This new French-Moroccan restaurant is set in a secret garden near Washington Square

On Eighth Street, just off Washington Square, a wrought-iron gate opens onto one of Philadelphia’s secrets: a stone courtyard, shaded by magnolias and dogwoods, behind a brick house built in 1787.

For two decades, Philadelphians have come to what is now the Morris House Hotel for events and dinner — first at Restaurant M, which opened after the house became a 17-room boutique hotel in 2006 and closed in 2020, and later at the Morris, which opened in 2023 and closed last year.

Now Christophe Mathon and Soufiane Boutliliss want to make the place feel less like a destination and more a spot Philadelphians can use all day, every day — for dinner before the theater, a drink after work, grab-and-go breakfast, and brunch and lunch in the garden.

The couple, who own the tiny, 18-seat Sofi Corner Café five blocks away on Locust Street, opened Soufiane at the Morris last week.

Soufiane is not just Sofi Corner replicated in a charming garden setting. It’s a major expansion of the concept into a full French-Moroccan brasserie, with about 120 seats across the courtyard and indoor dining room, plus 12 or so more at the bar.

For Mathon, a French marketing executive who built his career with Coty in Europe and New York, and Boutliliss, a Moroccan-born chef, the move to Philadelphia four years ago was personal as well as professional. “It’s a very walkable, cultural city in different ways — food, sports, people,” Mathon said, and it is close enough to Mathon’s office in the Empire State Building.

Sofi Corner, which opened in fall 2023, is mostly a daytime place — serving baguettes, croissants, croques, brunch, and coffee — operating on the intimate scale of a neighborhood café. Sofi also offered dinners reflecting Boutliliss’ upbringing in Tangier, notably his tagines and couscous. (His couscous royale won praise from Inquirer critic Craig LaBan.)

At Soufiane at the Morris, Boutliliss draws on the Paris bouillon tradition — unfussy, traditional cooking — with dishes such as bavette with shallots, duck confit, coq au vin, bone marrow, escargots de Bourgogne, pâté en croûte périgourdin, and veau marengo. There’s also a head-turning beef tartare topped with a quail egg and served under a clear glass cloche, perfumed by smoked lavender.

Moroccan flavors act as a through line on some dishes, including chermoula, the punchy herb-and-spice condiment, on seafood and vegetables. Soufiane is also where to find Boutliliss’ couscous and tagines, since Sofi has moved to daytime-only hours, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Main courses are priced mostly in the $30s and $40s.

The dessert list reflects both cuisines. There is chocolate mousse, tarte citron, and café gourmand, as well as a version of pain perdu flavored with orange, cinnamon, and pistachio that Mathon calls Moroccan French toast. It will appear on the brunch menu when daytime service begins in a few weeks.

Executing all of this is chef Henry McGuigan, a native Philadelphian who grew up on the German-French border in a military family. After eight years of service and a stretch in government contracting, McGuigan decided that neither suited him. What followed was a line-cook job at Zahav, a return there as house butcher, roles opening K’Far and Laser Wolf, work at Lucky’s Last Chance and Angelo’s in South Philadelphia, and French training with Richard Cusack at June BYOB. Most recently, he was head chef at Tavern on Camac, where he offered a new American menu but cooked French specials on weekends.

Boutliliss was a regular. “Then he offered me the job,” McGuigan said.

One dish McGuigan is particularly proud of is the mouclade — mussels in a crème fraîche, curry, white wine, and Cognac sauce from La Rochelle in southwestern France.

“You don’t really see it in Philadelphia,” Mathon said, “and even in France it’s very regional.”

The cocktail program, led by Parc and Little Gay Pub alumnus Kevin Castro, also draws on Morocco and France, with drinks flavored by orange blossom, pistachio, dates, and North African spices.

Most wine glasses are under $18, and there’s a strong Champagne selection as well as Blanquette de Limoux, one of France’s oldest sparkling wines. Low-ABV cocktails and nonalcoholic options are featured.

For now, the kitchen runs from 4:30 to 10 p.m., followed by a bar menu served until 12:30 a.m. Daytime service — breakfast for hotel guests, coffee-cart service for hospital workers cutting through the garden, and a full brunch — is expected to begin within a few weeks.

Soufiane at the Morris, 225 S. Eighth St., 646-724-9667, soufianeatthemorris.com