Riad Azzar

Riad Azzar occupies a position in the ancient core of the Medina with six rooms divided across three standard rooms and three suites, the building organized around a courtyard where a plunge pool sits within the characteristic inward geometry of the riad form. The colour register throughout draws from the North African palette of reds, rusts, ochres, and yellows, a warm vocabulary amplified by an African and Middle Eastern art collection distributed across every level of the house. The salon, with its fireplace, functions as the social anchor of the ground floor during the cooler months; the rooftop terrace occupies the opposite position in summer, a lounge elevated above the Medina roofscape with views that the street-level density of the old city makes otherwise impossible. The restaurant operates with a Moroccan kitchen whose fish pastilla has developed a reputation beyond the house guest list, the dish functioning as an index of the cooking quality available throughout the meal. Riad Azzar has been operating since 2004, a duration that translates in the Medina context into the particular ease of a property that knows exactly what it is: small, specific, and organized around the personal hospitality that gives the boutique riad category its meaning. The art collection, the courtyard pool, and the terrace restaurant form a complementary circuit of reasons to remain within the riad's walls for as long as the old city will wait.