![]() ![]() There was a closeness with a lot of people,” adds Paul Samara. “When Scott Hamilton and Kristi Yamaguchi would come to town, it was like I was going to see my brother and sister. “One night, when Nat King Cole came in with his family and his whole band, he gave my sister and me wrist watches for serving them,” Naphie Samara says, recalling the jazz pianist as a “perfect gentleman.” What started as Worcester’s first brush with Middle Eastern cuisine, quickly became a renowned celebrity hangout. He suspects it all began when the most respected tour managers and venue directors in the entertainment industry started sending performers after their gigs in Boston. I want to know what drew politicians, athletes, musicians and actors to The El Morocco for decades. Her son Paul Samara is pouring out glasses of water and promises to fill in the fuzzy details. We are sitting at Naphie Samara’s kitchen table in the Grafton Hill neighborhood of Worcester. And there were the celebrities whose names still roll of her tongue in rapid succession. There was a dining room on every floor of the three decker at 73 Wall St., a kitchen in the basement and a potbelly stove that kept them warm in the winter. Now in her late-90s, Samara recalls the restaurant with exceptional clarity. Samara is the last surviving member of the Aboody brood, the eight siblings who co-owned Worcester’s legendary El Morocco Restaurant, which opened in 1943. But if you’re reading this in hopes of learning her recipe, put the magazine down or click to another screen. Frank Sinatra, Rodney Dangerfield, Bette Midler, Al Pacino, and both of the Allman Brothers came to eat Naphie Samara’s hummus. ![]() For decades, celebrities flocked to Worcester. ![]()
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