Today ends one of the less nice years, and the number 13 in it should have been a warning of how bad it could become. While it has many negative associations, it also was a year of highlights, from our perspective.
For me personally the year was overshadowed by the passing of my father, and while I was lucky to have him in my life for such a long time, reaching the ripe old age of 97, it still was a shock when he went in April. He brought our family to South Africa, and specifically to the Cape, for which I will be eternally grateful. He helped shape my interest in the business world, and took a keen interest in my Market Research, Public Relations, and hospitality careers. Added to this was the further loss of our beloved Madiba, who passed away on 5 December, a shock when it happened, despite one knowing that it was just a matter of time. It felt like a double whammy loss year. Heaven has gained two truly great gentlemen.
2013 has had some positive aspects: we celebrated the fifth anniversary of our Blog, well established and with more than 30000 unique readers per month. We thank our loyal readers and commenters, as well as the Public Relations companies which feed us with up to date information and invite us to launches, particularly in the wine industry. We particularly commend Waterford Communications for its professionalism in dealing with us as friends as well as writers, never taking any coverage for granted, always being willing to assist with more information, having a knack for choosing excellent weather days for client functions, and saying ‘thank you‘ for coverage received, a rare treat! The PR company leads an industry plagued by poor writers, who bombard one with media releases (often being irrelevant), repeating information already written about, and demanding proof of coverage granted to the client brand!
The highlight events of 2013 are tied: Chefs who Share demonstrated the persuasive powers of Barbara Lenhard in attracting the top chefs from around the country to offer their cooking skills and their sommelier services for free, to benefit two charities in the Chefs who Share gala dinner in the City Hall in September; and the exceptional full moon lit dinner in the Babylonstoren vegetable garden to celebrate their third anniversary, at which I was lucky enough to sit next to Alayne Reesberg, the CEO of Cape Town Design NPC, the company operating Cape Town’s role as World Design Capital 2014. The meteoric rise of Chef David Higgs of five hundred at the Saxon hotel in claiming the title of Eat Out Chef of the Year in his first year of operation, and jumping into number two spot on the Top 10 Restaurant list, was a joy to see, the Awards having been dominated by the unfriendly and grumpy Chef Luke Dale-Roberts, a darling of Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly. One must give credit to New Media Publishing for reinventing the Awards, for interviewing industry players and past Top 20 restaurant finalists, to avoid the mistakes made with the Awards in the two previous years and to give the industry what it wants! The long-awaited MyCiTi Bus has finally arrived on the Atlantic Seaboard, but sadly it is a loss-making operation, with no permanent outlet in Camps Bay at which to buy the cards to allow one to use the bus, is far too slow to get staff and other users to the city timeously, its credit card machines do not work at the Queens Beach (Sea Point) and Civic Centre stations, and has a most unfortunate route taking one to the Silo station at the Waterfront, which is a building site for the next few years! The departure of Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold and her PR and Communications Manager Skye Grove has been a benefit for the tourism industry, as they achieved nothing of value to attract tourists to our city. Unfortunately new CEO Enver Duminy is very low key, and we are not seeing any marketing of Cape Town by the tourism body, being dominated by the City of Cape Town’s Directorate of Tourism, Events, and Marketing, which pulls the Cape Town Tourism purse strings! New Chief Marketing Officer of Wesgro, Judy Lain, is a refreshing delight!
The year seemed dominated by poor tourism news, and one wonders where SA Tourism gets its tourism growth statistics from, as they certainly do not apply to the Cape. This year saw a continuation of one of the worst winter seasons, Seasonality still is not addressed by Wesgro, Cape Town Tourism, nor the City of Cape Town’s Tourism, Events, and Marketing Directorate, who pay lip service to addressing the problem. The very wet August and September, the second year in a row, did not help, with further floods in November. Many restaurants closed, while others opened, far more casual, less fine dining, and far less memorable. We are saddened to hear that The Test Kitchen exploits its staff, and has received a warning to be closed down by the Department of Labour for the restaurant not following the working hours prescribed by the labour law. It reflects the arrogance of Luke Dale-Roberts! One hopes that New Media Publishing will evaluate staff treatment in its restaurant evaluations from 2014 onwards. MasterChef Season 2 disappointed when the winner Kamini Pather knew one of the judges, and won despite performing poorly in the last few episodes!
South African staff is a nightmare to deal with, not respecting the labour law, not resigning but just running off, or just staying away from work, especially at this time of the year. While it does not sound the right thing to say, we are delighted by the growing supply of Zimbabwean and Malawian staff, who are far more reliable and eager to work than their local counterparts. We see decreasing service levels, especially from call centres of Multichoice, MWeb, and even ABSA Bank! The worst aspect of the past year has been seeing once respected wine judge and writer Neil Pendock go on a vociferous attack against respected wine personalities and services in the past four months, many industry players wondering if Pendock has finally lost it. An industry survey ‘highlighted’ Pendock as the Lowlight of 2013, with his attacks on Diners Club, Boekenhoutskloof, Reg Lascaris, Platter’s, Angela Lloyd, Pieter de Waal, Michael Fridjhon, Tim James, Su Birch, WOSA, and many others, including ourselves.
For 2014 we wish for Pendock to disappear into obscurity, for more exciting restaurants to open (a biggie is planned at Morgenster), for chefs to get over their egos by banning restaurant writers, for five hundred to take the title of top Eat Out Top 10 restaurant 2014, and for some real tourism marketing by Wesgro, Cape Town Tourism, and the Tourism, Events, and Marketing Directorate of the City of Cape Town to deliver results. Sadly we are not seeing any bookings linked to World Design Capital 2014, which will be launched officially this evening!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
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