Category Archives: Stanford

February 2022 Restaurant Update: Can restaurant owners survive any more of the Lockdown? No new restaurants open.

 

The past 22 months have taken their toll on the restaurant industry, with restaurant owners suffering nervous breakdowns, having committed suicide, or suffered anxiety and stress, in worrying about how to pay their bills, with landlords and suppliers no longer being as generous in coming to the party as they did in earlier Levels of Lockdown.

It is no surprise therefore that no new restaurants have opened in the past month, international tourist numbers being surprisingly low, especially from the UK and Germany, the local market largely carrying the restaurant industry over the Festive Season.

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Chef Bertus Basson’s ‘In die Sop: Restaurant Evolusie’ kykNET series comes to an end, revitalises 10 country Restaurants!

 

Chef Bertus Basson and his team of restaurant and interior designers have transformed 10 restaurants in the Western Cape, each restaurant closed for three days for an instant make-over in its interior design, its kitchen design, its menu, and in some instances, its name.

The work that has gone into each restaurant transformation has been documented in ten ‘In die Sop: Restaurant Evolusie’ episodes on kykNET, with an eleventh episode summarising the series, and Chef Bertus revisiting some of the restaurants, to check on their progress.

The idea for the restaurant transformation series came from the realisation that it was not only the Lockdown that affected restaurants, but that their interior design, menu, and even restaurant name can impede their success!

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South African grape crop at lowest level in 14 years, wine grape area shrinks!

 

Attending a Tour Guiding course this week, one of our topics was the South African Wine Industry, taught to us by winemaker and consultant Pieter de Waal of Hermit on the Hill. Generously he gifted me the latest The South African Wine Industry Directory 2020, a publication which I have never seen. I have extracted some key information from the publication below. Continue reading →

Hermanus with Cape Whale Coast named UNESCO City of Gastronomy, the first in Africa!

 

Hermanus, and neighbouring towns in the Cape Whale Coast region, has recently been named the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) City of Gastronomy, in a bid led by Darryl David, surprisingly from KwaZulu-Natal. Hermanus takes its place alongside top international cities of Gastronomy, such as Parma, Italy; San Antonio in the USA; Phuket, Thailand; and Bergen, Norway.

 

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