A fire in Karrada that has not gone out since 1973.

In 1973, Haj Abu Sameer set a mangal down on Arasat Al-Hindiya and grilled for the workers coming off the evening shift. He salted by eye, minced by hand, and told anyone who asked for the recipe to come back hungry instead.

Half a century later the pit is in the same spot, the coals are lit at the same hour, and the third generation still refuses to install a single gas burner. The neighbourhood changed around us. The fire did not.

Everything we serve crossed those coals — the kebab, the river carp, and the Friday tashreeb that has fed the same families for three generations.