unfortunate incident with the washroom bidet.)

They did rice right, man, in a way you’d want to fill up on that alone, as though the grape leaves, pita and baba ghannouj weren’t stunning, and then you’d feel foolish, did you not feel amazing.

It’s a shell now. Sad and ghastly. Arabic-inscribed drop ceiling still intact, but shambles within. Growing a jinn.