Israel defeated the Evil Empire

Yes, that's right...you will find NO Starbucks here!!! Apparently Starbucks invaded in 2001 and by April of 2003 had to close up shop entirely, laying off all 120 employees they managed to hire in that time. Too many good cafes already here. And since just about every cafe, ice cream shop, and restaurant offers free wireless here, they'd have to be willing to budge on their asinine policy of charging for internet while being a paying customer. There is one coffee chain I recognize from the US, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They have pretty good sandwiches; I had a smoked salmon wrap that was tasty. You see a lot of salmon sandwiches here, I guess because you can eat salmon and dairy and it can still be Kosher. It's not hard to find bacon or other pork products, and incidentally there is supposedly this law that no pigs are allowed to set foot in Israel, so they house the pigs here on raised platforms so that they do not technically touch the ground. 

A word about ice cream... Just about every block has some sort of delectable gelateria where even the sorbet tastes like it was infused with cream. My favorite place so far is Vaniglia, just a block or two down Ibn Gvirol from here, for a couple of reasons. One, it's close and on the way back from the park, two, they don't serve crepes as many ice cream shops do so you don't get stuck behind somebody ordering 3 crepes while you wait for your one tiny scoop of ice cream, three, they have a multitude of size options so you can get exactly how much you want, and most importantly, the display. They have a large case of rectangular steel containers piled high with delectable flavors of dark chocolate, straciatella, tiramisu, passionfruit, coconut, lemon....the creamy confections laying in perfectly soft, glistening peaks made by the gelato spatula and to top it off, most of the flavors have a visually appealing sample of the main ingredient on top (such as half a passionfruit or a slice of lemon).