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Writer's pictureCarlos

Rick's Café in Casablanca, between the fiction and the reality

Updated: Feb 20


Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca
Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business center. Located on the Atlantic coast in the central-western part of Morocco, the city is the most populous city in the Maghreb region.


Casablanca is a modern city with many French colonial-style buildings.


Casablanca is also a movie. Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid. Filmed and set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriate (Humphrey Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Ingrid Bergman) and helping her husband (Paul Henreid), a Czechoslovak resistance leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Germans.


Casablanca poster
Casablanca poster

The plot and the majority of the action takes place in Rick's Café, a moroccan mash-up of a french café and a jazz nightclub.


Scene of the movie Casablanca
Scene of the movie Casablanca

Rick's Café Casablanca is a real place and a restaurant, bar, and café in Casablanca. The restaurant, which opened on March 1, 2004, was designed to resemble the bar made famous by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the film Casablanca. It is owned by The Usual Suspects and is commonly referred to as the original Rick's Café.


Kathy Kriger (1946-2018), a former American diplomat and commercial attaché in Morocco, founded Rick's Café Casablanca. The restaurant is housed in a 1930s Moroccan grand mansion with a central courtyard (riad). Its front door is flanked by two palm trees.



The entrance of the real  Rick's Café in Casablanca
The entrance of the real Rick's Café in Casablanca

The interior of the real  Rick's Café in Casablanca
The interior of the real Rick's Café in Casablanca

If you visit Casablanca, you must dine at this restaurant. Alternatively, you can visit their website, http://www.rickscafe.ma/ .

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