I was invited to attend the opening of The Good Bakery in Muizenberg yesterday by Robert of 6 Spin Street Restaurant, who had tried the bread of the new bakery earlier in the week, and had pronounced it to be excellent.  The Good Bakery is focused on a small range of breads, which is baked from an unglamarous garage outlet alongside the railway line.  It opened two weeks ago.

Martin Moessmer is the young enthusiastic owner of The Good Bakery, who worked at Jardine Restaurant as an apprentice pastry chef with George Jardine.  He spent a year working in the kitchen at Murrayfield Golf Club in Scotland, then returned to South Africa to work at the restaurant at the Botanic Gardens in Pietermaritzburg, and cooked for a BBC crew that was filming in the Kruger National Park.

Martin enjoys baking bread, especially when he has had to endure the poor quality bread generally available in Cape Town.  He never baked only one bread, but baked a number at a time, and realised that he is really good at it.  His regular customers think so too, and his prices are extremely reasonable:  80 % and 100 % rye loaves cost R 15, ciabatta R 12, focaccia R 22, kitke R 18 and croissants R6 each.  Martin supports organic and local products in the creation of his breads, and these include Eureka Mills Stone Ground unbleached wheat and rye, Khoisan salt, free range milk, and Cremelat or Ayrshire butter. 

Martin will deliver, on arrangement, and he is working on distribution points in town, to make his breads accessable to Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl customers.

While you are in Milner Street, do pop in at Kitch-Kombuis close to The Good Bakery – it serves excellent cappuccinos, homemade sandwiches, shortbread, apple tarts and many more treats, at Muizenberg prices!

The Good Bakery, 12 Milner Street, Muizenberg.   Tel 074 174 5554.  No website. 

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com