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Inside one of Mikhael Street cafés in Beirut, the quiet music hanging over the place seems closer to the atmosphere of a university library than to a bar or a place that the Lebanese are turning to more and more to escape the repercussions of the economic crisis.

Maria Bou Rafael (32 years) is based in the "Aaliya's Books" cafe, where she performs her daily work remotely for non-governmental organizations.

She tells how she takes advantage of the amenities provided, as well as the Wi-Fi internet service. She says that she stayed in the café for long hours "because the electricity is not secured" in her home.

Since the multifaceted crisis began to ravage Lebanon two years ago, the number of hours of feeding from the official EDL has dwindled to almost non-existent. The availability of electricity is now limited to one hour per day, and in the best cases, two.

Participation in private generators that depend on diesel has become costly since the government lifted subsidies on fuel imports, in a country where the decline in the value of the Lebanese pound led to the collapse of purchasing power, and the minimum wage of 675,000 pounds was barely equal to $29, according to the exchange rate in Black market.

Also, the quality of internet connectivity has declined at a time when people need it more as many have adopted remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In view of this shortcoming in vital public services, the Lebanese resort to cafes that are powered by electricity from private generators and have UPS batteries that supply them temporarily when the current is cut off.

"Some people come to the café every day during their work hours," the cafe's director, Niamh Fleming Farrell, told AFP, similar to Maria, who also goes to the place because of its cultural specificity, "at a time when Lebanon has lost many cultural places."

The café, whose shelves are filled with books, takes its name from Alia Saleh, the main character in the novel "An Unnecessary Woman" by the famous Lebanese-American writer Rabih Alamuddin, which tells the story of a woman who takes refuge in her home to be surrounded by her books, while the civil war rages outside.

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And "Younes Café", whose branches are spread especially in Beirut, is a model that clearly reflects the increasing demand for cafes.

The café's management explains to AFP that "during the crisis and the pandemic, customers devote the greater part of their time to work, and prefer the parts that provide them with the greatest comfort." The café was keen to allocate a “study hall” with large tables and electrical sockets in a new branch that it opened about a year ago on Hamra Street in Beirut, crowded with university students located nearby.

The Barzakh Café, which is located on the first floor of one of the buildings, provides diners with a view of Hamra Street, which has always been a vital artery in the Lebanese capital.

"I can see everything from where I'm sitting, and watch the passersby on the street, but I'm in a place where there is privacy and relaxation" at the same time, says fashion design student Mustafa Al-Sous, as he browses his sketchbook.

This calm has become a rare commodity in the midst of the instability in the country as a whole.

Barzakh founder Mansour Aziz told AFP that "the main trend was not to allow the use of laptops" in the café, but this was eventually dismissed, as "people need to work" on their computers.

Cups, mugs and notebooks mingle with phone and computer chargers on the wide tables in the cafe, which opened four months ago.

All the cafe tables are sometimes filled, which presents an opportunity for its customers to weave new relationships, after exit options have become limited in light of the difficult economic and living situation that discourages most Lebanese from going to places of entertainment and nightlife.

Mustafa describes himself as a "very open person" who loves "meeting and talking to people".

He adds, "I love when people come to see what I'm doing... This is not out of self-esteem, but rather stems from a person's feeling in this case that he is not working in vain and for nothing."

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While you are busy doing a digital retouching of an image on the computer, photographer Karim Sakr tells AFP, "I worked from my home for a long time, then I asked myself why not work from these cafes that I used to go to before."

He believes that this "allows the revival of the café culture," referring to a time when some cafés were a place where friends met to play cards or backgammon, intellectuals and sometimes politicians, for discussion and exchange.

Saqr believes that resorting to cafes today "reflects the ability of the Lebanese to withstand and continue, and this has advantages and disadvantages at the same time."

"We try to escape the situation by going out of our homes, meeting people, and working in a café. This (will) is in us, it is in our blood."