There’s a certain major-brand coffee shop down the street from us that I was happy to see opening since that meant that they’d be so much closer to where we live. Then the reality of their choice in location became apparent and now I can honestly say they could shut this one down and I’d be okay with that. You see, they opened on a corner in front of a mostly empty plaza with the other major tenant being a blood plasma donation center. Across the street on one corner is a school for those who couldn’t do traditional high school, a discount store, and an area of the parking lot is taken over by people waiting for a gig as day labor. On another corner is a title-loan store that preys on the poverty of the people in the area. The last corner is a battery store but next door to them is a fast food joint that takes EBT (a.k.a. food stamps).

Here’s the scenario that makes this coffee shop my least favorite: Young men (always men) with bad attitudes (damage from their ineffectual fathers) set up shop in groups of two and three and sell heroin (or opioid of choice) right from this well-known global brand. It most typically works with two guys in the shop and one outside. At some point, a person drives into the parking lot and the person sitting out front goes and gets into the car; they drive away. But these are junkies so they drive to the other side of a tire shop that has drive-through bays so you can see the car on the other side. They sit there for a few minutes and then the seller gets out of the car and walks back to the shop.

Back in the front of the place of the green aprons, one of the guys on the inside either heads out to sit down with the seller or he goes to the bathroom, and after a minute or so the guy outside joins him in the toilet. Five minutes later they emerge and the cycle repeats.

On the other hand, we have those who apparently have already been a member of one of these not-so-subtle circuses and are now a member of the blood plasma donation spot where they go earn about $40, depending on the needs of the market. The next stop, likely per the instructions of the vampires buying junky blood is to go hydrate at the coffee shop, but this is where the heroin is also easily available, wtf?

A bandage around the elbow, a large ice-water, and the blank stare at the phone with their head pulsing to the music is the way they roll.

It’s a shit-show here and this isn’t the only unfolding tragedy. This corner is a transit point for homeless people, the mentally disturbed, and a large number of the poor who cannot fathom paying $5 for a cup of coffee. It’s nearly impossible for me to find productivity at this location as I’m distracted by the cavalcade of personalities that in some way I’m enchanted with. I think that tomorrow I’ll return to the place where I can get things done.

It must be the season of the festival because here we are for the second week in a row hitting the circuit. Who are those pop stars rockin’ it onstage today? I can’t say but I can tell you that they are playing the hits, especially if you are a bit older and Romanian. The Romanian detail is important because that’s the clue to the theme of today’s event. The other detail I’m learning quickly about Serb Fest 2019 and Romania Fest 2019 is that these are fundraisers for the church that supports the community. With this bit of knowledge, our visits become more valuable to us as we know we are contributing to helping sustain a culture that remains important to a generation that grew up knowing these sights, sounds, and traditions.

The most obvious thing about not just this Romanian community but the Serbian too is that religion plays a large role and the number of people from these countries who live here in the Valley is still quite low, relatively speaking. (In comparison to the large Hindu population Phoenix has or the Hispanic community.) I have no way of knowing what the percentage is of people who come out but I’m guessing that the expense might limit participation to some degree. We easily spent $40 on each visit and that was just from buying entry and lunch.

Today’s food was a treat with Mititei being the first dish we sampled. These little sausages are nearly identical to the more well-known Serbo-Croatian sausage known as Cevapi or Cevapcici. Next on the menu were Sarmale or stuffed cabbage rolls with a side of sour cream. So far everything was pretty basic Slavic staples. The Romanian Fest 2019 culinary award however should go to the Ciorba de Burta. What is Ciorba de Burta you ask? It is tripe soup. Describing it simply as tripe soup would be a disservice because until you mix in the extra sour cream and more importantly the ramekin of garlic sauce with Romani power, the dish might be considered just okay. With the amount of garlic that we mixed into our large container of soup, we were enjoying the flavors of Romania for the next day and a half. We finished our visit with Caroline trying a Romanian beer for the first time as we sat and listened to some ladies singing traditional folk songs. Maybe you noticed we said nothing about chimney cake? Well they had those too but our festival allowance was now gone, a good thing as we really are trying to watch what we eat.