Epicurean Food Emporium | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

The Champagne and Oyster Bar Bouillabaisse, which has successfully operated in Franschhoek for the past two years, has spread its wings and opened a new branch in Cape Town today.

The upmarket tapas-style eatery is designed around a central food preparation station, and patrons sit on bar chairs with a full view of the station. The menu is identical to that of the Franschhoek restaurant, and includes predominantly fish dishes, but meat lovers and vegetarians are catered for as well. The portions are small, and the idea is that one enjoy a number of different bites to eat, building up one’s own menu.

Located in The Rockwell, parallel to Somerset Road in De Waterkant, Bouillabaisse and its sister restaurant Crepe Suzette are the first retail outlets to open in what will become the food centre of Cape Town, when its Epicurean Food Emporium opens in May. The Market will provide the freshest foods under one roof.

Camil Haas, the Bouillabaisse chef and owner, will be largely based at the Cape Town branch, while his wife Ingrid will travel between Franschhoek and Cape Town.

Well-known Franschhoek tapas restaurant Bouillabaisse is to open a sister restaurant in the new Epicurean Food Emporium in Cape Town next month. Chef and owner Camil Haas previously owned Klein Oliphantshoek, the guest house at which he and his wife Ingrid prepared award-winning tasting menu meals for their guests.

Not only will a new Bouillabaisse open in Cape Town, but a new restaurant Crepe Suzette will also be opened by the Haas duo.

The Epicurean Food Emporium has been designed by Conrad Gallagher Consulting, and will open in The Rockwell, an apartment building in De Waterkant. It will be set up as a neighbourhood food market, with 15 food and beverage stores selling freshly baked bread, homemade jam, chutney, pesto, olive oil, wine, gourmet sandwiches, chocolates, ice cream, confectionery and cheeses. It is to become a one-stop market synonomous with fine food, outstanding service, quality and food trends, reports Supermarket & Retailer. Further restaurants, in addition to Bouillabaisse and Crepe Suzette, are set to open.

Other restaurant news is that onewaterfront, the restaurant in the Cape Grace Hotel in the Waterfront, which became famous when Bruce Robertson was the chef, is changing its name to Signal, reports eatout, in honour of Cape Town’s traditional noon day gun on Signal Hill. The restaurant will serve Cape food, reflecting the French Huguenot, British, Dutch and Asian heritage of the Cape.

Bruce Robertson, now the owner of award-winning and Top 10 restaurant The Showroom, is opening another restaurant, located in the Grand Daddy Hotel, previously The Metropole Hotel, in Long Street, called theshowroomcafe, reports eatout. The menu will be casual, local and “unfussy”, and the chef is Simone Rossouw.

Richard Carstens, top 10 restauranteur when he was at Lynton Hall in KwaZulu-Natal and Bijoux in Franschhoek, is not moving to Franschhoek, as speculated, but is relaunching Relish in New Church Street, and is now called Nova, reports eatout. A tasting menu (at R 325 per person) and an a la carte menu will be offered.