Tehran –
Baristas and servers linger outside a cafe in Tehran, smoking and chatting, as scheduled daytime power cuts due to energy shortages plunge businesses in Iran’s capital into the dark.
“When the power is out, we are almost completely out of service,” said Ali, a 30-year-old employee, of the nationwide rolling electricity outages imposed daily since Nov. 11.
“We use mostly electrical equipment here in the cafe such as an electric oven and espresso machine,” he said, asking that only his first name be used.