South Africans are still reeling after hearing the speech broadcast by President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday evening in how the government is implementing measures from today onwards in combatting and containing the Corona Virus in our country, with drastic consequences for every one of us, including every business. News of the first event cancellations and temporary restaurant closures is being announced already. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Baxter Theatre
David Kramer’s ‘Kalahari Karoo Blues’ a cultural treasure!
It was an incredible experience to attend the opening night last night of David Kramer’s newest show ‘Kalahari Karoo Blues’, which runs at the Baxter Theatre until 19 January. It follows ‘Karoo Kitaar Blues’, which Kramer staged for the first time ten years ago, and features a number of the artists of the past shows too.
Kramer should receive an award for his contribution to the cultural treasure of our country, in taking to the road and finding our unique musicians, playing unique instruments, and singing as yet unpublished folk music. For the first time Kramer travelled to Botswana, in search of Ronnie Moipolai, of whom he had been sent a YouTube clip, an amazing talent. His first attempt to find him failed, but with a connection he found Ronnie, and travelled back to Kapong village in Botswana to include him in the show.
Against a backdrop designed by Kramer, he paid tribute to the artists he had featured in earlier shows, who had passed away, and acknowledged the contribution to his show of Hannes Coetzee and the Sonskynsusters, who have performed with him before. He warned the audience that he cannot predict how the show will go, and what makes it so charming is that the performers get up to dance while someone is singing or playing an instrument. Mary Kriel was a hoot, dressed in typical Namaqua dress, with a ‘kappie’, and getting up on a number of occasions to dance. Last year Hannes and Kramer travelled to the USA, where he had been invited to demonstrate his ‘Teaspoon Slide Technique’ of playing the guitar, and teach his method. They met Dolly Parton’s band’s slide guitarist, and he was most impressed with Hannes. He also recorded with Grammy Award winning band Carolina Chocolate Drops, whilst in the USA. Hannes is the first person in the world to play 
the guitar with a teaspoon in his mouth. Hannes and Mary danced the typical Karoo Rieldans (the oldest dance form in Southern Africa) on the stage, enjoying the beat of the music.
Ronnie impressed with his guitarmanship, using unusual ‘upside down guitar styling‘ hand 
movements to create cords, including a number of his fingers, his elbow, and even played the guitar behind his back, to great applause. His fellow Kalahari performers were Babsi Baralong playing a guitar with a bow made from a branch, the instrument sounding like a violin, and Ondong Piet, who spoke English well and was dressed in an outfit made from buck skins, playing an instrument called a ‘kakao segaba’, through which he could replicate a conversation via notes, and create music too, focusing on educating listeners about safe sex.
Kalahari Karoo Blues is highly recommended, in representing the cultural treasure of our country’s folk music history.
Kalahari Karoo Blues, Baxter Theatre, 9 – 19 January. R130. www.computicket.com
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Reserve Brasserie: more than a restaurant, fiery and spirited entertainment too!
Earlier this month the Reserve Brasserie opened in the space which has housed Brio, Riboville, and a Standard Bank, in a building going back to the 1830’s. It is now part of the larger Reserve, spanning Adderley Street to St George’s Mall, in a beautifully renovated building. A visit a week later was a most enjoyable evening, with great service, comedy entertainment, and generous food servings.
I was invited to the opening party, at which canapés were served, but they did not really do justice to the type of food served. I could only stay for a short time, having to also attend the opening night of ‘Queen at the Ballet’ at the Baxter Theatre. The PR consultancy CSA invited me to return a week later, to try the menu, and to see the Reserve facilities. I invited Bettie Coetzee-Lambrecht to join me, and we were treated royally from the minute we set foot into the Reserve Brasserie, which has its opening on Adderley Street.
I was a regular visitor to Brio, having loved what the previous owners Skippy and Lauren had done to restore the interior. Louise van Niekerk did the interior of the Brasserie, we were told. The band stand and dance floor have been removed, and the space has been filled with more tables and chairs. The lounge area near the bar has different furniture, and is more Indian-styled. This is where we had a sherry to start with, and we were entertained and informed by the very knowledgeable waiter Francois Marais, who has worked for Riboville, Brio and now the Reserve Brasserie. We were told that the Stander gang conducted their only unsuccessful bank heist in the building, not managing to steal any money. The name for the Riboville restaurant came from the name of a horse on which owner George Sinovich had bet his last R10000, which was an outsider and paid out 100:1, allowing him to invest in the creation of the restaurant! Riboville once was Cape Town’s largest seller of caviar and of champagne, and also was known for having the largest restaurant wine collection of about 15000 bottles.
I was fascinated by the story of the ghost in the building, which Francois has experienced first hand, when he lived in the building’s 3rd floor for a while, and saw a shadow walking past the stained glass door on numerous occasions, but could never find any sign of a human being, knowing that he was
the only person in the building after lock-up time. He showed us the granite block, which looks like a tombstone, engraved with the name of Alfred Tattersall, born in 1910, and who was such a dedicated bookkeeper on the 3rd floor that he died in the office in 1953. The spirit has made itself felt by the lift going up to the 3rd floor, even though it is locked to not proceed beyond the first floor, the lights swaying, and bottles of wine stored in the old bank vaults in the basement having been found open and drunk! It reminded me of the spirit at Kitima, which we wrote about earlier this month.
Other changes to the Reserve Brasserie are the blue lighting around the bar, and a ceiling grid with mock ivy and
flowers, the ‘hanging gardens’ bringing a more ‘outdoor’ and Italian feel to the inside of the restaurant, not having any windows to outside. Red lighting attracts attention to the ceiling, but its colour can change. A large wall canvas of a beautiful lady facing the restaurant is striking, and is backlit by the candelabra. Francois told us that it is the late wife Anja of the owner of the building, her German husband Harald Sieck having put it up in the Reserve Brasserie in her honour.
The staff are passionate about the special space in which they work, and Creative Director Justin Paul Jansen and Francois took us to see 
The Reserve Club, separated from the Brasserie by a full length curtain. The decorator who did the Club is Andy Graff, and she used beautiful paintings from Occulus for the alcoves, created seating corners, as well as a smoking and a non-smoking bar. The Club is pure ‘theatre’. Using lighter fluid, we were shown how they use pyrotechnics to add extra fun and fire to the experience at The Club. Nellie, the mobile elephant, is ready to do service, being wheeled in, with a pretty girl on it, to serve a bottle of ordered champagne.
Justin demonstrated, by jumping onto the smoking bar, how he uses midget Papi to pour drinks from the top of the counter, direct into the mouths of his clients. Events are held for upmarket beverage brands, and the couches allow clients to dance on top of them. Strobe lighting is incorporated in a beautiful chandelier, and various colours light up the floor. VIP clients have included Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling, various sheiks, and more.
As it is not very light in the building, Francois organised a table lamp, to allow for better quality photographs. Seating for the 94 guests is a mix of red and gilded chairs, as well as black mock-snake wall couches. A serviette with ‘R’ embroidered on it looked smart. Empty champagne bottles serve as candleholders on the tables, a little Italian old-world. The GM and Chef of The Reserve is Seelun Sundoo, who was in charge of La Perla for fifteen years, followed by The Grand in Camps Bay. As an amuse bouche we were served a chicken, lentil, pea, and Indian spice soup in a small bowl, with home-baked honey bread, described as a ‘winter warmer’. The large classy menu offers a large range of items divided into sections Italian style, e.g. Anti-Pasti, Zuppa, Primo, Secondi.
As a starter I ordered the Vitello Tonnato Tartare, which was a deconstructed interpretation 
of the dish, being raw minced veal prepared with olive oil, capers, herbs, tuna, cherry tomatoes, red onion, and gherkins, to which some Indian spices had been added for an ‘exotic feel’. One can also order mussels, scampi, baby calamari, mini lobster buns, salmon cakes, beef carpaccio, and crostini, in a price range of R50 – R95. Pizza is available at the prices of R40 and R65. Soup options are a bisque (R80), or the lentil one we started off with, at R50. Salads cost between R50 (rocket, fennel and parmesan) and R80 (The Reserve Club salad). Pasta Primos are reasonably priced between R65 – R85, and include ravioli and linguini options, as well as lasagne.
The Secondi list offers 14 options, and I chose the pan fried baby salmon trout, with almond, lemon, and capers (R135). 
Francois was sweet enough to fillet it at the table, and to organise Basmati rice. The ‘Reserve’ steak of the day, Cape lobster, and Mozambique Queen Prawns are SQ. Linefish (kingklip on that evening) costs R98, baby kob R110, salmon with curry sauce R130, baby chicken R96, Fillet R115, and veal is available in two options, at R125 and R140. One can order vegetables and fries as extras for R30/R40.
The dessert list offers a fruit plate, a chocolate torte, tiramisu, chocolate eclairs and cake of the day, in two sizes, at R35 and R50. The Torched marshallow meringue 
sounded unusual and interesting, which one dips into the chocolate sauce.
Francois’ witty banter throughout the evening coupled with his excellent service will be remembered for a long time to come, and he wins our vote for ‘Waiter of the Year’, if there were to be such a recognition. It is a pity that he will be leaving for the Marriot in Dubai at the end of September. A night out at The Reserve is highly entertaining, and affordable, with a large food choice. Some of the items and some ingredients specified on the menu were not available on the evening.
POSTSCRIPT 23/9: Reserve Brasserie now offers a Business Lunch from Wednesday – Fridays, 3 courses plus beer or mineral water costing R140.
Reserve Brasserie, The Reserve, 130 Adderley Street, Cape Town. Tel (021) 422-0654, www.the-reserve.co.za (not updated with details of the new chef and menu). Twitter: @ReserveCapeTown. Tuesday – Saturday dinner. Reserve Club Friday and Saturday evenings from 23h30. 25+ year olds, R100 cover charge, but waived if guests have had dinner at the Brasserie. Special midnight menu for the Club on weekends.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Whale Cottage Portfolio celebrates 16th anniversary on Women’s Day!
Whale Cottage Hermanus celebrates its 16th birthday today, being the first of our Whale Cottages to be opened. Our first guests were welcomed on the Women’s Day weekend in 1996.
Initially located on Main Road in Hermanus, in a Victorian Cottage, we moved the guest house into a seafacing property ten years ago, to offer our guests the ultimate opportunity to see the magnificent Southern Right whales from our terrace, the lounge, breakfast room, and three of our bedrooms. Whale Cottage Camps Bay opened in 1998, and Whale Cottage Franschhoek in 2004.
To celebrate the 16th anniversary of the establishment of the Whale Cottage Portfolio, we 
have sponsored accommodation for the ‘Queen at the Ballet’ ‘Freddie Mercury’ singer Cito at Whale Cottage Camps Bay. The show opened last night, and runs at the Baxter Theatre until 18 August.
We are a proudly-women company, and only employ women to look after our guests. I salute my team of Carole, Teresa, Anna, and Hadjira for their contribution to our success. For Women’s Day we salute our lady guests in particular, and all the women who work for the supplier companies we deal with, and thank them for their support. We also admire the work done by our Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille and the Premier of our province Helen Zille, and all women who have broken through corporate glass ceilings, or who have started their own businesses, against tougher odds!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Hot new Cape restaurants opening: Burrata, Orphanage, Bruce’s Boat House, and more!
Our list of latest restaurant openings and closures fortunately lists more openings than closures, and will be updated continuously, as we receive information.
Cape Town
* Neil Grant, ex-sommelier of Rust en Vrede, has opened Burrata, a new restaurant in the Old Biscuit Mill. They will introduce a new 3-course food and wine pairing menu at the end of April.
* Luke Dale-Roberts, Eat Out Top Chef, is to open a real test kitchen, called The Kitchen of Dreams, a private experimental place to develop new recipes, at the Old Biscuit Mill in June
* Chef Bruce Robertson (ex-The Showroom) has opened Bruce’s Boat House for lunches, in Scarborough
* La Belle Café & Bakery has opened in the Alphen Boutique Hotel.
* 5 Rooms Restaurant has opened at the Alphen Boutique Hotel
* Sabrina’s, which opened about two months ago where Depasco was, at the corner of Kloof and Long Street, has also closed down
* Chef Craig Paterson has started as Executive Chef at Dash (Queen Victoria Hotel), the V&A Hotel, and Dock House
* Mitico has opened a pizzeria and ’spaghetteria’ on Kloof Street, where St Elmo’s used to be (son of the original Luigi from Hout Bay)
* Don Pedro’s in Woodstock has re-opened, under Madame Zingara management
* Myög has opened as a frozen yoghurt outlet, at 103 Kloof Street
* Thai Café has opened in the old Cape Quarter
* On a Roll has opened in Mowbray as a gourmet hot dog restaurant
* The Dog’s Bollocks has opened as a burger pop-up restaurant
* Jackal & Hide has opened on Kloof Street
* Graham Beck’s Gorgeous bubbly bar has opened at Catharina’s at Steenberg.
* Col’Cacchio is opening new outlets in Claremont and Westlake
* Dale Thebus is the new chef at Salt restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel.
* A new Vida é Caffe is opening on Prestwich Street
* A cupcake shop is said to be opening on Ebenezer Street, next to T & Co/Table 13, in Green Point
* Il Cappero is moving from Barrack Street to Fairway Street in Camps Bay, opening on 2 June.
* Saints on 84 Kloof has opened on Kloof Street
* Sushibox has opened at Newlands Village
* Richard’s Supper Stage & Bistro has opened on Main/Glengariff Roads in Sea Point, as a dinner theatre (from May), and Bistro restaurant, owned by Richard Loring and Roland Seidel
* ‘I ♥ my Laundry‘ restaurant has opened on Buitengracht Street
* West Street Café has opened in the new Woodstock Foundry, owned by Chef Alan West
* Orphanage has opened as a cocktail and tapas emporium on Bree Street
* Valora on Loop Street has closed down
* ACT Restaurant and Play Bar at the Baxter Theatre closed down
* Philip Arno Botes is the new Chef at Pure Restaurant at Hout Bay Manor.
* Maz Sushi has closed down on Main Road Sea Point
* Planet Green Salad Bar has opened on Kloof Street
* Vanilla in the Cape Quarter has closed down.
* Madame’s on Napier has opened in De Waterkant
* Moyo is to open where the Paulaner Braühaus was in the V & A Waterfront.
* Sinn has closed down its Deli at Wembley Square
* Table Thirteen is closing down in Green Point and moving to Paarden Eiland at the end of May
* Slug & Lettuce has opened on Kloof Street, where Mason was.
* Pizza Vezuvio has opened in the Tygervalley Waterfront
* Bistrot Milano has opened on Blaauwberg Road, Table View
* Forneria Italia has opened in the Bayside Centre, Table View
* Maharajah is selling food at the Baxter Theatre on a take-away basis prior to shows.
* Hussar Grill is to open at Steenberg
* Chef Fred Faucheux is the new Executive Chef at Nobu.
* Cassis is opening a new Salon de Thé in the Gardens Centre in May
* De Grendel has opened De Grendel Restaurant, with Chef Ian Bergh and owner Jonathan Davies
* Toro Wine and Aperitif Bar has closed down
* Piroschka’s Kitchen has moved from Bree Street to Waterkant Street, De Waterkant.
* Honest Chocolate is opening a second outlet with a ‘production kitchen’ in the Woodstock Industrial Centre next month
* The Fez is reopening as a nightclub on Friday, to be called Sideshow
* MasterChef SA finalist Guy Clark, who was eliminated in episode 9, has started as a chef at the Madame Zingara restaurant group next week.
* Josephine’s Cookhouse is to open in Newlands, where Caveau at Josephine’s Mill used to be, belonging to Societi Bistro owner
* A new Vida e Caffe is to open on Maindean Place in Claremont.
* Vovo Teli has opened in the V&A Waterfront, in half of the original Vaughn Johnson shop. They have branches in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg already. The name is Portuguese, and means ‘grandfather’s place’.
* Orinoco has opened on Bree Street, serving Mexican and Venezualean food
* Rotisserie 360° has changed its name to Café Frank
* Gesellig on Regent Road in Sea Point is standing empty, closed down or undergoing a major renovation
* Sapphire has closed down in Camps Bay
* A new McDonalds is opening in the Sanlam Centre
* Salt Deli has chanegd its name to Salt Café
* Keenwa has opened the P.I.S.C.O Bar above its restaurants, open Thursdays – Saturdays from 5 pm
* Characters has opened on Roeland Street
* TRUTH Coffee has opened on Buitenkant Street
* The V&A Food Court is closed for renovations until November. A sign outside the construction area lists the following businesses moving into or returning to the area: Primi Express, Anat, Carnival, Nür Halaal, Royal Bavarian Bakery, KFC, Boost Juice, Simply Asia, Steers, Debonairs, Subway, Marcel’s, and Haagan Dazs.
Franschhoek
* Leopard’s Leap has opened its Tasting room and Liam Tomlin Food Studio and Store outside Franschhoek, and the new Deli will open at the end of June
* Reuben’s, which was said to be opening a Franschhoek branch in a building off the main road, when his Huguenot Road branch lease expires this year, appears to now be looking for an alternative restaurant venue on the main road, as the building purchase close to Place Vendome appears to have fallen through.
* Donovan Dreyer is the new Restaurant Manager of Indochine at Delaire Graff.
* Cheyne Morrisby is the new chef at the Franschhoek Kitchen at Holden Manz
* Chef Vanie Padayachee has joined Le Quartier Français
* Chef Darren Roberts is leaving Grande Provence for a new appointment in the Seychelles at the end of April. Chef Darren Badenhorst steps into his shoes.
* Alton van Biljon has been appointed as Restaurant Manager at Haute Cabriere.
* Wicked Treat has opened.
* FEAST is to open where Franschhoek Food Emporium was, in Place Vendome
* Deluxe Coffeeworks has opened, where the Reuben’s Deli used to be.
* The bubbly Inge Hoffman has left Leopard’s Leap, and is the new Brand Manager for Boekenhoutskloof
* Ryan’s Kitchen is now offering cooking classes on Friday mornings, starting on 1 June
* Okamai Japanese restaurant has opened at Glenwood wine estate
* Chef Shaun Schoeman of Fyndraai Restaurant at Solms Delta has the amazing honour to be working at Noma in Copenhagen for two weeks in July. He also shared that Fyndraai will move to another building on the wine estate in November, and will offer fine dining. The current restaurant will serve light lunches and picnics.
* Taste South Africa, belonging to Cybercellar, has closed down in The Yard off the main road. They have Tweeted that they are looking for new premises.
Stellenbosch
* Cavalli restaurant is said to open on the stud farm on R44, between Stellenbosch and Somerset West, this year or next
* Dorpstraat Deli has opened, where Cupcake used to be.
* De Oude Bank Bakkerij has opened a bar, serving Bartinney wines, and craft beers.
* David Higgs has resigned as Executive Chef from Radisson Blu Gautrain in Johannesburg (previously with Rust en Vrede). He starts at The Saxon in Johannesburg in May.
* Slug & Lettuce is to open where Beads is on Church Street
* Stables at Vergelegen Bistro has opened as a lunch restaurant in Somerset West. Its Lady Phillips Restaurant is being given a make-over by Christo Barnard, and will open in June, with a new name called The Vergelegen Restaurant.
* Warwick wine estate’s new chef is Dane Newton (ex-Chamonix, Cascade Manor).
* Chef Bjorn Dingemans is to open up The Millhouse Kitchen restaurant on Lourensford wine estate in July
* Chris Olivier has opened SimpliciTea Deli in Somerset West
* Chef Jonathan Heath has left Indochine, and will be opening a restaurant at Coopmanshuijs on Dorp Street in June.
* A new Hussar Grill is said to be opening in Stellenbosch
Wellington
* Chef Johan van Schalkwyk has left the Stone Kitchen at Dunstone Winery. He opens his own restaurant Twist Some More in Wellington in July.
Hermanus/Overberg
* Rivendell Estate and Bistro has opened as a restaurant and winetasting venue on the road between Hermanus and the N2, near the Kleinmond turn-off.
* Grilleri (ex-Mediterrea) has closed down, and Chef Shane (ex-La Vierge) is now heading the re-named La Pentola restaurant.
Riebeek Kasteel
* Mama Cucina has opened
Robertson
* Emile Fortuin has been appointed as Executive Chef at Reuben’s Robertson
Garden Route
* Katarina’s has opened at the Kurland Hotel.
Restaurant breaks
* La Colombe is closing for renovations from 17 May – 16 June.
* Constantia Uitsig is taking a winter break from 25 June – 24 July.
* The River Café is closing for a winter break from 13 August – 4 September.
* Tokara closes for a winter break from 22 April, re-opens on 4 May
* Nguni in Plettenberg Bay closes from 1 May – 31 July
* The Foodbarn will be closed for renovations on 7 and 8 May
* Bientang’s Cave in Hermanus is closed for renovations until 21 June.
* The Kove in Camps Bay will be closed from 1 May – 30 August
* The Test Kitchen will be closed from 13 – 28 May
* Burgundy in Hermanus will be closed for dinners until 17 June
* Makaron Restaurant at Majeka House will be closed in June
* Olivello at Marianne Estate will be closed from 30 July – 21 August
* Grande Provence is closing on Sunday evenings until the end of September.
* Pierneef a La Motte will be closed from 18 June – 13 July.
* The main Delaire Graff restaurant closes from 3 -24 June, but Indochine continues to trade.
* Blues will be closed from 1 – 30 June
* Waterkloof in Somerset West is closing for all June.
* The Franschhoek Kitchen at Holden Manz is closed for all of June
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
Cape Town & Winelands Restaurant closures bad sign for winter to come!
Capetonians are still reeling from the news that the country’s and our city’s largest restaurant, Paulaner Bräuhaus, closed down on Sunday evening, after ten years of operating in the V & A Waterfront. Our blogpost about this closure has received more than 1000 unique views in the past 48 hours, an unheard of high readership demonstrating the interest in this story. Kloof Street appears to be experiencing a particularly bad series of restaurant closures, the street having the most restaurants in Cape Town. Our list of latest restaurant openings and closures will be updated continuously, as we receive information.
Cape Town
* Clarke’s Bar and Dining Room has opened on Bree Street, as an American-style diner, owned by Lyndall Maunder, ex-Superette
* Chez Chez Espresso and Cheesecake Bar has closed down off Kloof Street, Tamboerskloof.
* The Black Pearl (ex-Seven Sins) on Kloof Street has closed down
* Andy Fenner (JamieWho?) and friends have opened Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants in Metal Lane, 8 Kloof Street, opposite McDonald’s. They are stocking Farmer Angus McIntosh’s beef, Richard Bosman’s pork, and eggs and chicken from Simply Wholesome. A barista will make coffee, and Jason will bake special chorizo muffins and bacon brioche for them.
* Neil Grant, ex-sommelier of Rust en Vrede, has opened Burrata, a new restaurant in the Old Biscuit Mill
* Societi Brasserie has opened in Constantia
* Luke Dale-Roberts, Eat Out Top Chef, has opened the Pot Luck Club, a Tapas Bar next to The Test Kitchen (photograph above). He will also open a real Test Kitchen, a private experimental place to develop new recipes
* The Bungalow has opened as a 400-seater restaurant where La Med used to be, part of the Kovensky Group, also owning Pepenero, Paranga, The Kove and Zenzero.
* La Belle Café & Bakery has opened in the Alphen Boutique Hotel.
* 5 Rooms Restaurant has opened at the Alphen Boutique Hotel
* Gypsy Café has opened in Observatory
* Kuzina in the Cape Quarter has been sold, and is now called Rocca.
* Sabrina’s, which opened about two months ago where Depasco was, at the corner of Kloof and Long Street, has closed down
* Arts Café has opened at Artscape.
* Chef Craig Paterson has started as Executive Chef at Dash (Queen Victoria Hotel), the V&A Hotel, and Dock House
* Caveau at the Josephine Mill has closed down
* Café Sofia in Green Point has become Slainte
* Knead has opened a large outlet in Lifestyle on Kloof, Gardens
* Mitico has opened a pizzeria and ’spaghetteria’ on Kloof Street, where St Elmo’s used to be
* Mamma Mia in Steenberg has closed down
* Don Pedro’s in Woodstock has re-opened, under Madame Zingara management
* Madame Zingara is said to be re-opening in its original building on Loop Street
* Tong Lok on Kloof Street has closed down.
* Mason on Kloof Street has closed down (to become a Slug & Lettuce)
* Buzz on Kloof Street has closed down
* Myög has opened as a frozen yoghurt outlet, at 103 Kloof Street
* Thai Café has opened in the old Cape Quarter
* Paulaner Bräuhaus in the V&A Waterfront has closed down!
* The Fez is closing down.
* Giorgio Nava’s Down South Food Bar has closed down
* Fat Back Soul has been renamed South China Dim Sum Bar
* On a Roll has opened in Mowbray as a gourmet hot dog restaurant
* The Dog’s Bollocks has opened as a burger pop-up restaurant
* Saints Burger Joint has opened on Kloof Street
* Cape Bubble Tea, which recently opened in Camps Bay, has closed down
* Dear Me has opened its Pantry
* Chef Jannie Melis has left French Toast
* Jackal & Hide has opened on Kloof Street
* Eat on Breda Street has closed down
* Graham Beck’s Gorgeous bubbly bar has opened at Catharina’s at Steenberg, with Jenna Adams as the Manager.
* Operator Pamela Trevelyan and Chef Lana Doyle have left Sunbird Bistro in Camps Bay.
* Col’Cacchio is opening new outlets in Claremont and Westlake
* Chef Daniel Botha, who started at Salt restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel in November, has left. Dale Thebus is the new head chef.
* Vaudeville has closed down
* Shin Tai Asian Kitchen is opening on Regent Road in Sea Point
* Bistro 1682 Manager Juergen Welp has left, and has been replaced by Marc Cowen. Assistant Manager Jenna Adams has moved over to Catharina’s to run Gorgeous by Graham Beck. New assistant managers are Cable Ermstrom and Hilton Klassen.
* A new Vida é Caffe is opening on Prestwich Street in April, and a cupcake shop is said to be opening around the corner, on Ebenezer Street, next to T & Co/Table 13, in Green Point
* GM Nigel Pace has left the Cape Grace Hotel
* Il Cappero will moving from Barrack Street to Fairway Street in Camps Bay, opening in May.
* Saints on 84 Kloof has opened on Kloof Street
* Sushibox has opened at Newlands Village
* Richard’s Supper Stage & Bistro has opened on Main/Glengariff Roads in Sea Point, as a dinner theatre (from May), and restaurant, owned by Richard Loring and Roland Seidel
* ‘I ♥ my Laundry‘ laundry restaurant has opened on Buitengracht Street
* West Street Café has opened in the new Woodstock Foundry, owned by Chef Alan West
* Orphanage has opened as a cocktail and tapas emporium on Bree Street
* Valora on Loop Street has closed down
* ACT Restaurant and Play Bar at the Baxter Theatre closed down overnight on the last March weekend, without paying its rent for the past three months.
* Philip Arno Botes is the new Chef at Pure Restaurant at Hout Bay Manor.
* Take & Bake German Bakery has closed down on Main Road Sea Point
* Maz Sushi has closed down on Main Road Sea Point
* Planet Green Salad Bar has opened on Kloof Street
* Burrata will introduce a new 3-course food and wine pairing menu before the end of April.
* Vanilla in the Cape Quarter has closed down.
* Chef Bruce Robertson has opened Bruce’s Beach House for lunches, in Scarborough
* Cake designer Martin Senekal has closed Cafeteria in De Waterkant, now only selling on order and at the Old Biscuit Mill market
* Madame’s on Napier has opened in De Waterkant
* Moyo is to open where the Paulaner Braühaus was in the V & A Waterfront.
* Sinn has closed down its Deli at Wembley Square
* Table Thirteen is closing down in Green Point and moving to Paarden Eiland at the end of May
Franschhoek
* Leopard’s Leap has opened its Tasting room and Liam Tomlin Food Studio and Store 
outside Franschhoek
* Reuben’s is opening a Franschhoek branch in his self-owned building off the main road, when his Huguenot Road branch lease expires this year
* Dieu Donné in Franschhoek has leased its restaurant to Martin and Marco from Durban, and they have renamed it Roca.
* The sushi restaurant has closed down
* MCC Franschhoek has opened in the Village Square, opposite the church, stocking 34 MCC’s from Franschhoek and serving food as well
* Babel Tea House has opened at Babylonstoren, serving sandwiches, cake and teas.
* Donovan Dreyer from Grande Provence has resigned, and started as Restaurant Manager of Indochine at Delaire Graff. Aldo du Plessis has taken over as Restaurant Manager at Grande Provence.
* The Franschhoek Food Emporium has closed down.
* Bijoux Chocolates has closed down its chocolate manufacture, will continue selling chocolates.
* Chef Bjorn Dingemans has left The Franschhoek Kitchen at Holden Manz, to open up a new restaurant on Lourensford wine estate in spring. Cheyne Morrisby is the new chef at the Franschhoek Kitchen.
* Chef Vanie Padayachee has joined Le Quartier Français
* Chef Darren Roberts is leaving Grande Provence for a new appointment in the Seychelles at the end of April.
* Alton van Biljon has been appointed as Restaurant Manager at Haute Cabriere.
Stellenbosch
* Cavallo restaurant is said to open on the stud farm on R44, between Stellenbosch and Somerset West, this year or next
* Cupcake on Dorp Street has closed down, and Dorpstraat Deli will open
* De Oude Bank Bakkerij has opened a bar, serving Bartinney wines, and craft beers.
* Bruce von Pressentin has been appointed as Executive Chef at The Restaurant @ Longridge
* David Higgs has resigned as Executive Chef from Radisson Blu Gautrain in Johannesburg (previously with Rust en Vrede), and was said to be headed for his home country Namibia. He starts at The Saxon in Johannesburg in May.
* Slug & Lettuce will open where Beads is on Church Street
* De Huguenot, with its Harry Q Bar and wedding reception facilities, will be auctioned on 14 March.
* Stables at Vergelegen Bistro has opened as a lunch restaurant in Somerset West. Its Lady Phillips Restaurant is being given a make-over by Christo Barnard, and will open in June, with a new name called The Vergelegen Restaurant.
* Warwick wine estate’s new chef is Dane Newton (ex-Chamonix, Cascade Manor).
* Tokara closes for a winter break from 22 April, re-opens on 4 May
Paarl
* Chef Matthew Gordon has opened Harvest, a new restaurant at Laborie
* The Spice Route Restaurant has opened on the ex-Seidelberg, now belonging to Fairview.
Hermanus/Overberg
* Simone’s Restaurant has opened in Napier
* Tipples Bar and Grill has opened in Hermanus
* Rivendell Estate and Bistro has opened as a restaurant and winetasting venue on the road between Hermanus and the N2, near the Kleinmond turn-off.
* Grilleri has closed down
Garden Route
* Katarina’s has opened at the Kurland Hotel.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.comTwitter:@WhaleCottage
Cape Town and Winelands Restaurants ♥ Valentine’s Day!
Cape Town
* Roberto’s Signature Restaurant, Long Street: 7-course dinner at R539 per couple (R269,50 per person), or R699 per couple (R349,50 per person) with a bottle of Pongracz Rosé. Tel (021) 424-1195
* Five Flies, Keerom Street: 3-course dinner and glass of sparkling wine R295. Tel (021) 424-4442.
* French Toast: 3-courses and 750ml carafe of strawberry sangria R400. Tel (021)
* La Mouette, Sea Point: 4-course dinner R350. Tel (021)433-0856
* ACT Restaurant, Baxter Theatre: 2-courses and glass of sparkling wine R180. Tel (021) 685-3888
* Casa Labia Café, Muizenberg: 3-course meal R250. Tel (021) 788-6062
* Catharina’s, Steenberg Hotel: Seafood platter R1700 for two; Gourmet Menu R850 without wine pairing/R1150 with wine pairing. Tel (021) 713-2222
* Grand Daddy, Long Street: two picnic options with a movie – R250 or R375 (with bottle of Van Loveren). Tel (021) 424-7247
* Nobu, One&Only Cape Town: cocktail and two 6-course meal options R665/R765. Tel (021) 431-4511
* Signal, Cape Grace Hotel: 3-course meal R 375. Tel (021) 410-7080
* Tobago’s, Radisson Blu: welcome drink, flower, live music, and 5-course dinner R375. Tel (021) 441-3414
* Il Cappero, Barrack Street: ‘Vacanze Ronane’ with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck screened during meal with a la carte menu, 11 – 19 February. Tel (021) 461- 3168
* Dash, Queen Victoria Hotel, V&A Waterfront: 5-course dinner R 495. Tel (021) 418-1466
* Salt, Ambassador Hotel, Bantry Bay: 4-course dinner R450. Tel (021) 439-6170
* 1800 Degrees Grill, Cape Royale Luxury Hotel, Green Point: 5-course dinner paired with wines R495, monies raised go to Newborn Groote Schuur Trust. MC is radio and TV personality Liezel van der Westhuizen. Tel (021) 430-0500.
* Trees, Townhouse Hotel: 3-course dinner R250, 4-courses R295. tel (021) 465-7050
* Cape Point Vineyards: Crayfish picnic and glass of 2007 Cape Point Vineyards Blanc de Blanc MCC R500 for 2 persons (R250 per person), from 18h30. Tel (021) 789-0900
* Addis in Cape Ethiopia: Valentine’s Day Buffet R190. Tel (021) 424-5722
* Five Rooms, Alphen Hotel: 5-course dinner R295; 6 oysters and a glass of bubbly R100. Tel (021) 795-6300
* Café Chic, Gardens: 3-course dinner R235. Tel (021) 465-7218.
* Buitenverwachting Restaurant: 3-course dinner R325 (with R125 extra for wine pairing), and 5-course dinner R495 (with R195 extra for wine pairing), includes glass of bubbly, rose and a slice of Sacher Schnitte to take home. Also St Luke’s Hospice Valentine’s day picnic with band Spectrum and a bottle of Buitenverwachting, R475 per couple (R237,50 per person. Tel (021) 794-3522.
* Altydgedacht wine estate: 4-course Italian dinner R300. Tel (021) 975-7815
* Rhapsody’s, Green Point: A la carte menu with complimentary glass of wine. Tel (021) 434-3004
Stellenbosch
* Jordan Winery: 2 glasses, ice bag, bottle of wine, red rose, and 2 chocolate mousses R200; 2 glasses, ice bag, bottle of wine, red rose, picnic basket with cold meats, cheese and bread, 2 chocolate mousses R300. Tel (021) 881-3441
* Waterkloof, Somerset West: ‘Valentines with a View’: 6-course dinner R450 per person, and paired with wines R 550 per person. Tel (021) 858-1292
* Warwick Winery: Moonlit picnic from 17h00, with jazz, picnic basket, personalised red velvet cupcakes, glass of sparkling wine with rose-petal syrup, R399 per couple (R199,50 per person). Tel (021) 884-4410
* Sofia’s, Morgenster, Somerset West: 3-course dinner plus canapés and glass of sparkling wine R260. Tel (021) 847-1993
* Slaley’s: Dinner Dance, 3-course dinner and bottle of Rosé R550 per couple (R275 per person). Tel (021) 865-2123
* Cuvée, Simonsig wine estate: 5-course Aphrodisiac Valentine’s dinner with glass of Simonsig Brut Rosé Cap Classique R350. Tel (021 888-4932
* Morgenhof: 3-courses plus glass of Morgenhof MCC R295. Tel (021) 889-2032
* Clos Malverne: 5-course dinner, each course paired with wine R295. Tel (021) 802-2022
* Makaron Restaurant, Majeka House: glass of bubbly and 3-course dinner R 325. Tel (021) 880-1549
Franschhoek
* Franschhoek Kitchen, Holden Manz wine estate: 3-course dinner plus glass of sparkling wine R550 per couple (R275 per person). Tel (021) 876-2729.
* Pierneef à La Motte, La Motte: 3-course dinner R295, and with wine R395. Tel (021) 876-8000
* Allée Bleue: 3-courses plus glass of MCC Brut Rosé R295. Tel (021) 874-1021
* Mange Tout, Mont Rochelle Hotel: 3-courses R280, 14 – 19 February. Tel (021) 876-2770
* Country Kitchen, Mont Rochelle Hotel: 3-courses R180. Tel (021) 876-2770
* Grande Provence: 3-course dinner R320. Tel (021) 876-8600
* Salmon Bar: 2-courses R220, 3-courses R270, paired with Haute Cabriere wines and a welcome glass of bubbly or a cocktail. Tel (021) 876-4591
* Cosecha Restaurant, Noble Hill: Picnic for two plus welcome drink R 295 (R147,50 per person) or a la carte menu. Tel (021) 874-3844
* Boschendal: Valentine’s Day picnic with glass of Boschendal Brut Rosé R190. Tel (021) 870-4275
* Fyndraai, Solms-Delta: 3-course lunch R210 Tel (021) 874-3937
* Café BonBon, La Petite Dauphine: welcome drink, live entertainment and 3-course dinner R 375. Tel (021) 876-3936
* Leopard’s Leap and Liam Tomlin Food: 4-course dinner cooked ‘live’ by Liam Tomlin, with bubbly and wines R 650. Tel (021) 876-8822
* Haute Cabriere: 7-course dinner, each course paired with wine R 650. Tel (021) 876-3688
Paarl
* Harvest, Laborie: 3-course dinner R245. Tel (021) 807-3095
* Backsberg: Breakfast R250; picnic lunch R 250 per couple (R125 per person); dinner platter and Danièlle Pascal show R250. Tel (021) 875-5952
Hermanus
* Annie se Kombuis: Platter for 2 plus dessert, live music, bottle of sparkling wine R290 (R145 per person). 10 – 14 February. Tel (021) 028 313 1350
* La Vierge: 4-course dinner paired with wines R220. Tel (028) 313-2007.
* Season: 4-course meal R170. Tel (028) 316-2854
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Camerata Tinta Barocca Sweet and Play Bar Sour Service Awards
The Sweet Service Award goes to Camerata Tinta Barocca, and with them the St George’s Singers, conductor Dr Barry Smith, and soloists Lente Louw and Minette du Toit-Pearce, in performing recently, without payment, at a wonderful concert of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Mozart at St Andrews in De Waterkant, to raise funds for a Re-Walk Suit for paraplegic Andrew Merryweather.
The Sour Service Award goes to Play Bar at the Baxter Theatre. The bar has an unfortunate long L-shape design, with the counter being at the back end of it. I sat down at a table in sight of the bar staff, and waited for 15 minutes for someone to take my order for a coffee. I was told that it is self-service, but there are no signs to communicate that one must place one’s order at the bar. I have been there previously, and have been served. The barman Alvin was rude in his response about why I had not been served. The (very good) cappuccino took 15 minutes to bring to the table. I asked to see a Manager, who was at the sister Act Restaurant, but he never came, so I went to find him in the restaurant. He told me that he had not been told that I wanted to see him. An attempt to order a cappuccino earlier this week failed in that it could not be served in the 15 minutes we had before the show started. The manager Kim impressed in calling the morning after reading my Tweet, and in being apologetic, and very honest about the staff problems that they have experienced.
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.
Open letter to Cape Town Tourism: Freedom of Tourism Speech!
Ian Bartes
Chairman: Cape Town Tourism
15 September 2011
Dear Ian
MEMBERSHIP OF CAPE TOWN TOURISM
Thank you for your letter regarding the status of our Whale Cottage Camps Bay membership of Cape Town Tourism, dated 8 September 2011. In your 9-page letter you request us to motivate why Cape Town Tourism should not terminate our membership due to our Blog, and more specifically, selected comments on it!
I thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight in terms of the allegations you make about our alleged ‘barrage of cyber-criticism’, ‘cyber attacks’, and ‘CTT bashing’ in your letter, and for the challenge to revisit our policy as far as comments on our Whale Cottage Blog goes. As the criticism is about our Blog, I am posting my reply to you on our Blog, so that members of Cape Town Tourism should be informed of your proposed action, and allow them to participate in the debate about Social Media and its responsible use in tourism marketing, being a public interest matter.
For the background, you will no doubt know that my PR company Relationship Marketing previously, and now my Whale Cottage Camps Bay, have been a member of Cape Town Tourism for about 20 years, motivated by our belief that it is the right thing to be a member of one’s local tourism bureau, and we have adopted this policy in the four towns in the Western Cape in which we have Whale Cottages. In addition, I was a Board member of Cape Town Tourism for a number of years, of its previous (still not yet wound-up) Section 21 company, and was its Deputy Chairman, working closely with then-CEO Sheryl Ozinsky to run the most successful tourism bureau in the country at the time. Our loyalty towards Cape Town Tourism has been visible to your CEO, in that we assisted her to get her current job, and in that I invited her to address members of our Camps Bay Accommodation association, which I head up, to motivate our members to become members of Cape Town Tourism. In fact, we made it mandatory for members of our association to be members of Cape Town Tourism, until our members regrettably voted against this membership criterion a few months ago, due to their dissatisfaction with the benefits of membership of Cape Town Tourism, leading most Camps Bay guest houses to not renew their membership of your organisation.
You may also know that we have written a WhaleTales newsletter for the past ten years, and it is a tourism newsletter, including general news about tourism in Cape Town and the Western Cape, and news about local restaurants, the wine industry, the film industry, whale watching, and any other news that is related to tourism. Our Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog was started three years ago, and we publish a daily post about a tourism-related topic. Our blog is known for its honesty, and achieved the honour of a Top 10 listing of ‘Most Controversial Blog’ in the SA Blog Awards last year. You will note our blog credo is “independent.incisive.informative”, and we have lived up to this at all times. Over time, both the newsletter and blog have achieved a substantial readership. Our writing has not changed over the past ten years, and Cape Town Tourism has been allowed to contribute input and response over the years. In the past three months (i.e. out of 92 blogposts), we have written nine blogposts about Cape Town Tourism and its marketing activities, and another 21 have referred to Cape Town Tourism in a secondary manner.
It is therefore a surprise that we should receive your letter of allegations relating to our recent writing about Cape Town Tourism, given that it is no more or less in quantity than before. What has changed in content is that we have become more critical of the Marketing activities (or rather, lack of) by Cape Town Tourism, after it became clear to us that there was no recognition of nor action by your management of the tourism crisis in our city, until we wrote about it on our Blog, and it was then picked up as a front page story by the Cape Argus. In our capacity as a member of Cape Town Tourism, as a ratepayer of Cape Town, and as a writer, it concerned me greatly to hear your CEO answer a question about the positioning of Cape Town at the ‘strategic plan’ presentation at the Baxter Theatre recently, which reflected her obviously uninformed Marketing understanding. The fact that she had to call in consultants to write the plan, and Australian ones at that, deserved intense debate in the interest of the industry.
Our response to your adverse allegations about our Blog is as follows:
* No Code of Conduct has ever been sent to us as members, and therefore not signed or agreed to in acceptance. In the past week your offices have not been able to honour our request to send us such a signed document.
* Your nine-page letter refers repeatedly to us not treating Cape Town Tourism, its staff, and its representatives with ‘honesty, respect and dignity’, as per the Cape Town Tourism Code of Conduct, in six comments and two blogposts on our Blog, for which you present examples of alleged ‘disrespect’, but no allegations of dishonesty nor loss of dignity are made or substantiated by you. We reject these allegations with contempt, given that our blogposts and comments have not been designed to prejudice Cape Town Tourism and its agents.
* You write about the ‘immense volume, intensity and frequency of the criticism’ (clause 5.1.1), ‘frequency and intensity of these cyber-attacks’ (clause 5.1.2), and ‘torrent of criticism’ (clause 5.1.3), and it demonstrates your lack of understanding of Social Media. None of these alleged criticisms of frequency by yourselves are contrary to any code of conduct nor to Social Media practice, and cannot be linked to an alleged ‘attempt to denigrate CTT (Cape Town Tourism)’, as claimed by you.
* You refer to “Twitter posts” (the word is ‘Tweets’) as being a problem, yet present no evidence of this!
* You (mistakenly) refer to a commenter on our blog as a ‘follower’, implying that we have a special relationship with our commenters! Most commenters are unknown to us, especially as they use false names and/or gmail addresses. Interesting is how you take one comment out of hundreds on our blog out of context, to support your ‘argument’! You have not fairly highlighted the numerous replies to comments that I have written, defending our relationship with your CEO, and stating over and over again that nothing that we write is meant personally about her or her colleagues. We have also expressed over the years our respect for your CEO and the good work that she and her team has done in amalgamating the Visitor Bureaus in Cape Town. This does not mean, however, that some activities by your organisation are not worthy of criticism.
* Your clause 5.1.3. is devoid of all logic
* Your clause 5.1.4. alleges ‘CTT bashing’, which you link directly to comments being disallowed on our blog. As the owner of a blog, one has the right to disallow defamatory, disparaging, and dishonest comments. Whenever we post a blogpost about Cape Town Tourism, we receive what can be described as ‘hate speech’ towards ourselves, and while they may state their support for Cape Town Tourism, they also ‘bash’, to use your word, myself and my Whale Cottages, which is not what comments are intended for. A question begging an answer is how you would know that (unpublished) comments have been sent to our blog, given that comments are not visible until I allow them? Could it be that the sending of comments in support of Cape Town Tourism has been encouraged by your PR department, or dare I allege, even written by Cape Town Tourism, using pseudonyms and gmail accounts?!
* It is the comment we received from Mavis Wilken (clause 5.2.1) that appears to be at the crux of your letter, as we received a separate letter from your lawyers Webber Wentzel on the same day, threatening legal action if her comment is not removed from our Blog in its entirety. We had edited the comment soon after it was allowed (30 hours is an extreme exaggeration), to protect your CEO. The comment was received on the same day as Ms Wilken forwarded an e-mail to us which she had sent to the tourism representatives of the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government, alleging mismanagement by Cape Town Tourism in a number of respects. Under threat of legal action by yourselves, but not in admission of any wrong-doing, we have removed Ms Wilken’s comment in its entirety.
* The remark made by Ian Macfarlane, the Australian ‘Strategetic consultant’ of Cape Town Tourism, was written by me in a positive manner, and was expressed by him as a compliment to your CEO in her ability to obtain funds from the City of Cape Town and other sources. To read an allegation of ‘corruption’ , defamation, and disparagement into this compliment is preposterous, and is disparaging in itself!
* We have noted a surge in disparaging comments from a small collection of commenters (Marco, Mike, and Jeremy Claasen in the main, the latter sometimes writing the same comment six times a day, in the mistaken belief that it will be published), all in support of Cape Town Tourism, and wildly disparaging towards ourselves, whenever we publish a blogpost about Cape Town Tourism. We have had to increasingly request these commenters to rewrite their comments by editing out their disparagement, and we delete these comments if they are not rephrased. It is our Blog, and quite frankly we can write on it what we wish (you appear to have little problem with its content, and more with its comments), and can allow reasonable comments. For the first time we have edited two commenters’ comments, both of these edits relating to blogposts in which Cape Town Tourism is mentioned, received from Ms Wilken and Maria. No disparagement was intended nor implied in our reply to Mike’s comment (clauses 5.2.3 and 5.2.4). To read into our reply to him that Cape Town Tourism ‘…is deserving of no support…’, as alleged by you, and that it is an ‘..attempt on your part to undermine and cause embarrassment to the organisation’ is ludicrous, and is rejected with contempt! Being a member of the tourism industry, it would be ludicrous for me to defame or disparage the good name of an industry association that my company is a member of.
* The comment we made about your CEO’s lack of support of the Grand Prix in Cape Town was exactly as you stated it, made in ‘jest’ (clause 5.2.5). No allegation was made that your CEO is ‘…not of sound mind and sober senses’, and cannot be deduced from our writing. We reject your allegation.
* You appear to be looking for allegations of implied ‘corruption’ in reading our Blog and its comments. The ‘corruption’ link you make to my observation about your Board members Nils Heckscher and Susanne Faussner-Ringer, in their capacity as previous Board members of FEDHASA Cape, and their irresponsible attempts at coercing the accommodation industry to sign with MATCH for the FIFA World Cup last year, is far-fetched and incomprehensible (clause 5.2.6). It therefore cannot be seen to be ..‘unfounded, unsubstantiated and patently disparaging’, as alleged by you, as the tourism industry knows about the financial loss it suffered as a result of signing with MATCH on the recommendation of these two directors, and it is ironic that the loss suffered included the properties managed by Mr Heckscher and Mrs Faussner-Ringer! It is also rather obvious that your organisation is using the same threatening technique to terminate our membership, as FEDHASA Cape attempted to two years ago, when we spoke out against MATCH!
* Your response to our claim that Cape Town Tourism ‘planted’ the ‘100 Women 100 Wine’ blogpost comment from ‘Thandiwe Motse’ is factually incorrect, as I did not write that it emanated ‘..from the offices of CTT’, as alleged by you. Comments can be sent to a blog from any computer, and after hours too (clause 5.2.7). Cape Town Tourism’s link to this comment is clear, especially given that no Google reference exists for ‘Ms Motse’, that she provided an incorrect e-mail address for herself, very odd for a businessperson, and that her surname was incorrectly spelt in both the comment and Cape Town Tourism Tweets about this event. ‘Ms Motse’ would have been welcome to e-mail and to call me, to express her point of view to me directly, as the owner of the Blog, rather than to complain via her ‘friend’ about our Blog to Cape Town Tourism! No racial slur was implied, as alleged by you! We have proof that your PR Manager has directed an (unpublished) comment to our Blog, using a false name.
* Over and above the specific denials we have made against your allegations, we categorically deny your allegations of ‘bad faith’, ‘malicious intent’, ‘evident satisfaction in what you perceive to be failings…’ , as well as of ‘disparaging, undermining and even defamatory comment and criticism’.
Lastly, comments have become the bane of blogs, and are increasingly disparaging, rude, and even crude, not always aimed at the subject matter of the blogpost, but often at the blog owner too. Initially our policy was to allow most comments, in the interest of freedom of speech without prejudicing tourism, but soon it became evident that commenters saw our Blog as a means of ‘blog bashing’ us in the main. As the blog is a voluntary unpaid-for activity we do for the love of it, we see no reason to post such disparaging comments.
We are delighted that you support that ‘..our members are entitled to engage in debate about the direction, strategy and performance of CTT, and that this debate may be ‘robust’. We believe that we have acted within these guidelines, as well as the Freedom of Speech which is ensconced in the Constitution of our country. We feel that your organisation’s CEO may be over-sensitive to Social Media, which spares no one, including myself and my company!
While you and I are debating ‘respect‘ in the main, I believe that respect is a two-way courtesy, and therefore we have the right to demand respect, and that we should not be disparaged or defamed by your organisation, its CEO, and staff too. Consider the following examples of disrespect which have been shown to ourselves as a member of Cape Town Tourism, and as a blogger listed on your Cape Town Tourism media list:
* The Re-Tweet in October last year by your PR Manager Skye Grove of a Tweet by Naashon Zalk, of which the content was defamatory to ourselves, making her guilty of defamation too. A complaint lodged to your CEO about the defamation was rejected, reflecting your CEO’s lack of understanding of the law of defamation. Another defamatory Tweet by @Lesterkk was also Re-Tweeted by Ms Grove on 22 November 2010.
* The acceptance by Cape Town Tourism of a complaint lodged against our Whale Cottage Hermanus (not a member of Cape Town Tourism), by Mr Zalk about our warning to our guest house colleagues in Hermanus about an attempt by him and his House & Leisure editor wife Naomi Larkin to defraud us, instead of it being passed on to the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, as would have been the correct procedure. Cape Town Tourism attempted to bring us into disrepute with the provincial Consumer Protector, by passing on Mr Zalk’s complaint to them. We have never heard from them again about the matter, after explaining Mr Zalk’s alleged fraud attempt against us.
* Ms Grove attempted to have our website www.whalecottage.com, which was hosted with Hetzner, closed down last year, which led us to move it to an American server, at a cost to ourselves.
* The accusation on 22 November 2010 by Ms Grove, in a comment posted on the ‘Spaniard in the Works’ blog, that I had ‘unlawful‘(ly) taken down Martin Hatchuel’s website is defamatory. It was clear, by Mr Hatchuel’s own admission, that his refusal to delete a defamatory comment on his website, leading to a complaint against his site, had led Hetzner to close down the website. In the same comment, Ms Grove disparages my ‘lack of journalistic quality and substance’! Further content in her comment to this blogpost, as well as on the Salma Gandi blog, demonstrates the personal issues she has with ourselves, something a ‘professional’ PR Manager should not express of a member of Cape Town Tourism, or any other person for that matter, on a public platform!
* In the past three months Whale Cottage has made a concerted effort to improve its Facebook presence. Proactive suggestions by Facebook about prospective persons to ‘befriend’ led us to Ms Grove, and so we sent a Facebook Friend request. The immediate message we received from her questioned why we would want to be a friend. Ms Grove never accepted the Friend request, as is her right. However, later that day, she Tweeted that she could still taste the vomit in her mouth from the Friend request that she had received earlier that day!
* Your CEO, new Marketing Manager Velma Corcoran, and PR Manager have blocked us on Twitter, but your CEO reconsidered her action, and unblocked us. Blocking is a severe sign of disrespect on Twitter. It is such a shame that your managers should be missing out on my pearls of wisdom contained in my Tweets about Cape Town!
* We have good reason to believe that Ms Grove is part of the team writing the disparaging, libelous, and defamatory ‘Whalespotter’ Twitter campaign about Whale Cottage and myself. A Tweet on Monday this week referred to your letter by implication, which Ms Grove would have inside knowledge of.
* In the past month your CEO has refused to respond to our e-mails, which have requested information for input to our blogposts, despite an invitation by the City of Cape Town representative on your Board, Ms Mkefa, to direct any question to Mrs Helmbold. Your CEO Tweeted on 31 August that she would only answer questions from us via the Cape Town Tourism website, and a few days later a detailed justification for the appointment of the Australian Strategetic Consultants was posted on your website. When one receives no reply to e-mails, the negative inference is that the organisation is trying to hide something.
* Cape Town Tourism has not reacted to the blogposts that you refer to in your letter, having the opportunity to do so via a comment to each blogpost, as would any other commenter. In the past we have posted all comments received from your CEO, either in the blogpost, or as a comment.
* Your City of Cape Town Mayoral Executive Committee member for Tourism, Grant Pascoe, directly responsible for the R40 million allocation of the City’s monies to your organisation, has refused to return our calls or to respond to our e-mails relating to Cape Town Tourism.
No blog forces readership of it on anyone, and therefore your CEO and staff are welcome to save their valuable time and to not read our Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog in such detail, and to rather focus that time on marketing Cape Town, given the severity of the tourism crisis.
It would appear that you hold me solely responsible for criticism of Cape Town Tourism’s performance. However, blogger Carl Momberg recently wrote a critical piece, also questioning your organisation’s ability to market Cape Town. The Cape Times picked this up and ran with the story, quoting additional tourism players expressing their dissatisfaction with the performance of your organisation. Will you also be attempting to censor Mr Momberg?
Surely the monies of Cape Town Tourism should more wisely be spent on marketing Cape Town, and not on lawyers’ fees? Surely your organisation would want to retain members and not lose even more members? Surely you do not want Cape Town Tourism to be perceived as the ‘big bully’ of tourism media censorship?
Earlier this year your membership officer Mrs Cathy Alberts begged us to rejoin as a member of Cape Town Tourism, and I explained to her my reservations to do so, given the unprofessional behaviour and disrespect I and my company have experienced from Cape Town Tourism and its staff, as detailed above. We were surprised about Mrs Alberts’ insistence that we rejoin Cape Town Tourism, and it was our ‘patriotism’ to Cape Town, and loyalty to Cape Town Tourism, that made us rejoin.
Given the disrespect which Cape Town Tourism, your CEO Mrs Helmbold, your PR Manager Ms Grove, and you as Chairman with your Board of Directors, through this one-sided disparaging letter, have shown Whale Cottage, coupled with the lack of delivery on the promised Cape Town Tourism membership benefits, we have decided to not renew our membership of Cape Town Tourism, which expired at the end of August 2011, for the next year. We reserve the right to re-apply for membership in future. We will continue the debate about the marketing of Cape Town, and will continue to write about the activities of your organisation, as well as any other body handling the marketing of Cape Town. I am available to share my tourism and marketing experience with your organisation’s management at any time that it is needed, in the interest of our common passion for our beautiful city Cape Town!
Warm whale wishes
Chris von Ulmenstein
Member
Whale Cottage Portfolio cc
POSTSCRIPT 15/9: We have just (11h41) received a follow-up letter from Webber Wentzel, Cape Town Tourism’s lawyers, making a demand that we apologise to Mrs Helmbold for Ms Wilken’s alleged ‘defamatory comment’, promise to “…desist from, in the future, publishing any further such defamatory comments about our clients on the Blog and/or any other cyber-medium used by you to communicate to the public including,but not limited to, Twitter and Facebook”, and provide the ‘correct and full name’ of ‘the so-called Mavis Wilken’, so that they can take ‘steps on behalf of our clients against the author’. We are shocked that Cape Town Tourism could be setting itself as the Tourism information censor! We await with interest their reaction to our Open Letter!
POSTSCRIPT 18/9: In an interview with the Cape Argus published today, Cape Town CEO Mrs Helmbold is quoted as saying that Whale Cottage Camps Bay is still a member of Cape Town Tourism, as our membership has not been resigned by letter. There is no form that we are aware of to complete to resign one’s membership, and one would have thought that the last paragraph to this blogpost, addressed to its Chairperson, motivating why we will not be renewing our long-standing membership, as well as the non-payment of the annual membership fee, for the period 1 September 2011 – August 2012, would have been a clear communication that we have no intention to renew our membership for the next year! We are considering our legal options regarding a defamatory Tweet sent by Cape Town Tourism on 15 September, and Re-Tweeted by Mrs Helmbold, stating “Whale Cottage Membership Termination“.
POSTSCRIPT 19/9: We have posted our new policy on comments received to blogposts written about Cape Town Tourism today, in the light of the letter we received from the Chairman of Cape Town Tourism, as well as two letters received from the lawyers of Cape Town Tourism.
POSTSCRIPT 23/9: In response to our lawyer’s letter to Cape Town Tourism, to confirm that our Letter to its Chairman Ian Bartes posted on our Blog above is confirmation of our non-renewal of our membership of Cape Town Tourism for the next year, Cape Town Tourism lawyers Webber Wentzel have sent a three-page lawyer’s letter, accepting our non-renewal, which somehow had not been clear to Cape Town Tourism from our blogpost above! One wonders why Cape Town Tourism is wasting its scarce financial resources on legal fees against a past member of Cape Town Tourism!
POSTSCRIPT 6/10: Under pressure from ourselves, Cape Town Tourism has revised its misleading and defamatory statement about our membership of Cape Town Tourism on its website, confirming their acceptance of our communication that we have chosen to not renew our membership for 2011/2012.
Cape Town Tourism Marketing presentation: nothing brand new, collection of clichés!
Last week Cape Town Tourism hosted a series of four workshops on “A Strategic Plan for Cape Town Tourism and Destination Brand for Cape Town”, invitations having been sent to Cape Town Tourism members. The presentation was wishy-washy, and most certainly did not meet the promise of a “Strategic Plan”. I left the two-hour presentation concerned, and convinced that Cape Town Tourism does not have a clue about Marketing, despite the appointment of an Australian consultant!
What was not previously declared by Cape Town Tourism was that it has appointed Ian Macfarlane of Strategetic Consultants in Sydney, who has worked with the organisation for six weeks already. One wonders why a consultant had to be appointed at all, if Cape Town Tourism is the City of Cape Town appointed marketing agency of ‘Brand Cape Town’, and had Lianne Burton as its consultant Marketing Manager (we have previously questioned her Marketing capability, being a journalist), and why a consultant from Australia has been appointed on a five month contract, and at which cost! Macfarlane was introduced as the ex-Marketing Manager for Tourism New Zealand, which developed the ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ advertising campaign more than ten years ago, CEO of the Gold Coast Tourism Bureau in Australia, and Marketing Director of Tourism Australia, which launched the controversial campaign ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’, when tourism dipped after the Olympics. This campaign cost $180 million, and was deemed a failure and withdrawn, being banned in the UK for the use of the word ‘bloody’, and tourism numbers dropped rather than increased, according to Wikipedia! Macfarlane is an ex-Capetonian, who was once MD of Young & Rubicam Cape Town, and left the country about 18 years ago. Surprisingly for a marketing consultant, it was hard to find information about him on Google!
Instead of the presentation by Macfarlane on ‘the strategic plan proposed for Cape Town Tourism’ (the plan should be for ‘Cape Town’ as a brand anyway, and not for the organisation!), as indicated in the invitation Cape Town Tourism members were sent, Macfarlane entertained us with a humorous take on the global tourism scenario. He said that the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) reflects an increase in tourism, but that this is not the case, as the body is counting cross-border Asian travel, something SA Tourism has been blamed of as well, in counting shopping visits from neighbouring South African countries. He spoke about cities winning tourism awards, which is nice for them, but that these do not translate into bookings, as we have seen with the recent TripAdvisor top destination award. He candidly said that he hasn’t a clue about the future, and that no one knows for sure! “Times are tough, and friends are few”, he said! He said that tourism will be successful if many little things are done a little better, rather than doing one big thing. These were hardly the quips we were wanting to hear about a serious topic, being our livelihood! He talked about ‘conspicuous consumption’, having led to over-extended consumers, and that a new post-materialism era had begun. This means that consumers are looking for better value, are cutting back on their expenditure, and have become more conservative in spending their money. ‘Urbanisation tourism’ is a trend too, Macfarlane said, in that tourists like to experience the music, museums, art, and entertainment in cities. Bush holidays are on their way out, he added. He told us that South Africa is not competing that well in a tourism context. He reiterated that the only visuals one sees of South Africa, in SA Tourism marketing campaigns, is the Big 5, which means that these campaigns miss 70 % of the world’s travellers visiting cities. While many expected South Africa to fail during the World Cup, it was a success he said, and left an overriding impression of its great cities in which the soccer matches took place. The marketing of our cities has not been carried through, and now SA Tourism is pushing wildlife tourism again, he said sarcastically! Wildlife is not unique to South Africa, shared with other African countries, thus not giving our country a unique positioning.
Macfarlane shared with us ‘learnings from the rest of the world’:
* Visitors are the most important element of tourism, not the suppliers of tourism services. Visitors are changing all the time.
* There are no ‘silver bullets’ to fix tourism. A portfolio of events is needed, not one big one. He sarcastically wished us good luck in hosting the proposed Grand Prix, saying that it had led to a financial loss for Melbourne, and had not grown tourism to the city.
* If there is no demand, there are no sales, which means that one must get into the mindset of the traveller.
* Communication must be on travellers’ terms, meaning that Cape Town should not be packaged aspirationally, ‘badge value’ no longer being important to tourists.
* There is no correlation between the exchange rate and tourism arrivals, a contentious claim!
* ‘Destinations don’t sell themselves. They need a USP (unique selling proposition), representing the sense of the city, touching different people at different times’.
* The ‘mindful consumer’ is tougher, looking for value, wanting to see and do more at no or little cost. He/she wants to expend energy, cycling being popular, and wanting actively engaging experiences, in contrast to ‘restorative’ ones.
None of the above was a ‘strategic plan’, and was more of a consultant-speak overview of the world!
When Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold introduced the session at the Baxter Theatre, I was concerned when the word ‘Marketing’ was not mentioned at all. Contrary to the invitation to hear the presentation of a ‘strategic plan for Cape Town’, Mrs Helmbold talked about an ‘intervention strategy’ that was to be an open-forum discussion, to which they wanted input. It was not clear what Mrs Helmbold was addressing when she took over from Macfarlane. Much of what she had said at the Brand Cape Town presentation was re-packaged, but with some changes. For example, the upturn Mrs Helmbold had predicted for 2014 just two months ago is no longer on the table, saying that we will never recover to 2008 levels. She urged us to become ‘scouters of change’. Consumers are depressed. She said it would be suicide if we looked for new markets, such as business tourism and the domestic market, and neglected the 80 % of tourists coming from our traditional European (Germany, Netherlands, France and Italy), UK, and USA markets, contradicting what she had said at the ‘Brand Cape Town’ presentations. The marketing message for Cape Town must be changed to be relevant to more people. Most people in the world are in ‘survival mode’, and not thinking of travelling. “We must speak to people in their mindset, so that they put us on their bucket list”! In the past 24 months, 118 tourism businesses closed in Cape Town. No job creation is occurring in tourism, given the reduced tourism growth since 2008. We are over-reliant on the traditional long-haul market, and should attract more locals, but the international tourism spend is far more lucrative. The domestic market is the toughest ‘nut to crack’, as it comes with such established preconceptions about a city like Cape Town, e.g. it rains all the time, it is so expensive, it is so ‘racist’, it is so clicky, and it is so far away! For the domestic market these are realities. This market should be attracted to Cape Town for short city breaks.
Further highlights mentioned by Mrs Helmbold reflecting marketing activities included:
* Cape Town should package tourism around events already hosted rather than creating new events.
* airfares to the country are high, and discussions are taking place to address this. Increased demand is needed for airfares to drop.
* Cape Town has some of the world’s best 5-star hotels, but also good value for money B&B’s and guest houses
* the knowledge for Cape Town must increase, and change. Here Mrs Helmbold went down the ‘Brand Cape Town’ workshop presentation route, justifying a broader positioning for the city in being a centre of academia, business and creativity.
The only element of a ‘Strategic Plan’ I picked up was its Vision: “to make Cape Town a ‘must visit’ city”! This means that visitors must be encouraged to come now and spend more. Very briefly, some marketing activities were mentioned, too specific to be a ‘Strategic Plan’, including:
* promotions of the city, with showcases on Discovery (interestingly, the Tourism New Zealand campaign also focused strongly on the Discovery channel) and National Geographic channels, a joint project with the tourism offices of Durban and Johannesburg, as well as of SA Tourism. Within these programs, city-specific ads and promotional programs will be placed.
* packaging food and wine events under one umbrella, to establish Cape Town as the Gourmet Capital of Africa (the city cannot lay claim to this, as this accolade belongs to Stellenbosch)
* tourists must go beyond the usual city tourist attractions, and should be involved in the history of the city, in experiencing the story of freedom in a creative way, and incorporating the Fan Walk.
* proactive PR
* do more direct marketing with the consumer via the Cape Town Tourism website, with real-time bookability
* ‘community-building’ on-line via social media
* appointment of an ad agency this week, to create a brand campaign, to be launched at the Cape Town Tourism AGM om 17 October.
* local content about Cape Town is to be created and distributed via the Cape Town Film Commission
* reviewing and probably reducing the number and location of the Cape Town visitor centres, eighteen being too many.
* A Brand Ambassador campaign, using Cape Town residents as communication icons, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Olympic swimmer Natalie du Toit, and SABC3 Expresso Show and Kfm presenter Liezl van der Westhuizen. The day after the presentation, the Cape Argus headline screamed “Tutu: tax wealthy whites”, hardly the brand ambassador needed for Cape Town!
* inviting visitors to Cape Town to attend blog club meetings
* targeting the ‘young black market’
‘Cape Town’ is a brand that is 361 years old, and is a ‘city of villages’. It still has a very generic image, and stands for a ‘cloud of things’. The cloud must give the tourist enough reason to come to Cape Town, concluded Mrs Helmbold.
It was clear to me that there is no exact ‘strategic plan’, let alone a Marketing Plan for Cape Town, which is what we were expecting! It was a collection of clichés! A discussion arose around my question about the proposed positioning of ‘Inspiration’, which Mrs Helmbold harps on about for Cape Town, despite it already having been used for Edinburgh and Korea, and even by Pick ‘n Pay! Mrs Helmbold’s response, saying that it is hard to find something unique to say for Cape Town, and that Cape Town would be packaged ‘as a basket of unique propositions’, despite the appointment of an international consultant, made me realise that she has no understanding of Marketing! Scary, when one considers that the City of Cape Town has entrusted R30 million of our ratepayers’ monies to Cape Town Tourism to market our city in the next twelve months, with a new Marketing Manager, coming from an advertising agency, and who is only starting at Cape Town Tourism in September! Oddly, no summary of the ‘strategic plan’ has been sent to Cape Town Tourism members who could not attend the presentations, nor to its media list.
The report about the ‘strategic plan’ by the Cape Argus, with a headline “Cape Town to launch global drive for tourism”, appeared exaggerated relative to the information we heard in the presentation. The report states that the plan presented by the tourism body was a response to a report by the newspaper about the city’s tourism industry being in crisis, but we challenge this, in that work on the plan commenced seven months ago, coming from the ‘Brand Cape Town’ workshops!
POSTSCRIPT 15/8: A lengthy report about the ‘Strategic Plan’ was sent to Cape Town Tourism members after our blogpost was published this morning!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage