Tag Archives: Old Biscuit Mill

May Restaurant Update: More restaurants opening and closing in Cape Town and Winelands!

 

 

New restaurants are still opening, or planning to open in Cape Town and the Winelands, despite it being on the eve of Winter.

The biggest planned opening is that by Chef Liam Tomlin, who will open The Bailey, a three storey Brasserie, Bakery, and two Bars across the road from Heritage Square.  His opening is running late. He has closed down his Chefs Warehouse on Bree Street. Restaurant Artizian will open on Bree Street in July. Chef Peter Tempelhoff is said to open a Japanese Street Food restaurant on the ground floor of Speakers Corner, the building in which FYN operates. Misfits by Ideas Cartel has opened in the former Beluga in Green Point. TANG will create a big stir when it Continue reading →

Corona Virus: Lockdown Journey Journal, Day 68 of Level 1, 28 November 2020.

 

Saturday 28 November 2020, Day 68 of Level 1, Day 248 of Lockdown 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for a busy day; for the wind not blowing as strongly as it can, despite blowing all day; for a successful community beach clean in Camps Bay despite the wind; for being served a fabulous Dilmah Earl Grey tea at the lawn across the road from The 41, where I sat to sign in our resident beach cleaners, the numbers arriving affected by the wind sadly; for rescuing a Pick n Pay trolley, the Manager telling me that they cost R1000 each, and that the store is charged for each trolley that goes missing when vendors steal them to transport beach umbrellas and cushions, which made me understand why the manager is so good to me, given the number of trolleys I have returned to the store; for my Camps Bay CSI cleaning team joining me in the beach clean, getting to know them a little better; for a visit to the Old Biscuit Mill #2, looking very different, and seeing Chef Sebastian Hendricks of the Cheesecake Checkout, and Elize Goffe-Wood of Kitchen Cowboys; for a three hour catch up with Amanda Fourie and Amanda Odendaal whom I met three years ago when we sat a row apart at a show at The Baxter, having a very honest conversation about our finances, and about losing the Covid calories, something one does not usually discuss with others; for a lovely pop-in at Utopia, George Sax saxing it 🎷 to a full buzzing restaurant, with another engagement this evening, a group of 35 celebrating with a special dinner, in addition to the other diners; for the loveliest Blokparty music on Kfm this evening; for receiving my first Discovery Vitality points since reaching Diamond status, for my healthy Pick n Pay shopping; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →

Blooming Garden Day celebrated at Kat van Duinen Design, with Babylonstoren and Blomboy!

Yesterday I attended a Garden Party to celebrate today’s  Garden Day, an annual celebration of the enjoyment of our gardens. The Avant-Garde-n celebration was held in the Boutique and Gallery of designer Kat van Duinen and artist Kelly Gough at the Old Biscuit Mill. Continue reading →

Chef Luke Dale-Roberts joins multi-restaurant ‘club’ with Chefs Reuben Riffel and Bertus Basson!

EatOutChefLukeChef Luke Dale-Roberts is the newest multi-restaurant owner, following in the footsteps of Chefs Reuben Riffel and Bertus Basson.

Yesterday it was confirmed that Chef Luke is opening Short Market Club on Shortmarket Street, in a pedestrian section of the street next door Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 25 May

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Transit passengers, traveling with children through our country’s airports to other destinations, will not require supporting documentation such as unabridged birth certificates, to the relief of our neighboring countries.

*   The success of the Franschhoek Literary Festival has given it coverage in the New York Times, with an article focusing on the controversial nature of some of the sessions, especially the one at which Bongani Madondo spoke. The biographer of Continue reading →

Cape Town World’s 3rd Best Food City in Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2014!

The Test KitchenCondé Nast Traveler has ranked Cape Town as the third Best Food City in the World in its Readers’ Choice Awards 2014.  It follows hot on the heels of Spanish San Sebastián and Paris, and beat Florence, Rome, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Barcelona, Quebec, Sydney, Vancouver, Montreal, Lyon, Bologna, Kyoto, Vienna, Budapest, Madrid, and Melbourne.

Cape Town was lauded as a food destination as follows: Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 16 March

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The first World Congress of Nephrology finishes at the Cape Town International Convention Centre today, the first time that the Congress is held in Africa.  A total of 3000 kidney specialists have attended the Congress since Friday, reports The New Age.  Later this year the World Congress of the International Federation of Aesthetic Dentistry and the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health will be held in Cape Town.

*   Cape Town is the focus in an UK article entitled ‘Paradise found in South African city‘, suggestions given for what to do and see in a week in ‘one of the most vibrant cities in the world‘, including Table Mountain;  V&A Waterfront; Cape Quarter; the Codfather in Camps Bay; Africa Café and Mama Africa; afternoon tea at the Mount Nelson, Cape Grace, and Table Bay hotels; Steenberg in the ‘Constancia Valley‘ (sic); the Old Biscuit Mill; Kirstenbosch; Shimmy Beach Club; and a helicopter trip over the city.

*   Described as a ‘hunting haven‘ may not be good for our country’s image! The big-game hunting industry Continue reading →

Chocolate haven and heaven opens at Honest Chocolate Café on Wale Street!

Honest Chocolate Cafe Exterior 2 Whale CottageThe Honest Chocolate Café opened a week ago on Wale Street, in a building next door to where it operated Honest Chocolate, the first outlet from which the owners Anthony Gird and Michael de Klerk first made and sold their artisanal dark chocolate in 2011.  The Honest Chocolate Café sells all things chocolate, a blackboard as well as a menu detailing what treasures one can order.

Anthony says he ‘stumbled’ into chocolate-making, not having any culinary background. Using raw cocoa powder he had found in health shops, he experimented with it to make chocolates that his friends loved.  Michael was living in London at the time, specialising in website design, and he too was experimenting with chocolate-making, having been inspired by a friend in New York to do so.  The team call themselves ‘imperfectionists’, learning as they go along. They have started with making moulded and dipped truffles, and sold their first handcrafted chocolates at the Old Biscuit Mill.  Their chocolates do not contain dairy or Honest Chocolate Cafe interior Whale Cottageemulsifiers, and they only use natural fructose.  The raw organic cocoa beans are sourced from Super Foods, who in turn source them from a co-operative in Ecuador, which is also known to make one of the top chocolates in the world.  Their cocoa beans are not roasted, unlike other cocoa producers. The beans have a great aroma, have anti-ageing properties, and are good for the heart.  They use agave nectar instead of sugar, which is low GI, and is therefore diabetic-friendly.  In addition to truffles, they make small slabs, each new product wrapper designed by a different designer: a rabbit on the 72 % bar, and an illustration of the Kalahari desert on the Continue reading →

Bocca Restaurant on Bree Street a delightful mouthful, first to offer pizza!

Bocca Interior Whale CottageThe opening of Bocca (meaning ‘mouth’ in Italian) Restaurant on Bree Street was eagerly awaited, having been held up by a last piece of paper to be approved by the City of Cape Town.  Three weeks after opening the Italian-style restaurant, seating about 90, is packed to the rafters, doing more than 200 covers per day most days.  Following a lunch last week, waiting for a car repair a block away, I enjoyed a special lunch with tastes of a number of the dishes on the Bocca menu on Tuesday.  The restaurant had been introduced to me in August already.

I was invited by Five Star PR owner Janie van der Spuy, with freelancer writers Jenny Handley and Bianca Coleman, Mail and Guardian‘s Amit Raz and Brent Meersman, and Katharine Jacobs of Eat Out.   We were joined by co-owners Neil Grant and Barry Engelbrecht, who opened Burrata at the Old Biscuit Mill in 2012.   Having bought two pizza ovens from Naples when they opened Burrata,  it was a long-term plan to open a second pizza restaurant in CapeBocca Neil Grant Whale Cottage Town. Pizzas bake at  a temperature of up to 485°C.  The two owners looked at a number of properties in the city centre, but the unusual venue on the corner of Bree and Wale Streets grew on them, allowing them space to add a mezzanine level, as well as an outside deck, which is already a hit, and attracts attention from passers-by. More space is available if they need more in future. Bocca is the only pizza restaurant on Bree Street. Natural oak wooden slats have been used throughout, from the exterior cladding, to steps into the restaurant, on the deck, and inside the restaurant, on its walls, and serving as banisters on the metal staircase, giving an Continue reading →