The literary café Tmol Shilshom (English translation, Only Yesterday) takes its name from a long epic novel by S. Y. Agnon, the first Hebrew writer to win a Nobel Prize. Agnon wrote extensively about Jersualem from his home in Talpiot, often finding the material for his stories outside of his own window. Agnon wrote standing upright through his old age, and his peculiar writing podium is part of the Agnon House's (on Klausner St.) permanent exhibition. Even the 50 shekel bill features Agnon, his hand resting against his forehead, surrounded by the titles of his stories.
Tmol Shilshom is where I often meet goods friends for coffee and conversation when I'm Jerusalem. There's something about the slightly pretentious, very bookish café that inspires the intimate conversations only people who know each other very well can have. This is a place for old friends.
The menus open like little books, each one representing a literary classic. Replacing familiar food categories are the whimsical entries "Prologue," "Plot," and "Conclusion" (in Hebrew "Sof Davar," also the title of a novel). The placemat (which I saved this time and will try to scan) is a literary pastiche of excerpts from James Joyce's Ulysseus, Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks and the works of several known Israeli writers.
"Tmol Shilshom sits like a horseshoe around a central courtyard in the old-Jerusalem style" (quoted from the café website). You climb a flight of stairs, squeeze through a narrow door, and enter this brightly lit room that could be a library if not for the little round tables and plush, comfortable chairs. The books are available for purchase, but it's enough to be surrounded, almost unconsciously, by books, like the air you breathe.
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