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Quietly and ever so subtly, a new generation of designers, restaurateurs, and hoteliers have brought a fresh dimension to Morocco’s most beguiling city—while staying true to its age-old traditions and singular spirit. ThePHOTOGRAPHS BY FELIX ODELL Secret Life of Fez 174 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER / SEPTEMBER 2015 SEPTEMBER 2015 / CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER 175 HERE ARE cities we love be­ cause they’re always in flux; shape­shifters whose primary currency is the new, the inno­ vative, the unexpected. And Tthen there are cities we love because they never seem to change: Year after year, trip after trip, they appear as we remember them, a memory obligingly and reassuringly com­ ing to life before us. For many years, Fez, Morocco’s ancient seat of learning, was a member of the latter group, memorable not for its new hotels or shops but for the reliable sameness of its picturesque medina, a series of threadlike streets that at every turn seem to burrow, warren­like, deeper and deeper into the earth and into the past. You went to Mar­ rakech, 240 miles to the southwest, to shop its concept boutiques and stay in one of its many luxury properties; you went to Fez to pretend you were still visiting the Morocco of Paul Bowles, when donkeys, not motor­ cycles or cars, were the preferred means of conveyance. Or of Edith Wharton, whose 1920 book In Morocco documented her trav­ els there. “Nothing endures in Islam, except what human inertia has left standing and its own solidity has preserved from the ele­ ments,” wrote Wharton of Fez’s particular palimpsestic quality, its varied but harmo­ nious sense of aesthetics, each enriched by the city’s earliest settlers: Berbers, Africans, Persians. “Or rather, nothing remains intact, and nothing wholly perishes, but the archi­ tecture, like all else, lingers on half­ruined and half­unchanged.” She could have written Previous page: Scenes of Fez, including a those words last week, not last century, and shop owner transporting they’d still be true. goods in the medina But recently, something started happen­ (top row, second from left); Bab al Mahrouq, ing here. Unlike Marrakech—always open a twelfth-century to and even encouraging of expatriates—Fez gateway into the medina was not given to welcoming outsiders. And (top, second from right); the lounge at Le Jardin yet over the past few years, a handful of in­ des Biehn guesthouse, trepids, along with a small but influential decorated with textiles band of locals, have begun to change Fez, to and furniture from across Asia and bring to its medieval pathways new places North Africa (bottom, to shop, to eat, to stay. They aim not to trans­ third from left); and form the city—they, like us, are here because a carved wooden door at al-Attarine Madrasa, of what Fez already is, not for what they want a fourteenth-century it to become—but to remind us that no town Islamic school (bottom, is a museum and that every place must occa­ second from right). Traditional sionally remake itself, even quietly, if it is to Right: zelliges—ceramic remain vital. What has emerged is a Fez that mosaics—ornament still feels as gloriously immutable, as true to the front hall at the Palais el Mokri, itself, as it always was—with a few more flour­ built in 1906 by Si ishes and comforts. Here, on the following Tayeb El Mokri, pasha pages, is what defines the city now. of Casablanca. 176 CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER / SEPTEMBER 2015 SEPTEMBER 2015 / CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER 177 The Best of Fez, Now STAY the price of a London parking SHOP HOTEL SAHRAI Opened last April, space!”—which he spent three years NINA ALAMI Palestinian­ Fez’s first contemporary boutique renovating on periodic visits to American textile designer Nina hotel, set on a hilltop near the Fez while working in Europe. Later, Alami (née Galbert) moved to Fez Ville Nouvelle, has quickly become he acquired the adjacent property, from Los Angeles in 2011; she now the city’s most fashionable place where he opened a restaurant, sells her collection of handwoven to stay. No surprise: It’s the creation Numéro 7. Eventually, Di Renza scarves and blankets out of an of Anis Sefrioui, the 30­year­old and two friends—Tara Stevens, unmarked, by­appointment­only scion of the family behind the an expat chef and food writer, and atelier in the medina. “It’s easy to renowned Riad Fez hotel. The 50 Chez Panisse head chef Jérôme get lost here,” Alami says, “but the minimalist guest rooms are Waag—hit on an ingenious longer you stay, the more it reveals spacious and loft­like; public areas, new concept: a residency program itself. The medina suits treasure with fountains and tiled pools, wherein celebrated chefs from hunters—and I love to be on retain a sensuous Moroccan feel. around the world, including alumni the hunt” (artisan project inc .com). There’s also a knockout Givenchy of El Celler de Can Roca, are invited ALFRED BERLIN Carmelo spa—the first in North Africa to helm the kitchen for two or three Tedeschi, an Italian artist and (hotelsahrai.com; from $182). months (restaurant numero7 .com). designer based in Berlin and DAR ROUMANA French chef KARAWAN RIAD With seven Fez, offers sumptuous leather Vincent Bonnin and his Australian expansive suites and a rooftop accessories at his showroom; wife, Vanessa, are the gracious garden, this elegant newcomer open by appointment (aaalfred.de). occupies a seventeeth­century hosts of this excellent restaurant ALI’S ART GALLERY palace in the Andalous Quarter of at their well­priced five­room riad the medina; it’s the creation hotel. Vincent, who trained at At this Aladdin’s cave of antiques of a French trio, who spent more several Michelin­starred European and modern treasures occupying than a decade renovating the place. restaurants, serves seasonal several enormous rooms, the “We thought it would take two dishes inspired by Moroccan proprietor speaks perfect English or three years,” admits co­founder ingredients and techniques; recent and is extremely knowledgeable Valérie Mayorov. “As a foreigner highlights included a salad of about Fez and the many objects in in Fez, you have two fates­­—you can roasted pumpkin, chilies, and his gallery, especially those related become a sage, or you can go crazy.” baby peas with a yogurt and tahini to Judaica (212­535­633022). The owners sagely installed a dressing (darroumana.com). CHEZ HAMIDOU Hidden near the restaurant, tearoom, and hammam, FEZ CAFÉ AT LE JARDIN Chouara Tannery, this diminutive, decorating the hotel with objects DES BIEHN A chic, cozy, and jam­packed shop is the locals’ from their travels: Cuban tobacco serene spot with views of Michel go­to for affordable rugs and poufs containers, a butterfly collection Biehn’s wildly lush gardens ([email protected]). from France, and musical (see “Stay”), it’s open for breakfast, instruments from Cameroon COIN BERBÈRE Mohamed lunch, and dinner, with a daily­ (karawanriad .com; from $165). Bouzidi­Idrissi’s four­shop changing menu of Moroccan and complex—bursting with antique LE JARDIN DES BIEHN A French dishes (jardindesbiehn pottery, seventeenth­ and former pasha’s palace in the heart .com/ en/ restaurant). eighteenth­century wooden doors, of the medina has been splendidly THE RUINED GARDEN Better and rare or antique textiles—is a restored by French expat Michel known for its atmospheric setting favorite of both Nina Alami’s and Biehn, an antiques dealer, and and greenery than its food, this Stephen di Renza’s. “Whenever his wife, Catherine. It’s now a nine­ local haunt is Stephen di Renza’s I want to be around beautiful suite guesthouse complete with favorite place for an alfresco drink, things, I head there,” says Alami. Andalusian gardens, reflecting with well­spaced tables and a “Mohamed has one of pools, a lively little café, and pieces “zen­like” vibe. It’s the brainchild the finest collections of antique from the Biehns’ museum­worthy of British expat Robert Johnstone, Fassi embroideries in Fez” collection—a nineteenth­century a veteran of both The Ivy and (212­356­36946). Chinese opium bed here, an Henri The Wolseley restaurants in Cartier­Bresson photograph there NAFIS HICHAM AT TALA London (ruinedgarden.com). (jardindesbiehn.com; from $165). KEBIRA One of the unmissable CAFÉ CLOCK British expat experiences in the medina: EAT Mike Richardson—yet another a tasting of wild honey—in RESTAURANT NUMÉRO 7 When alum of London’s The Ivy and The unique flavors like carob—at this Stephen di Renza first came to Fez, Wolseley—opened the now­iconic beloved shop in the honey souk. in 1999, he arrived for an extended Café Clock; it’s been jammed with Says Gail Leonard of Plan­It Left: Traditional Fassi pottery on stay “with a fruit juicer and a locals and travelers ever since. Fez, a local travel specialist display at the Souk el Henna, a suitcase of books.” A few months The house special? Camel burgers (see “Play”), “This is my happy picturesque market in the medina. later he bought a riad—“It was (fez.cafeclock.com). place” (212­356­34269). SEPTEMBER 2015 / CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER 179 SHOP AT LE JARDIN investment banker turned textile mosaics, Venetian glass, and Above: Venetian glass in the Palais el DES BIEHN Michel Biehn selects collector and clothing designer. delicate wood carvings, it’s Mokri’s Red Room, one of several suites available for rent in the luxe all the inventory at his hotel’s By appointment only (tamerlanes a stunning example of traditional residence. Right: A view of the medina stylish little boutique, offering daughters.com).

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