THE TEMPLES OF THE COCKTAIL MARTINI

Rick's Café, Casablanca

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine"

This classic movie, directed in 1942 by Michael Curtiz, was filmed in Burbank, USA, thus the Rick's 'Café Américain' that is the magnificent background of that epic never really existed as such in Casablanca; and, being partial to those issues, I would also forgive Bogart for drinking what looks like a Martini in a wrong glass.

Anyway, 'Casablanca' (the movie) is a powerful source of great imagery and I always loved it, as did most of my generation. The love story between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman is the centre theme of the movie, the sideline being the resistence of the free world against the Nazi oppressors. 'Casablanca' was also a display for the talents of actors like Sydney Greenstreet (my favourite), Claude Rains and Peter Lorre, while you can easily forget Paul Heinreid, Bergman's lover, so stiff and tight-lipped in his 'noble partisan' role that you almost cheered for the open aggression of Nazi Major Strasser, superbly played by Conrad Veidt.
Well, being in Casablanca, I couldn't escape the lure of a place named 'Rick's', near the large harbour of the Maroquain city, and couldn't wait to have a Martini there.

The place is quite comfortable, though several tourists in t-shirts, sandals and shorts, drinking Coca-Cola, lowered considerably the tone of the restaurant. I can't imagine what the original Rick would have said to those people