The advertiser
Gordon Knight, SA Weekend
STURT St’s Sahara Moroccan Casbah tea house looks tiny at first glance. The front room seats maybe a dozen people. But that’s just the prelude to a place that has grown and grown over the past 20 years.
It’s now a Moroccan tea shop and diner, Moroccan goods emporium and, most importantly, a place where owner Ali Arhbal can escape the stresses of daily life.
To de-stress, Arhbal has found a most unexpected form of therapy – tiling his cafe with traditional Moroccan tiles. “I’m very happy with the beauty of this place,” he says. “It feels good here.”
Arhbal’s shop didn’t begin as a tea house. It opened 20 years ago as a Moroccan shoes and homewares store. When WOMADelaidestarted and Queensland’s Woodford Folk Festival also gathered pace, Arhbal headed to both – bringing his goods, as well as Moroccan food and drums.
Sahara Moroccan Casbah owner Ali Arhbal. Picture: Bianca De Marchi
He performed at the first WOMADelaide with a group of indigenous didgeridoo players.
“WOMADelaide I never miss, and Woodford I never miss. It’s nice to mix with people and listen to music.”
Seeking out daily interaction with people Arhbal reinvented his store as a tea house, where he also serves Moroccan pancake with spinach, mushroom and chicken on weekends, Moroccan donuts, as well as couscous and tagines for groups who book ahead.
“I wanted change. After what happened to me I wanted people around,” he says as he pours tea for me. “We serve mint tea, green tea and apple tea.
Ali Arhbal. Picture: Bianca De Marchi
“When I came to Australia to live I wanted to bring in mint from Morocco, but you can’t. Then I met a couple who had a big garden and behind their shed I found mint. I started cutting it and they said ‘What are you doing?’ and I said ‘This is my drug!’”
Ali came to Australia in 1983, arriving from Belgium, where he’d migrated to from Morocco at 16. A metal polisher by trade, he found work in Edwardstown.
“The first six months here were hard. I went to the mosque to meet people, but I met lots of Australians by playing soccer. We’d get together, they’d take me to a party. Soccer brings people together,” he says.
Ali’s casbah now seats 80 in brightly tiled rooms.
“I’ll finish tiling next week,” he says. But a broad smile suggests his tiling therapy will continue.
187 Sturt St, city, facebook.com/saharamoroccancasbah
