Usual Suspects Casablanca

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I found myself holding down the fort with the kitchen staff today. Our guest chef Leah Caplan was on the train for a well-earned Marrakech excursion after 10 intensive days of training our staff. Rachid, our kitchen manager had his weekly day off. Issam, having been intensely productive for our 5th anniversary and Leah's visit, is away for three days. Mostafa Moushi the stalwart Maitre d'Hotel was not coming in til the night shift. I had to make sure tonight's menu specials Leah had presented yesterday afternoon were well understood. Of course they weren't. I'll see later tonight when I have my dinner how the Beef Shortribs are, and can't wait. I started with the Coq au Vin pot pie and told Tarik, the chef in charge, to prepare it for my lunch. The coq au vin was on the dinner menu last night and this was Leah's novel approach to feature it the next day in another form, boning the chicken and using the same sauce in an onion soup bowl, with puff pastry on top. It was a bad s...( Read more )

and none too soon. Viewing the inauguration from Casablanca was thrilling, and for me a reaffirmation of American values, values that have certainly been trashed, if not lost altogether during the 8 years of the Bush administration. We had a great party here last night, with a giant screen projecting the swearing in, the inaugural address and the helicopter carrying "the decider" back to Crawford. "Happy ReBirthday" said one of my Moroccan friends who joined our party crowd. There were Moroccans, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Swedish, others, but last night we were all Americans and the sense of hope, idealism, confidence and great relief was palpable. Just before starting the program - with Aretha Franklin - I spoke briefly, telling our audience it was the first time I felt comfortable calling our restaurant "Rick's Cafe Americain". They all understood. We've printed special souvenir postcards commemorating the "Inauguration of Barack Obama", offered two for one drinks a...( Read more )

Bill Willis, my dear friend whose design of architectural details, decorative motifs, fireplaces, furniture and lighting created the magical space of Rick's Cafe, died this morning in Marrakech. Anyone tuning in on our webcasting tonight will see our center table with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a single glass. Rick's Cafe was Bill's last project and on his only visit after we opened he said he looked at all his projects as children and he was very, very proud of what we'd accomplished together. I can't feel that Bill is really gone as so much of him is here in this magnificent house that is a restaurant and also my home. From the beginning Bill and I agreed that the real Rick's Cafe should have the elements of the film version, but more luxurious. For instance, on every table in the film "Casablanca" there is a simple lamp with a beaded lampshade. Plain as they are, the lamps are distinctive. Our beaded table lamps he designed after a brass and enamel l...( Read more )

Senior HS English class with Maybelle Spencer. We had a loudspeaker next to the large clock. It wasn't used very often so it started with some static, then the principal announced President Kennedy had been shot. He asked us to pray for him which we did. We were stunned and shocked when minutes later he came back on the speaker, voice breaking, and announced that President Kennedy was dead. I remember Mrs. Spencer told us to put our heads down on our desks…maybe she didn’t want us to see her cry? The bell rang shortly after and I went on to Chemistry class. Mr. Christianson told us that President Kennedy would want us to continue on with our experiments, and we got out our bunson burners, all of us thinking this was not the thing to do. Then the announcement came the busses would take us home. I remember watching the TV, Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley…the sad picture of Jackie Kennedy in her bloodstained pink suit standing next to LBJ as he took the oath of office. The repeated...( Read more )

These last 8 years have been pretty painful for my spirit(s). I was worried there wasn't a ghost of a chance that things would change, that Americans were asleep and not alert to the problems that were piling up. That all changed in the early morning hours of November 5, 2008 here in Casablanca. Finally my side has won, and I'm pretty happy about it. It's taken awhile, and I think this time it's going to work, but as I learned in all my fights in support of the underdog it's up to us to support the ideals and values of our President-elect. By the way, really enjoyed the Obama family chili con carne, beats caviar any day. Here's looking at you Mr. President!

To the tsk tsks of passer-bys over the last year who said, "Just watch, Americans will never elect a black President," I always replied, "Never, but never doubt the basic goodness of the American people." We all are rightfully proud today.

I went back to the US for the first time in over six years last month. My son Kyle and his fiance Sarah got married in Dallas on October 18 and I added visits to New York, Seattle and Portland to see friends and family. Although six years is a long time, I do have the lifeline of email, phone and occasional visitors to stay current with people...and politics. Kyle and Sarah were here in Casablanca during the 2004 election and I tearfully told them the morning after Kerry's "defeat" (I still think he won Ohio) I wouldn't set foot in the US until January 20, 2009. They convinced me of their October choice with the warning that George Bush would be retired in Dallas in January of 2009. So I went and of course had a wonderful time. I found people more mellow, humbled of course by the battering they were taking from the financial crisis, and galvanized by the possibility that Barack Obama could become the next President of the US. The bad economy is forcing some to come to grips wit...( Read more )

I'm going to have a longer piece wrapping up the last days before the election and my first trip to the US in 6 years to share in the joy of my son Kyle's marriage to Sarah, but just had one of those amazing "bar moments" I had to write up while it's still fresh in my mind. In fact the people are still here. We have a regular group of Casablanca regulars built around 3 brothers who come to the bar frequently, tend to stay throughout an evening, their friends, spouses and sometimes children passing through at intervals. Tonight they were in and because we have a new night barman I wanting to make sure they were well taken care of I offered some chicken tandoori and chili con carne, and asked where the Dr. was, the original client who's led all the others to Rick's. "Oh he just went out to do a Cesarean, he'll be right back." And sure enough, just as the plates were placed on the bar, there he was, all smiles, with the words, "Une jolie fille" (a beautiful little girl)! And that i...( Read more )

when matched up with Obama-Biden! Tonight I held an event in our Lounge Bar for Democrats Abroad and anyone interested in the US Election. I showed the DVD I recorded of the last night of the Dem Convention - it's hard to believe it was only 8 days ago. We interrupted the usual screening of "Casablanca" and as we watched Barack Obama's acceptance speech I was again struck by how wonderful and uplifting the Democratic Convention was. Granted, it was a lot more pleasant watching him speak at 8:30pm rather than 3am. As he spoke, I loved looking at the emotions of the audience, and their diversity was a totally positive and prideful moment in American history. Barack took us to "the Mountaintop", then several days later McSame picked a sidekick that brought the electorate crashing down to earth. Quite bizarre tales yet to come out of Alaska, I suspect. Maybe this is what it took to bring many of the undecideds back to their senses. I hope so, the stakes this time are way higher t...( Read more )

We all remember August 29, 2005 as the date that Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf and left the City of New Orleans destroyed. More compelling than the physical damage, which was appalling and scandalous, were the desperate, poignant personal tragedies that the ensuing days revealed. Also unmasked was the insensitivity and utter cluelessness of President George Bush, who chose instead to share a birthday cake with his torchbearer, John McCain, on the tarmac of Phoenix Airport. We've seen shots of Bush playing the guitar in San Diego earlier in the day, but the most revealing photos are in Phoenix, with the cake and the broadly smiling McCain. When disaster struck George Bush fiddled while New Orleans drowned and deemed it a bigger priority to eat cake with John McCain. Bush's absence from New Orleans, his failure to engage in the disaster, the lack of responsibility laid bare for all of us to see his lack of leadership. Let's not forget who joined him on that day.