Mourad, the acclaimed, modern Moroccan-inspired restaurant from chef Mourad Lahlou, has closed after ten years in downtown San Francisco. Its last night of service was Saturday, October 26.
Lahlou announced the closure on Instagram and the restaurant’s website, mentioning several reasons for closing, but alluding to one in particular that he would be discussin publicly at a later date.
“It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to share with you the closure of Mourad restaurant,” Lahlou writes. “It has been 10 years since we opened our doors and started this wild journey in the heart of San Francisco, a place I called home for most of my life.”
He continues, “This decision was not an easy one. Despite the crippling effects of the pandemic on the hospitality industry, and our city in general, especially our area, we have worked harder than ever and managed, not just to save the restaurant, but even strive.”
Lahlou mentions multiple chain-restaurant and retail closures around downtown, as well as the Whole Foods that closed on mid-Market Street, saying that despite all these signs, “we believed in our neighborhood and home and decided to dig deeper and not bail out.”
The chef-owner does not mention the loss of a Michelin star in late 2022, which no doubt was a blow, but he cites “many challenges including a bitter dispute with city officials over the last year, details of which I will share when the time is appropriate.”
Mourad opened, with its glitzy interior and sleek design, to immediate buzz amid the boom times of early 2015. Lahlou had been working on the project for over two years at that point, working with architect Olle Lundberg to design the space in the base of the historic 140 New Montgomery tower — which was then home to Yelp’s multi-floor headquarters.
The restaurant became a training ground for multiple young chefs, including recent Top Chef contestant Rasika Venkatesa, who became Mourad’s chef de cuisine in 2022.
Marrakesh-born Lahlou had already made a name for himself in San Francisco with Aziza, a smaller restaurant in the Outer Richmond named for his mother, serving modern Moroccan food, which opened in 2001 in the space of his former restaurant Kasbah. Aziza became the first Morroccan restaurant in the country to earn a Michelin star in 2010, and Lahlou published an acclaimed cookbook, Mourad: New Morroccan, the following year.
Aziza, which was closed for three years between 2016 and 2019 as Lahlou concentrated his attention on Mourad, remains open.
Mourad now joins a short but notable list of high-profile downtown restaurants that have closed or announced closures due to the pandemic and other factors, including The Slanted Door and Michelin-starred Aphotic.
“I want to thank my staff, past and present, for their hard work and loyalty. You know who you are,” Lahlou writes in his goodbye note. “I want to thank my partners who have made this dream a reality 10 years ago and are still standing by me to this day… Finally, I want to thank our guests for supporting us thru thick and thin over the years. Thank you beautiful people of the bay area and around the world. Without you, none of it would have been possible. It’s been an honor and a privilege to share mourad with you.”
Photo via Mourad Lahlou/Instagram