Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* What was once known as Trinity, with a restaurant and club, is being relaunched as the Bennett Street Complex next week, as an events venue, comprising of the Bennett Street function room to be called “Funktion” (named after its Funktion 1 sound system), Gold Restaurant, and Trinity, the music brand. The venue will be an alternative to the Cape Town International Convention Centre, for hosting functions and events. (via Hype Media release)
* The Cape Town Festival of Beer, South Africa’s biggest beer festival, will be held for the fourth year running, on 22 – 24 November at the Hamilton’s Rugby Club in Green Point. The Festival celebrates the brewing heritage, culture and beer craft from around South Africa and the world. Craft, micro, and mega brewers will showcase over 200 local and international beers. There will also be food and beer pairings, guided beer tours, workshops, blind tastings, and home brewing demonstrations.(via KL PR & Events).
* Darling is hosting the 10th Voorkamerfest from 6 – 8 September, a collection of theatre, music, and dance shows performed by local and international artists in Darling locals’ ’voorkamers’. The festival is organised and run by the local community, under the auspices of the Darling Festival Trust. It was started by Dutch producers Wim Visser and Inge Bos, together with Pieter-Dirk Uys. The hub of the event is Evita se Perron, where festival-goers can collect tickets for one or all of the Voorkamerfest routes. Each route takes one on a journey between three different Darling homes, at which three varied 25-minute performances are showcased. There are four different time slots during the weekend, each with seven routes, with 21 performances in total. (via Hazell PR & Communications)
* The City of Cape Town has announced that the MyCiTi Bus station at the Civic Centre will undergo upgrade renovations from Monday, for the next 3 – 4 months.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Last week I was invited by German visitors to join them for dinner, and of the three options I provided, they chose Gold Restaurant in Green Point. It was my first dinner at Gold since the restaurant had moved from Strand Street, its previous home. It was a noisy evening, a part I had forgotten about and not mentioned to the visitors by me, and the food offering as well as service made me reconsider whether I would recommend it to guests, having done so once before, with good feedback then. Continue reading →
On Tuesday I was invited to attend the hand-over ceremony of StreetSmart SA, of the monies raised by the voluntary R5 added to the bill of 92 restaurants around the country. The more than R1 million raised nationally goes to social upliftment projects for street children. 
