Sharing handcrafted artisan Moroccan goods with Lake Street

On Mostafa Khchich’s first visit to the Midtown Global Market, he thought “Wow! This is what I was looking for!” and he immediately sought out the management’s contact information in hopes of becoming a part of the community there. A few years later, Mostafa had opened Dar Medina and was selling natural, authentic Moroccan goods inside the market. 

Everything at Dar Medina is made by hand, not mass produced, and most of the artisans featured in his shop make only a few goods a day. None of this work is new for Mostafa though, he spent 10 years selling artisan goods out of his home in Chefchaouen, Morocco before moving to the United States. Blending home and work has always been a small sacrifice to pay for his goal of supporting the artists crafting these goods.  “This is my passion and it’s my goal to support the people who spent hours and hours making these things”, Mostafa explained. 

After falling in love with his current wife, Mostafa moved to Minnesota in 2012 and started working odd jobs with the hope of one day finding a space to set up a new shop. A trip back to Morocco in 2014 to see family inspired him to bring artisan goods back to the United States to sell. For two years, he merged home and work again, continuing to work odd jobs while keeping his living room full of inventory until he finally opened Dar Medina in the Midtown Global Market in 2016. 

Mostafa clearly does everything by intention. He is very proud of his work, happy to be in the United States, and sees himself and Dar Medina as part of the larger global economy. His recent plans to visit Morocco and get new products were cancelled due to Covid-19 and he speaks passionately about wanting to support the artists that craft the rugs, blankets, and leather bags he sells. “It was like when you’re listening to music and someone presses pause”, he says while explaining that Dar Media had to close for 3 and a half months during the height of the pandemic. 

Beyond a drop in sales, right now Mostafa’s biggest frustration is not being able to interact with customers. He misses shaking their hands, meeting them, feeling their energy, and drinking mint tea and chatting - this personal shopping experience is what makes Dar Medina so special. 

Luckily, Dar Medina wasn’t damaged during the civil uprising after George Floyd’s murder. Mostafa had the foresight to quickly rent a moving truck, fill it with all his inventory, and drive it to a safe location, “I was lucky, I took everything out for one week and sent a moving truck to St. Cloud, full of my items because I thought, oh my god, all my income and all my life are in this space....so I said I’d rather be safe than sorry”. 

Mostafa is currently working on building an online store to sell his products and would one day like to open a larger location to employ more people in the  Lake Street community and support more artisans in Morocco. He’s hopeful for the future and believes Lake Street will recover, “The Lake Street I know, it’s famous for many cultures, many countries, and I hope it will stay that way.”