Rick's Cafe

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House front of Rick's Café in Casablanca

Rick's Café is a restaurant and bar in Casablanca , Morocco that has been in existence since 2004 . It is a free replica of the location of the same name from the film Casablanca with Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart . In the film, Rick's Café was set in a studio in Hollywood . Visiting the real café is very popular with tourists, especially Americans, as well as expatriates .

history

The model for the film Casablanca was the play Everybody Comes to Rick’s (meaning “Everyone goes to Rick’s”) by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison from 1940. This is where the name of the café comes from. Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the stage work and developed the script for the film from it. The five-star hotel El Minzah in Tangier allegedly provided the template for the oriental backdrop . Not a single scene was filmed in Morocco.

Kathy Kriger was the founder. She developed the idea of making the fictional place Rick's Café in Casablanca a reality. She had previously been a commercial attaché at the US embassy in Morocco. Because of the "war on terror" declared by US President George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , she left the diplomatic service. She won several investors to finance the project. In the arrondissement of Sidi Belyout , she found a suitable old town building not far from the harbor, which she had converted according to plans by the American architect and designer Bill Willis. Kathy Kriger claimed she watched the film 200 times to make sure every detail was correct.

The café opened on March 1, 2004. The owner is the corporation The Usual Suspects SA (German: "The usual suspects"), a quote from the film ("Arrest the usual suspects!").

description

Rick's Café is located on Boulevard Sour Jdid in a mansion from the 1930s at number 248, which borders the city walls of the old town. The facade is dominated by a heavy wooden entrance door and above it by a glazed balcony with black window frames. To the right and left of the entrance there is a large palm tree.

Rick's Café, 2006

The interior is dominated by a three-story high room with arcade niches on the sides. The design is based on the colonial Art Deco style and goes beyond the rather sparse interior design in the film. White, oriental arches, balconies with balustrades, lamps and fittings made of brass, dark furniture, large plants, partly black and white tiles and a lot of light and shadow dominate the room. You see an authentic Pleyel piano and the film runs in an endless loop on a television screen. The bar offers, among other things, gin and tonic . Kathy Kriger stayed with her guests almost every evening, which earned her the nickname "Madame Rick". The staff is elegantly dressed, true to the original, and the bartender wears a fez headgear.

Menu and entertainment

The restaurant offers fine dining with lunch and dinner. The menu contains Moroccan as well as American elements, for example lamb, fish and seafood, but also steaks and hamburgers. For dessert there are fruits and figs next to Rick's cheesecake.

The restaurant prescribes a sporty, elegant dress code for dinner. In the evening there is live music with piano and vocals. Changing artists appear. The standard repertoire is music from the 1940s and 1950s, with the classic film As Time Goes By and the request to the piano player “ Play it again, Issam! “Must not be missing - slightly modified, because the long-time manager and bar pianist is called Issam and not Sam.

Web links

Commons : Rick's Café  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Casablanca: 6 highlights for your perfect stay . In: We'designtrips . Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Bernd Musa: Casablanca: Oriental Illusion . In: der Tagesspiegel . February 7, 2010. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  3. ↑ Rod Nordland: Kathy Kriger, 'Madame Rick' at her Casablanca Cafe, is Dead at 72 ( en ) In: The New York Times . June 30, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  4. ↑ Al Goodman: Rick's Cafe opens in Casablanca ( en 7 May) 2004. Accessed January 8, 2020th
  5. ^ Rod Nordland: 'Play It Again, Issam': In Casablanca, a Cafe Is Still a Cafe . In: New York Times, July 1, 2018.

Coordinates: 33 ° 36 ′ 18.8 "  N , 7 ° 37 ′ 13.3"  W.