The Sweet Service Award goes to Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis for his consistent, regular, and honest feedback at all hours of the day and night to the residents of Cape Town during the eight day Taxi Strike. At all times the stand of the City of Cape Town has been that lawlessness will not be tolerated and that the City will do its best to protect operating public transport and even trucks delivering food.
The Sour Service Award goes to SANTACO for extending the strike by another week when it rejected the terms of the City’s demands last Friday yet accepted them in the final negotiations last night, causing financial hardship to its own taxi operators and taxi commuters, the loss of lives, and affected almost every resident in Cape Town, in that food stocks were running low or out of basic items in supermarkets.
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at chrisvonulmenstein [at] gmail.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog.m
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323
Twitter:@Ulmenstein
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Today is a day of excitement as well as disappointment for restaurateurs, who have so looked forward to reopening their doors for a Sit-Down Service. The official reopening date is today, but sadly it appears that many restaurant doors will remain closed, restaurateurs citing the prohibition of serving alcohol with a meal, and this being the quietest time of the year for restaurants as the reasons why they will not reopen now, continuing with their Food and Alcohol Delivery and Collection Service. 
The Minister of Tourism Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane has just announced the reopening of the Restaurant industry on Monday 29 June 2020, following the regulations as per below. The Minister apologised that the industry had to wait so long to receive the regulations and opening date, after the reopening of Restaurants for Sit-Down was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 17 June 2020!
I first heard about ‘Dark Kitchens’ when I met Ian Halfon, CEO of Slick Restaurant Group, last week, his company having opened Cape Town’s newest Dark Kitchen on New Church Street in the City centre. Also known as ‘virtual kitchens’, ‘ghost kitchens’, or ‘cloud kitchens’, Dark Kitchens are independent operations creating food for a multitude of brands, such as the Slick Restaurant Group is doing, having opened its operation with five restaurant brands initially, and more planned, all food prepared from one Central kitchen, with obvious cost benefits. Food is ordered online, for delivery to the customer.