FROM ITS INTRICATELY carved, gold-brushed wooden table partitions to its low-slung plush seating and warm saffron hues, nearly everything about Marrakesh, the charming Moroccan restaurant and cocktail lounge that opened on College Avenue this past fall, suggests an eye for decor. It’s no coincidence, given co-owner Fouad Zoubaa spent the better part of four decades working in fine home furnishing galleries in New York City and Indianapolis, perhaps most memorably at Visconti, the shop he operated at the Fashion Mall from 1994 to 2002. But Marrakesh isn’t merely Zoubaa’s latest flashy showroom. Nor is it simply a passion project for the native of Taza in Eastern Morocco, who moved to Chicoutimi, Quebec, for college then to the East Coast before following love to Indianapolis. Zoubaa faced serious culture shock in the Midwest, not to mention a lack of access to the North African spices and staples he needed for cooking his mother’s recipes.
That homesickness led Zoubaa to open a humble cafe in the former storefront of the legendary heavy metal dive bar The Sinking Ship, in the strip of shops that continues to feel the loss of such iconic foodie destinations as the late Greg Hardesty’s Recess and Neal Brown’s Japanese farmhouse spot Ukiyo. Zoubaa gained a culinary windfall early in 2025, when he was introduced to former Anthony’s Chophouse executive chef Aziz Mountassar, the Casablanca-born, French-trained culinary aesthete who had left Anthony’s kitchen and planned to get back into car sales. Mountassar was so impressed with what Zoubba was doing, as well as his offer of a full partnership, that he couldn’t turn down the chance to cook again, this time focusing on the comforting yet no-less-elegant dishes of his homeland. Suddenly, Zoubba’s decades-long dream of opening a restaurant in honor of his mother, Zineb, took luxurious shape.
Having Mountassar on hand to create a broad-minded seasonal menu means that alongside homey tagines and grilled meats, Marrakesh offers dishes that are technically executed from start to finish and artfully presented, including a luscious, must-try first course of Shrimp Pil Pil lavished with garlicky chermoula, a complex, spice-rich relish, and lemon confit. Salads are also more buttoned-up than you might expect, especially the Salad Mechwi mingling cool roasted eggplant and zucchini with heirloom tomatoes and herbaceous harissa oil…