Tag Archives: Hilton

Cape Town and Winelands restaurant and chef changes continue!

Borage Bistro Interior 2 Whale CottageAn unusually high number of new restaurants has opened or will do so in the next month or two.  There have never been so many chefs leaving their employers to start their own restaurants, or to join other employers!  This list of restaurant openings and closings and restaurant staff movements is updated continuously, as we receive new information:

Restaurant Openings

*    Borage Bistro has opened in Portside, with Chef Frank Marks, previously of The Fat Duck, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, La Colombe, The Test Kitchen, and The Pot Luck Club

*   Chef Chris Erasmus has opened his own restaurant Foliage in Franschhoek, having previously been at Pierneef à La Motte.

*   Idiom Wines is said to be opening a restaurant.

*   The Butcher Shop & Grill has opened next to Sotano in Mouille Point.

*   Michael Townsend (La Parada, Lucky Fish, Harbour House emporium) is opening a steak restaurant in Muizenberg in November.

*   Neil Grant and his business partner Barry Engelbrecht (of Burrata) are opening a new restaurant Bocca on the corner of Bree Continue reading →

Ramadan attracts Muslim tourists to Cape Town!

Bo-KaapCape Town is gearing for an influx of Muslim tourists from the Middle East, who are spending Ramadan in a cooler climate with shorter days, making the day-time fasting more palatable, according to Cape Town Tourism.  Muslim tourists spend $126 billion globally per annum.

Ramadan starts on Saturday 28 June and continues until 27 July.  In this period Muslims are not allowed to eat nor drink any liquid during the daytime, they pray more, read the Qu’ran, and attend special services in mosques.

Cape Town has the largest Muslim community in South Africa, and our country is regarded as the second most Muslim-friendly globally, a survey has found.  Muslim tourists require Halaal food, reasonable accommodation prices, and Muslim-friendly experiences in the cities they visit. This tourism segment is lucrative, in its fast growing population, and its tourism numbers are expected to exceed those of some of Cape Town’s source markets by 2020.

Cape Town has a strong Muslim history, its local Cape Malays coming from Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India, their forbears having been brought to Cape Town as slaves by the Dutch East India Company.  The Muslim community is particularly visible in the colourful houses in Bo-Kaap, in which about 6000 Muslims live, an area dating back to the 16th century.  Athlone and Continue reading →

Musical stoves expected in the 2015 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant list!

Waterkloof dessertWill the resignation of two 2014 Eat Out Top 10 Chefs, with  a third to come it is rumoured, make it the easiest hop into the 2015 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant list ever?  While it is a bit early, we speculate as to which new restaurants will make it onto the Eat Out Top 20 and Top 10 Restaurant lists later this year.

Given the strict rule of an Executive Chef having to have worked a full twelve months (November 2013 to October this year) to qualify to get onto the Eat Out Top 20 shortlist, the three restaurants with the departing chefs will not qualify to make Top 20 for the judging in the next two months or so.  Hartford House and Pierneef à La Motte should definitely be off the list, and the third Top 10 restaurant will be confirmed shortly (see Postscript below).  Chef Chris Erasmus left Pierneef à La Motte a week ago, to open his new restaurant Foliage on the main road of Franschhoek next month, while Chef Jackie Cameron is opening Jackie Cameron’s School of Food and Wine in Hilton in January next year, but leaves at the end of July.  The third chef is rumoured to move from the Winelands to Cape Town, to open his own new restaurant, and could not be reached yesterday due to the restaurant being closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.   We would not be surprised if a fourth Top 10 restaurant chef makes a move to Cape Town too, given the number of new restaurants opening in the next few months. Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 18 June

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and news headlines

*   ‘People love our country and continue to visit South Africa‘, said President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address at the opening of Parliament last night. He set our country’s tourism target at 15 million visitors per year by 2017, with a revenue of R125 billion generated.

*   TripAdvisor is testing amongst a sample of American hotels a new Question and Answer service on listed property pages, so that guests can request further information before they book, including  for example questions such as the cost of a mini-bar, availability of tickets to attractions at reception, opening times of the pool, etc.   Other travelers and the property can answer the questions. Hotels in the same town are not allowed to answer about another hotel in the discussion forums.

*   Much admired and liked Eat Out Top 10 Chef Jackie Cameron from Hartford House is leaving the KwaZulu-Natal hotel at the end of July, to open Jackie Cameron’s School of Food and Wine in Hilton in January next year. Continue reading →