Chain eateries in immigrant zones become multilingual social hubs

Evidence

There was the Palestinian motel owner from down the street; the pretty Filipina night manager who talked about her real estate investments; the African-American security guard, built like a door, who explained the gun-control laws of Washington, D.C., to us; the Russian waitress who comped us our coffee; and of course Laith, whom everyone knew and liked. (He had worked there before.) This is another America, away from the dull, monochromatic life of suburbia and found in those places where immigrants, exiles, and native-born Americans live, eat, and laugh in a babel of languages and nationalities. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 687

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A Denny’s where a Palestinian, Filipina, African-American, Russian, and Iraqi all know each other could seed a slice-of-life short story about the hidden social infrastructure of immigrant suburbia.
• SEED: Angle for an essay: the overnight diner as an informal civic commons where displaced communities actually meet and mix.