Tag Archives: Etienne Bonthuys

Many new restaurants open in Cape Town and Winelands! How long will they last?

Umi Interior Pink blossoms Whale Cottage PortfolioMany restaurants are opening and have opened this summer, with only three months of the summer season left in which they can create awareness and make an impact before the dreaded winter arrives after the Easter weekend.  New restaurants are far more casual, with informal dining.

This list of restaurant openings and closings is updated continuously, as we receive new information:

Restaurant Openings

*    Umi Asian restaurant  opened in December with The Marly hotel in the Camps Bay Promenade, owned by The Cove (Kovensky) Group  (photograph above).

*   Equus restaurant on the Cavalli stud and wine farm on the R44 has opened. Carl Habel left the Mount Nelson Hotel as Restaurant Manager and Sommelier to join the restaurant, but left before it opened. Chef Henrico Grobbelaar from the Twelve Apostles heads up the kitchen.

*   Shake your Honey is to open in the original Madame Zingara building on Loop Street this year, according to an iolTravel report.  The ‘vibrant spirit of India’ is to be reflected in the 5-storey building, with a theatre, markets, restaurants, and shops.

*   A new restaurant and micro brewery is to open next door to The Bromwell in Woodstock (name not yet known).

*   TriBakery has opened on Bree Street.

*   Vida e Caffe is opening coffee shops at Shell petrol stations, 40 initially and 300in total.  It has also opened in Garden’s Centre, and in St John’s Piazza in Sea Point.

*   The Black Sheep Restaurant has opened on Kloof Street. Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 21 October

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   South Africans are ‘shady travelers’, and not always welcomed visa-free, due to their reputation of smuggling in non-allowed items (sometimes drugs but mostly biltong), having lied to Customs’ officials, taken photographs where it is not allowed,  and ‘stealing from hotel rooms’.

*   The ‘Tops at Spar Bierfest‘ will be held at Newlands Brewery from 7 – 10 November. (received via e-mail)

*   Stellenrust has won the International Chenin Blanc Trophy at the International Wine and Spirits Competition for the second year running.

*   About 20% of British travelers would spend more on their holidays in 2014, and 16% said that they would cut back.  The balance would spend the same.

*   The Food, Wine and Design Fair will be held at the Hyde Park Corner centre in Continue reading →

‘A Void in the Landscape’ Art exhibition pops up at Clos Malverne!

Clos Malverne Gordon Froud Whale Cottage PortfolioA pop-up art gallery, curated by the North-West University Gallery in Potchefstroom, has come to Stellenbosch at Clos Malverne in the Devon Valley, with an inaugural exhibition entitled  ‘A Void in the Landscape’.  The focus of the exhibition is Nature, we were told at the opening by its winemaker Suzanne Coetzee ten days ago.  The indoor and exterior exhibition runs until January.

The art is displayed both two-dimensionally inside the restaurant overlooking the vineyards and beautiful hills and mountains in the background, as well as three-dimensionally in the garden and the vineyards.  The exhibition was curated by Christina Naurattel Continue reading →

Stellenbosch honours Nelson Mandela with new urban art!

Madiba Stellenbosch Town Hall Whale Cottage PortfolioI was working late last Thursday and had the TV on kykNET (having watched Chef Reuben Riffel’s new ‘5 Sterre met Reuben’ fresh herb cooking program) when I saw an eTV news broadcast, which reported on a toi-toi demonstration outside the Stellenbosch Town Hall at the inauguration of the new urban art installation.  The local ANC branch members were protesting against the R800000 spent on the new art work erected by internationally renowned Stellenbosch-based landscape artist Strijdom van der Merwe in honour of former President Nelson Mandela.

When I arrived at Clos Malverne on Friday morning, to attend the opening of the pop-up art exhibition ‘A Void in the Landscape‘, I bumped into Strijdom, recognising him from the TV news broadcast, and we had a long chat about the Stellenbosch Town Hall transformation, and the publicity it had received as a result of the demonstration. Strijdom’s artwork ‘Heaven is a place on earth’, angel Strijdom van der Merwe Clos Malverne Whale Cottage Portfoliowings erected on street lamp-shaped posts in the Clos Malverne vineyards outside the restaurant, is part of the Clos Malverne exhibition.

I had wanted to meet Strijdom ever since Casparus Restaurant opened two years ago, as photographs of his urban art are exhibited in the restaurant, which once was my favorite.  The Continue reading →