Of All The Gin Joints In All The Towns In All The World, We Didn't Walk Into Any Of Them

You know, it's fine not to have an alcoholic drink with dinner.  Heck, we do it all the time (well, a decent amount of the time).  But, after having wine every night with dinner in Marrakesh, imagine our surprise when we struck out twice in Casablanca.

We went to La Scala for dinner. It's a good place right in the medina walls near the harbor.  Cannons ring the walls you walk through to get there.  It is a lively place, with both locals and tourists (I don't know if we saw a single Moroccan at the restaurants we ate in Marrakech.  (Editor's Note: Are you STILL doing that annoying thing where you alternate the spelling of Marrakesh and Marrakech?  Writer: Yes.)

Looking at the menu, I came to two important realizations.  First, there was no alcohol on the menu.  Second, goat tagine was on the menu.  So, of course, I had to get it.  It was fine, albeit a little dry (except for the part that came right off the bone -- that was quite delicious).

My goat tagine, cooked with celery

and olives.  It wasn't the GOAT of

meals, but it was fine.

 

Decorative tagines

During dinner, we were kept 

safe from foreign invaders.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, planning to have a drink at the bar before heading to bed for our early flight to Spain (well, the flight wasn't that early -- 9 am, but you have to get to the airport and go through customs, etc.).  

(By the way, when you fly there, do you wonder if family can see the red tail lights, heading for Spain?  Do you wave goodbye, just in case they can see you?  Do they say they thought they did, but it must be the clouds in their eyes?  Just how did Elton John and Bernie Taupin come up with those lyrics?  It IS hard to argue with the sentiment that Spain is the best place he's ever been.)

So we followed the signs to the restaurant hotel and bar.  A guy and a gal walked into a bar, and were met by the hostess.  I told her we wanted a drink at the bar.  She asked if we wanted dinner.  I noted we had already eaten.  She was confused as to why we would be there, so I stated our objective again.  She said we could not get a drink at the bar.  She then asked if we brought our own wine (we had not).  

Apparently Casablanca has a law that you can not sell alcohol with a certain distance of a mosque, school, and hospital.  Who knew?  Not us.  I checked the beer in the hotel minibar. . .0.0 alcohol. 

(Look, we were fine not drinking.  It's just funny because everywhere we went in Marrakesh served alcohol).

And so it was time for bed.