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4th Anniversary
Celebrations for the New Year 2009 began here at Rick's - and around the world - at 11pm on November 4, 2008. It was 4am here... good evening to the cooking staff, the majority of whom had joined us during the past year, including our chef, Youssef and pastry chef Abdesalam. Out in the dining rooms, as I welcomed clients I watched our service staff smartly performing under the watchful leadership of Maitre d'Hotel Mostafa Moushi and Head Waiter Mostafa Meziaty.. Most of them were new as well. Karim was greeting clients at the door and directing them to their tables or to the bar or upstairs bar lounge. Speaking British-accented English after many years in London, Karim, with his wide smile and ample girth, sets the tone perfectly in welcoming our guests. Rachid our barman is alternatively mixing mean Mojitos for visiting tourists, and topping up the whisky glasses of his « keep bottle » clients. Issam is at the piano, his music filling the restaurant and drawing all the ambiance together - blending the nostalgia of the film « Casablanca » with a soundtrack for today's episode in OUR story, the continuing saga of today's Rick's Cafe in Casablanca.
As « The Legend Continues » into its 5th season, I noticed a major change this year as we prepared for the event - there was no major redecoration or remodeling.at least in the front of the house. While the improvements of the past year are subtly evident in the restaurant, the major work was done backstage. With the redesign and upgrade of our Terrace into « The Pergola » bar and barbecue, Issam and I began to study the image, costs and efficiency of our business in terms of service and cuisine. While we would continue to get tourists passing through because of our increasing notoriety, the real challenge was in enticing the local Casablanca residents to come often. We agreed we didn't want to rest at the comfortable level we'd attained, and developed a set of goals and strategies to reach a higher level of cuisine, service and financial efficiency.
An ambitious program of renewal and revitalisation was launched in August to hire additional trained staff in cuisine and service. We attacked the menu, reducing the number of dishes and trying to focus more on the fresh, high quality local produce and suppliers. We were lucky to find a young and highly talented sous-chef, Youssef, who conceived of new presentations of our regular dishes, and continually surprised with new plates and imaginative combinations of ingredients. New waiters and seconds were added to our veteran service staff and an internal training program helped integrate the new staff while « refreshing » the rest. Finally a bold plan was adopted towards the end of 2007 where our dinner menu would be printed daily, and would include standard dishes as well as daily suggestions. The total number of plates would be cut in half. Issam designed the page as well as the database system for easily compiling the menu - target for introduction was as soon as possible in 2008.
A near-disaster with the New Year's Eve dessert ended the brief career of a pastry cook, allowing us to hire a real professional pastry chef, Abdesalam, on January 1 - literally this was « frosting on the cake ». We launched the new menu mid-January, and at the end of the month we said goodbye to Chef Housine who had been a critical part in our growth from 2005 through 2007. After nearly three months the menu is a great success, and it's evident that the forumla works - regular clients go out of their way to tell us they notice the improvements and appreciate the change and variety. By the time our 4th anniversary rolled around the new kitchen and service teams were working in tandem and we invited our favorite clients to dinner. The evening of March 1 was a lot of fun, and felt very much like a dinner with friends and family.for these clients have been watching Rick's grow during the last 4 years and it was clear they shared our pride in reaching our goal.
| Kathy Kriger
March 17 2008 |
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