Last Friday I joined a media table to experience the new High Tea offered at Harbour House Constantia Nek, the first and only High Tea offering in Constantia. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Deluxe
Olive Branch Deli Cape Town’s best kept secret in Lifestyle on Kloof, market in a small jam-packed shop!
I don’t often visit Lifestyle on Kloof, but needed to buy something at Wellness Warehouse yesterday morning, so spent an interesting morning, revisiting the centre, and some of its more quirky shops. My shock surprise was discovering the jam-packed Olive Branch Deli, a ‘Community Grocer‘ which has been in the centre, adjacent to Woolworths, for 18 months already! Continue reading →
Sounds of silence at Franschhoek Boutique Hotel, central location, excellent service!
Since selling my guest houses I have stayed at a mix of self-catering and guest houses in Franschhoek, and have been very disappointed. Franschhoek Boutique Hotel GM Llewellyn Lambert took pity on my Franschhoek accommodation experiences, as documented in Sour Service Awards on this Blog, and invited me to come and stay at the hotel. He had showed me around just after it was completed a few months ago, but this was my first stay.
De Warenmarkt in Stellenbosch serendipitous connection of like-minded owners and patrons!
Yesterday a planned pop-in at De Warenmarkt in Stellenbosch became a three-hour visit of chatting and eating with a number of persons also having lunch, and meeting one of the co-owners, who shared the story of the establishment with me.
I had thought that De Warenmarkt had opened while I was overseas, but it has only been operating for a week. Having seen Errieda du Toit’s photographs on her Facebook page, I decided to drive back from Franschhoek via Stellenbosch yesterday, so that I could pop-in at De Warenmarkt, which operates from the building previously housing the Continue reading →
Restaurant Review: Batavia Café proudly Cape Town; a French, Spanish, and Cape Malay mélange!
I drive down Rose Street in Bo-Kaap almost every day, and have been watching the slow progress made in a restaurant opening in what was one of my favourite coffee stops. After about six months of Haas having moved out, Batavia Café opened two weeks ago.
Old Haas fans may be disappointed with the lightweight decor, and design items for sale, following a similar concept as Haas in promoting not only its food at the Batavia Café, but also design in the Batavia section, by Cape
Town designers such as Issa leo (menswear), Lazuli (womenswear), BO.NE nature made (African animal skulls), work by artists Annette Visser and Ina Grobbelaar, Gruparte (graphic posters and prints), and Oh dear Megan (jewellery designer). The first floor which housed the Haas ad agency has been let. The seating area in the little courtyard offers the most privacy. Many mixed-colour bunches of flowers, or a single stem in a Continue reading →
Restaurant Review: New Molten Toffee Juice Bar & Coffee Shop has best croissants in Cape Town!
Trendy Kloof ‘Eatery’ Street already has more than 30 restaurants, and has just added Molten Toffee Juice Bar & Coffee Shop, which opened on Monday. It is focused on offering Deluxe coffee, and a small selection of food items.
It was Molten Toffee following us on Twitter that attracted attention to them, and when I drove down Kloof Street on Friday afternoon, I saw a group of people outside the coffee shop, officially celebrating its opening. Massive orange balloons are still floating inside, matching the brass interior decor elements which were introduced by designer Leon Morland, who is an ad agency art director in his day job. Tim Church of Church Original Products, who created a brass- clad serving
counter, the brass cone-shaped lampshades, the brass-edged clock, and the little brass buckets in which the bill arrives. He also designed the small square wooden-top tables, and the sweetest stools with seats that look like buttons. One can sit outside when it is not too windy, as well as at a window counter for which the window opens completely. Vases with orange proteas are on every table. On the walls they have smaller works of art called ‘Windows .03’, a Continue reading →
Winter restaurant openings in Cape Town and Winelands contrary to closures in past winters!
Cape Town is seeing an amazing number of restaurant openings in mid-winter, a time during which one expects the opposite, it being usual to see restaurant closures. Although a concern to some, we are seeing a rise in restaurant entrepreneurs, opening more than one restaurant in Cape Town, including Neil Grant with business partner Barry Engelbrecht (opening on Bree Street, as well as at the former River Café; Michael Townsend of the Harbour House Group, who must be the fastest restaurant-opener at the moment, also bringing star Chef Andres Conde from Michelin star restaurants in Spain to Cape Town; and grumpy Giorgio Nava, who is opening two Carne restaurants shortly! This list of restaurant openings and closings is updated continuously, as we receive new information:
Restaurant Openings
* Chef’s Warehouse & Canteen has opened Street Food below the neighbouring hotel, offering Deluxe coffee, pastries, and Asian-inspired lunch take-outs. Operates from 7h00 – 15h00.
* Idiom Wines is said to be opening a restaurant.
* Lucky Fish & Chips has opened on Bree Street, on Regent Road in Sea Point, on Long Street, in Kalk Bay, and in Muizenberg, belonging to Harbour House group.
* The Butcher Shop & Grill is opening next to Sotano in Mouille Point.
* Ragafellows has opened on Main Road in Hout Bay.
* The Dogfather has opened in Sea Point.
* The Restaurant at Cape Point Vineyards has opened, with Chef Clayton Bell of the former Constantia Uitsig at Continue reading →
Chef Liam Tomlin flourishing at new Chef’s Warehouse & Canteen on Bree Street!
Liam Tomlin is the most internationally experienced and respected but one of the least known chefs working in Cape Town, despite having worked in our country for ten years. The recent move of his Chef’s Warehouse & Cookery School on New Church Street to Bree Street, now named Chef’s Warehouse & Canteen, seems to have transformed him and he seems happier than he has been for a long time, being back in the kitchen and hands-on in his restaurant.
Located in a heritage building on food fashionable Bree Street, where Caveau used to be before it went under, Chef’s Warehouse & Canteen has been painted a soft grey, which brings out the best of its simple red Chef’s Warehouse branding. When I arrived to meet Judy for lunch, I spotted former Portofino restaurateur Cormac Keane 
having lunch as I was taking a photograph of the exterior of the building. Cormac was a maverick whilst he lived in Cape Town, and it is a shame that he left Cape Town to return to London, having shaken things up in the restaurant industry when he operated here until the World Cup 2010, it not living up to his expectations. The Irish roots of Chef Liam and Cormac created a friendship in the early days in Cape Town for both men, which still holds. Chef Liam started his career in Australia, and opened his restaurant BANC in Sydney, which earned him a 3 Hats award, as well as two Restaurant of the Year awards. He moved to our country ten years ago, and has written cookbooks (‘BANC’, ‘Season to Taste’, and ‘Lessons with Liam‘), which are available at Chef’s Warehouse, still serves on the British Airways Taste Team, and has assisted wine estates such as La Motte in setting up Pierneef à La Motte and its kitchen. For a year he operated at Leopard’s Leap in Franschhoek, selling cooking and baking utensils and vessels, and offering cooking courses, whilst also Continue reading →
The House of Machines not just a bikers bar, serves good coffee and healthy food too!
The House of Machines opened on Monday in a pedestrian lane on Shortmarket Street, and promises to be a good coffee spot as a start, as its co-owner Brad Armitage was a co-owner of Vida e Caffè when it first opened. We found a motorcycle shop discreetly positioned at the back of the outlet, and experienced a vibrant coffee shop, bar, and light snack restaurant with very friendly and attentive service.
The building dates back to the 1890s and has housed a bar, a restaurant, a workshop for furniture designer Gregor Jenkin, and most recently a yacht design company. All three the co-owners designed the interior. It is dominated by a massive black bar/serving counter, with wooden table counters attached to the wall at which one sits on signal red (not Vida red, as I joked with Brad!) stools. Each table can seat up to four comfortably, and has a glass jar with Bakers & Chef cutlery, and Natural salt and pepper grinders. Beautiful ceiling beams and weathered cement floors have been left as is. The seating wall is covered with a collection of photographs of the three co-owners with their bikes, on their visit to the USA, which they undertook to obtain ideas and inspiration for their new venture. Paul van der Spuy is one of the owners, who loves coffee shops, is a men’s fashion designer who owns Blue Collar White Collar, is the unofficial ‘Mayor of Cape Continue reading →
Celebrate the Franschhoek Bastille weekend with Berets and Boules!
Franschhoek’s biggest event takes place next weekend, the Bastille Festival being celebrated on 13 and 14 July, showcasing the food and wine highlights of the valley, and promises to be great fun. This year the 20th anniversary of the Franschhoek Bastille Festival will be celebrated.
The town will be decked out in red, white and blue, and a large marquee in the centre of town, just off the main road, between the church and the town hall, will be the focus of the Festival. Wines of the following Franschhoek wine estates will be available to taste: Akkerdal, Alleé Bleue, Anthonij Rupert Wines, Backsberg, Boschendal, Babylonstoren, Boekenhoutskloof, Dieu Donnè, Glenwood, Grande Provence, Haute Cabrière, Holden Manz, La Bri, La Chataigne, La Motte, La Petite Ferme, Leopard’s Leap, Maison Estate, Morena – Franschhoek Pass Winery, Môreson, Noble Hill, Plaisir de Merle, Rickety Bridge, Rupert & Rothchild Vignerons, Solms Delta, and Vrede en Lust. Continue reading →