A new taste of marrakech

Shopping and scooters by day, and fire and food stalls by night in city that never sleeps

TWENTY years after my first visit, some things about Marrakech remain remarkably similar. The medina – the labyrinthine old part of the city – is still partly populated by stooped men in djellabas and the occasional donkey-led cart. The late afternoon light hits the high walls of its alleys in warming hues of yellow and orange. It still feels, at times, that everyone wants to sell you something.

Around dusk, the Jemaa el Fna, the medina’s main square, still goes through the same transformation: juice vendors and the occasional snake charmer are replaced by a dizzying array of food stalls and circles of musicians.

Some things, though, have changed. Those donkey carts now share space with cheap scooters, which spin around corners spewing growls and plumes of exhaust. (My Moroccan translator and travel companion Abdellah Aboulhamid told me that, because of the spike in accidents, a wing of the city hospital had adopted a nickname: C90, the scooter’s model name.)

SAID Bourrich creates a cocktail at Le Baromètre, the only speakeasy-style cocktail bar in Marrakech. Homegrown creative types aretransforming the city. | The New York Times