Al Tatanji Cafe

Al Tatanji is a small, old-Baghdadi-style cafe tucked into the heritage district around Mutanabbi Street and Souq Al Saray. The name 'Tatanji' is Iraqi-Turkish slang for a tobacco merchant — a clue to the cafe's classic clientele: men trading conversation, narghile smoke, and small glasses of strong black tea poured from a samovar. The interior keeps the time-worn formula that makes Baghdad's coffeehouses so distinctive: dark-wood benches, slightly worn tiles, framed photographs of poets and politicians on the walls, and a backgammon (tawla) table somewhere in the corner. It's a quiet companion to the more famous Shabandar Cafe a few alleyways over.