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Moroccan Hospitality, owned by Amina McTursh and Nouzha Ghalley, hopes to return to serving its customers at the conclusion of the lockdown. — Photo courtesy of Moroccan Hospitality
By Alberto Gilman
In the midst of COVID-19, Moroccan Hospitality, located at 585 Somerville Ave., owned and managed by sisters Amina Ghallay Mctursh and Nouzha Ghallay, struggles to stay afloat during the statewide lockdown.
Across the state and country, local restaurants adapt to new regulations, lack revenue and customers, and prepare for what lies ahead for their businesses.
“I thought in my mind this stuff will never come to America,” Mctursh said in a phone interview. “Then, I started learning about the COVID-19.”
In the weeks that followed the rise in cases here in Massachusetts, customers would not come into the restaurant and catering orders were all cancelled.
Now, Moroccan Hospitality transitions to take out options in order to keep their customers safe. This is the main source of income that keeps the business going, along with catering.
No savings, possibilities of closure, and the risk of infection are always in the back of the minds of the sisters.
“I’m scared. I’m shocked. I always think about tomorrow, what’s going to happen?” Ghallay said. “If we lose the business, who’s going to hire me with this situation going on now?”
This business is a small part of the larger Somerville community and to lose it would be devastating for the sisters.
The restaurant serves Moroccan food and delicacies to all those who enter and to the surrounding student populations of Harvard and MIT, as well as others.
With not many Moroccan based restaurants in the area, students who traveled to Morocco for a time and wanted to get authentic food back in the states would come to the restaurant to dine.
Creating relationships with the customers since they first started the business is a part of what keeps the business going.
“I love the customers because they love us,” Ghallay said. “I’m going to miss my customers.”
The idea of the restaurant was just after dinner talk between Amina and her late husband James. The idea for the name was his. In 2010, James passed away and Amina returned to Morocco for a time to be with her family. Returning to Somerville, she set out to bring the dream her husband had into a reality.
Supporting this business and other local businesses across Somerville, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the rest of the country will help these owners continue to provide food to their customers.
“Anything you want, I will make it for you,” Mctursh said. “Any special dishes, we will make it for them.”
Connect with Moroccan Hospitality on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/moroccanhospitality
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I havent been too many times, but the food was excellent and the folks who worked there were super friendly.
Looking at the room this place has in the picture I can’t see why they can’t have some people there. I would think with common sense and sanitary precautions they could hopefully have enough to maybe at least survive until things happen to open fully. Granted I am not an expert but it would seem safer than a supermarket to do at least that much. I am sure people would work the state in order to survive. This economy needs to get going safely as well as fight this virus. What are our city officials doing to help? We all need to be working together on this. If our current ideas on reopening don’t work and we have to reverse it we can at least know we tried. We are adults here and need to act like one.
I’m afraid not. Plenty of studies show that prolonged exposure inside publicly accessed buildings without wearing a mask is extremely hazardous. And one cannot dine with a mask on. It’s terribly unfortunate for restaurateurs, but public safety is paramount. I hope that this business can hold on by offering pickup and delivery. We are adults here, let’s behave accordingly.
This place is great – been there a few times.
I think the difficulty is in making standards & regulations that can apply to all types of physical spaces, and furthermore determining what level of risk is acceptable. To go forward we’re going to have to accept some level of risk.
This space is actually fairly small. Yet I could imagine a table layout that allows in 5-6 parties for distancing (assuming each table has families currently living together…) . But equally important (more, actually) is air movement / exchange, as yes there are multiple studies that show how the virus travels & lingers indoors. That’s where a lot of these spaces are inadequate. Upgrading mechanical systems to even begin to address this is too great an expense for a small business like this, especially when occupancy needs to be reduced.
I am not disagreeing Germ but in the even the first stage shows promise then we can go from there. I am not an expert on this but every day it seems there are new changes in how this things works. And so much misinformation. I don’t even know if we should be doing this but since it is started we can only hope it works. Just all guess work to me. I have lost people with this and would like to be safe. Maybe the picture is deceiving to me. But if the places would like to try and do limited business playing safe I think at this point it is worth it. I don’t know where the break even point is on some of these places. But if they can hang on somehow and this works then maybe they can increase the customer base. But this is all guess work. I would like to see it work as the country could possibly fold over this. The economy can only hold out so long. And at the same time we have to worry about the death rate. The old between a rock and a very hard place thing.
Businesses like this need to be subsidized until they can safely reopen. There is no excuse for rushing it and putting people at risk. Instead of obscene giveaways to fat hog corporations and super-wealthy individuals let’s do what’s right and and get these people the loans and grants they need to survive. The party’s over. Time to pony up and take care of hard working Americans for a change.