Le Petit Poucet, Casablanca

Le Petit Poucet is one of Casablanca's oldest and most storied brasseries, established in 1920 on Boulevard Mohammed V near the Marché Central. The restaurant gained lasting fame as a regular gathering place for the Aéropostale pilots in the 1920s and 1930s — among them the aviator-writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who penned letters and sketched on its tables while his mail planes refuelled at Casablanca. Framed correspondence and drawings attributed to Saint-Exupéry still hang on the walls today, making the dining room a small, atmospheric museum to the golden age of air mail. The kitchen serves classic French brasserie fare — steaks, liver, salads, and kefta — alongside Moroccan dishes, at prices starting around 150 MAD. The adjacent Bar du Petit Poucet, with its pavement terrace on the now-pedestrianised boulevard, remains a local institution for morning coffee and evening drinks.