Cogitating about Lebanese Restaurants

August 4, 2007

Let's just say there are worse things in life than sitting in a nice Lebanese restaurant and thinking about Arab American identity.. or, to put a narrower point on it.. thinking about how such restaurants fit into the cultural landscape. If I hit upon any unresolvable issues, I can always just take a good long sip from that cold mango juice sitting in front of me.

But seriously.. the Lebanese restaurant has an important place in the landscape. One could consider it a cross-over site. While Middle Eastern markets and bookstores and cultural centers will be frequented almost wholly by immigrants from the Middle East, a Lebanese Restaurant stands out as a site that can attract a wide range of people. This is where Middle Eastern culture can meet American culture. It would be easy, I think, to underestimate the importance of these restaurants in allowing for Americanization. (I think something similar could be said about Mexican food in the US.)

So far I have gotten a good look at two major zones of Arab influence. The first is known as the southend.. and it includes the Dearborn Masjid. I learned today that this area is now largely Yemeni. It is in a secluded corner of Dearborn. In the northeast area of Dearborn is a second Arab zone that follows Warren Avenue. It is along here that I ran into Al-Amir Restaurant. This area appears to be largely composed of Lebanese.. and often quite prosperous ones, judging by the houses.

The central road through Dearborn is Michigan Avenue.. which is part of historic Route 12 running from Detroit to Chicago. Along this main route it is hard to find much in the way of Arab businesses (at least businesses aimed at an Arab audience). Strip malls abound; the usual chain stores are present. Large public structures are inevitably related to Ford. Michigan Avenue represents the official public version of Dearborn.. dominated by Ford and an undistinctive American culture. Arab culture is displaced to the north and south. There are two exceptions to this lack of Arab identity markers along Michigan Avenue. The first is the Arab American National Museum, just across from City Hall. The second is a prominent Lebanese restaurant a little ways down from the museum. This central placement supports my point about the Lebanese Restaurant as a cross-over site.

I ran into this poster (and a couple others like it) in the entrance to the Al-Amir Restaurant. It strengthens my theory that the Arab-American identity is being constructed largely along the lines of a particular version of Lebanon. This makes sense since Lebanon represents a particularly secular version of the Middle East.. one that is easily assimilable to the culture of the US. But this identity is a choice. Lebanon is a small part of the Middle East. I don't see much in the way of Iraqi, Egyptian, or Gulf cultural traditions in the US, and to a large degree they take on a generic Arab-American identity.. and that identity in turn is more shaped by Lebanon than any other place (so goes my theory, at least). This identity represents a narrow slice of Lebanon.. as Hezbollah is arguably a more significant portion of the population than the freewheeling zone in downtown Beirut.. but the secular Lebanon is imaginatively powerful.. and ripe for appropriation.