{"id":336143,"date":"2026-06-14T16:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T16:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/336143\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T16:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T16:55:14","slug":"san-antonios-moroccan-bites-closes-after-founders-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/336143\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio’s Moroccan Bites closes after founder’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of San Antonio\u2019s most acclaimed spots for North African cuisine is pausing to mourn the death of its founder. Moroccan Bites Tagine<\/a>, at 5718 Evers Rd. near Leon Valley, says its beloved matriarch and founder, Latifa Ghafai, passed on June 11.<\/p>\n

The restaurant paid tribute to Ghafai in a touching Facebook announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer family is currently taking this time to grieve, reflect, and celebrate her extraordinary life,\u201d wrote a restaurant rep. \u201cShe poured her heart and soul into every dish, and her passion was the cornerstone of our restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghafai relocated to San Antonio in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home. Missing the cuisine of her homeland, she dreamed up Moroccan Bites Tagine in 2009 \u2014 reportedly keeping the initial lease a secret<\/a> from her daughters, Wafa and Nadia El Maroudi.<\/p>\n

Originally, the restaurant, San Antonio\u2019s first Moroccan eatery, only had six tables. The family had expanded by the time Guy Fieri stopped by for an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. According to the restaurant, the Mayor of Flavortown was so impressed with the dishes that he doubled his filming time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although it didn\u2019t give a timeline, Moroccan Bites assured guests that the restaurant would eventually return.\u201c<\/p>\n

We are deeply grateful to all our wonderful customers who have supported both her and Moroccan Bites over the years,\u201d the post continued. \u201cYour kindness and loyalty meant the world to her and continue to sustain us.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of San Antonio\u2019s most acclaimed spots for North African cuisine is pausing to mourn the death of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[751,15679,120010,120009,6946,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-336143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-closing","tag-leon-valley","tag-moroccan-cuisine","tag-north-african-cuisine","tag-obituaries","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}