Rick's Café Casablanca is a restaurant, bar and café located in the city of

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. Opened March 1, 2004, the place was designed to recreate the bar made famous by

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

and

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...

in the movie classic ''

''. It is owned by The Usual Suspects company and is usually described as the real Rick's Café.

Architecture and décor

Rick's Café Casablanca was developed by Kathy Kriger (1946–2018), a former American diplomat and commercial attaché in Morocco. The restaurant is housed in a traditional Moroccan grand mansion with a central courtyard ( riad), built in 1930. Two palm trees flank its front door, and the land placement allows for three facades: a distinctive streetfront entrance with heavy wooden doors that depict that of the film; a port-oriented façade that looks to the Atlantic; and a narrow dead-end access which was the former main entrance but is now the service entrance. Due to the age of the structure and proximity to the sea, the mansion was completely restored and renovated. American architect and interior designer Bill Willis conceived the decorative and architectural details reminiscent of the film: curved arches, a sculpted bar, balconies,

balustrades A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

as well as beaded and stencilled brass lighting and plants that cast luminous shadows on white walls. There is an authentic 1930s

Pleyel Ignace Joseph Pleyel (; ; 18 June 1757 – 14 November 1831) was an Austrian-born French composer, music publisher and piano builder of the Classical period. Life Early years He was born in in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Ma ...

piano and '' As Time Goes By'' is a common request to the in-house pianist. Rick's Café is also full of tile and wood work representing Morocco's craft industry. Fireplaces are of carved marble or painted

tadelakt ''Tadelakt'' () is a waterproof plaster surface used in Moroccan architecture to make baths, sinks, water vessels, interior and exterior walls, ceilings, roofs, and floors. It is made from lime plaster, which is rammed, polished, and treated with ...

with intricate

zellij ''Zellij'' ( ar, الزليج, translit=zillīj; also spelled zillij or zellige) is a style of mosaic tilework made from individually hand-chiseled tile pieces. The pieces were typically of different colours and fitted together to form various pa ...

tile patterns accenting the fireplaces and the risers of the central stairway. Tadelakt in muted colors cover walls throughout the restaurant, and the floors are set in hand made terra cotta tile.

Food

Food selections at Rick's Café takes advantage of Morocco's abundance in seafood. The menu offers a wide selection of fish from the traditional

Sole meunière ''Sole meunière'' (or ''sole à la meunière'') is a classic French fish dish consisting of sole, preferably whole (gray skin removed) or filet, that is dredged in flour, pan fried in butter and served with the resulting brown butter sauce, ...

John Dory John Dory, St Pierre or Peter's fish, refers to fish of the genus ''Zeus'', especially ''Zeus faber'', of widespread distribution. It is an edible demersal coastal marine fish with a laterally compressed olive-yellow body which has a large dark ...

crusted with black pepper, white wine and thyme. Steaks,

foie gras Foie gras (, ; ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a duck or goose. According to French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by gavage (force feeding). Foie gras is a popular and well-known delicacy ...

, goat cheese salad with fresh figs and an American

Crab Louie Crab Louie salad, also known as Crab Louis salad or the King of Salads, is a type of salad featuring crab meat. The recipe dates back to the early 1900s and originates on the West Coast of the United States. History The exact origins of the dis ...

are among the dinner selections. Rick's Cheesecake and Brownies figure on the dessert menu, along with more exotic presentations highlighting local fresh fruit. They also specialize in fromaged seafood.

Music

Issam Chabaa plays piano nightly Tuesday through Sunday, a repertoire of standards reminiscent of the 1940s and 1950s, including classic French, Spanish and Brazilian songs along with American favorites such as ''Summertime'', ''The Lady is a Tramp'', ''Blue Moon'' and the inevitable ''As Time Goes By'' (several times a night). Sunday night is programmed for a

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...

where musicians passing through town, and local amateurs join Issam for jazz improvisation. Between sets and at lunch a soundtrack of compiled standards and big band sounds provides background music.

References

External links

Rick's Café Website

Architecture and décor

Food

Music

References

External links

Further reading