Tag Archives: Roy Davies

The Square at Vineyard Hotel celebrates Royal Wedding with ‘Best of British’ menu

April is Royal Wedding month, and the forthcoming marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton has inspired The Square Restaurant at the Vineyard Hotel & Spa in Newlands to offer a ‘Best of British’ menu, changing every week, in the run up to the wedding on 29 April.

Currently The Square serves Welsh Rarebit, Fish Pie and Spotted Dick.  The menu changes on 11 April, and Slow Roasted Pork Belly, Braised Lamb Shank and Treacle Tart will be served.   From 18 – 24 April the ‘Best of British’ menu includes Bubble and Squeak, Beef Wellington and Poached Salmon Trout.  From 25 – 30 April The Square will serve Warm Scotch Eggs, Beer Battered Hake, and Steak, Kidney and Guinness Pudding.   The ‘Best of British’ costs R 140 for two courses and R 170 for three courses.

Alex Jenkinson is the new sous chef at The Vineyard Hotel & Spa, and he is driving the new ‘Tastes of 2011′ theme at The Square.  “Each month we will feature a different themed menu.  We devised a British menu for each week in April, building up to the royal nuptials towards the end of the month. Being half British and half South African, I really enjoyed developing the four different menus and hope this comes across in our guests’ dining experience”.  The Vineyard Hotel & Spa GM Roy Davies added: “It’s no secret that winter months are slow months in the hospitality industry.  As such, many restaurants offer ‘winter warmer’ specials, and do so with great success.  But it’s necessary to be a step ahead of the competition, so we’ve tried to be a little more creative and relevant with ‘Tastes of 2011′”.

The Vineyard Hotel & Spa is planning to run a series of themes in The Square restaurant in the next six months, including 19th century menus in August, South African menus in September, Feel Good Food menus in May, and Classical Food menus in July.

The Square Restaurant, Vineyard Hotel & Spa.  Collingwood Road, Newlands.  Tel (021) 657-4500.  www.vineyard.co.za

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

Cape Town puts sparkle back into liquor trading

Excellent news for Cape Town hoteliers is that the City of Cape Town has admitted that it has made an error in its proposed restrictive liquor trading hours, and has done an about-turn in extending trading until 2h00, even if accommodation establishments are in residential areas, reports the Cape Times today.  Previously the draft called for liquor sales to close at 23h00, which would have had a devastating effect on the bottom line of hotels in particular, and on the employment of staff and tourism in general.

The draft Provincial Liquor Amendment Bill allows each municipality in the Western Cape to define liquor trading hours for hotels, restaurants and pubs.  If they do not define them within the confines of the proposed liquor law, the Bill sets default liquor trading hours which they must abide by.   The Western Cape Bill is a “test case”, in that other provinces are set to model their own liquor legislation on that of the Western Cape, once it has gone to the provincial legislature.

The proposed draft Bill had set liquor trading hours in accommodation establishments, hotels and pubs at 11h00 – 23h00, only allowing such businesses operating in built up business areas to trade until 2h00.  The City of Cape Town’s councillor Taki Amira acknowledged at a Western Cape Provincial Liquor Conference over the weekend that ‘the city had made a mistake in its trading hours provision when it drew up the Provincial Liquor Amendment Bill, which will be passed before the end of the year’.   The Vineyard Hotel and Mount Nelson Hotel operate within residential areas, and would have had to be rezoned to be able to sell alcoholic beverages until 2h00, a process that could take months.  The City admitted that it did not know that not all hotels in residential areas were not rezoned.

Amira lambasted FEDHASA Cape, the hotel association, for not communicating with the City earlier in the process, as the draft legislation had been published more than two years ago.  Whilst FEDHASA calls itself a lobbying body in the interest of its members, it seems to have become powerless in the past few years, rather wishing to stay non-controversial and in its publics’ good books than criticise negative developments on behalf of its members (signing up with MATCH and then losing the bulk of the bookings is an excellent example).   However, the Cape Times quotes FEDHASA has having described the proposed Bill as ‘draconian’ and ‘verkrampte’, heavy words indeed.   FEDHASA Cape only met with Amira a week ago!

Roy Davies, GM of the Vineyard Hotel, is delighted about the City’s about-turn on the trading hours.  He said that a special plea had also been made about the serving of champagne and sparkling wine with breakfast before 11h00, and it would appear that such an amendment would be made. 

Wine farms were also affected by the proposed draft, in that they were to close their liquor sales at 18h00, which would have affected weddings held at such estates as well as restaurants operating on wine farms, with sales banned completely on Sundays.   It would now appear that Sunday trading will be allowed, and that restaurants and function venues on wine farms can serve drinks until midnight.  

The Western Cape province is that with the highest alcohol-related problems, and sought to introduce the Bill to prevent the rise of alcoholism, and to reduce its impact on alcohol-related accidents.

POSTSCRIPT 26/10: Councillor Amira called this morning, and clarified that guest houses and other non-hotel accommodation establishments may serve alcoholic beverages until 23h00.  A special allowance for sparkling wine to be served, in conjunction with a meal, between 8h00 – 11h00, has also been made.

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

Vineyard Hotel Sweet and Clicks Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Roy Davies, GM of the Vineyard Hotel, for the invitation to experience the newly introduced Vineyard Garden Walks at the hotel.  Horticulturist and environmentalist Chris van Zyl is scheduled to do one tour per month, but the tours are sold out already, and more will be added.  One can see the vast grounds of the hotel, largely with indigenous plants and trees, which were landscaped by Ann Sutton from Franschhoek, but also the famous Vineyard tortoises, some as old as 20 years.  The Vineyard has also reintroduced a vineyard along the Liesbeeck River, with the help of Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick, and the first grapes will be harvested next year.   The Vineyard Tour costs R40 and includes tea/coffee and some treats.

The Sour Service Award goes to Clicks in the V&A Waterfront. A customer had to pay R 10 for a Lindt chocolate lying on a shelf that said it costs R 8. The more expensive price was charged. When this was queried, the person behind the till went to the Lindt shelf with the chocolate (not where the customer had found the chocolate) and refused to offer the marked price on the shelf. The chocolate was not returned to the customer, even though it had been paid for.  The branch was called. The acting Manager Faeez promised to call within 5 minutes, to confirm if the staff member still had the chocolate. The customer called again when he had not called back after 15 minutes, just a minute before the 22h00 closing time. The acting manager was so full of himself that he told the customer that he would give an answer the following day, and displayed exceptionally rude behaviour to a Click’s customer of many years standing.   The customer called the store manager Barbara the following day, and she agreed to deliver the chocolate to the customer’s home, but after a week this had not happened.  The customer had to collect the chocolate from the store on the next visit to the V&A Waterfront.  No apology has been received from the Click’s management.

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 info@whalecottage.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

FEDHASA Cape is still a farce!

One of the first posts on this blog, in October 2008, related to the unprofessional behaviour and politicking by members of the board of FEDHASA Cape, an association representing the interests of hoteliers predominantly.  At that time this writer had highlighted the political games played by Past Chairman Nils Heckscher and newly elected Chairman Phillip Couvaras, now ex-GM of the Table Bay Hotel, who had only been in the country for four months at the time that he was elected.

As quietly as Couvaras arrived on the hotel scene and was elected as Chairman of FEDHASA Cape, as quickly did he disappear and leave Cape Town at the end of March.  It is stated that differences of opinion between himself and his bosses at Sun International in terms of room rates to be charged, combined with a reducing value of his package in foreign currency, given personal international financial commitments, led him to accept a new position in Hong Kong.

Earlier this week it was time for political games at the FEDHASA Cape AGM again, in the election of the new Board (FEDHASA Cape has the most odd system of calling for an election of each Board member every year).  Board members are nominated in categories, even for the position of Chairman.   Rey Franco, the Chairman of the Restaurant category, was nominated for the same position again, as well as for the position of Chairman, having been Acting Chairman from the time that Couvaras left the country.   Pitted against him was Dirk Elzinga, the current Managing Director of the Cape Town International Convention Centre, a member in the ‘Allied’ category.   Elzinga is however leaving the employ of the RAI Group, the Dutch convention center management company, next month, so he will not represent a FEDHASA Cape member company from then onwards, it is said.   It is alleged that Past Chairman Heckscher had lobbied those present in voting for Elzinga, and he was duly elected as the new Chairman, the first non-hotel Chairman ever of FEDHASA Cape!   When this writer stood for the same position two years ago, Couvaras was brought in, with similar lobbying by Heckscher, to prevent a Guest House owner (and female!) from being elected in this position!  

Franco retained his position as Chairman of the Restaurant category in the election, whilst another upset saw Susanne Faussner, who had been pitted against this writer in the “Small Accommodation” category two years ago, even though she owns a hotel and a restaurant, got some of her own political medicine back when the Acting Chairman Franco had to make the casting vote in the election result in this category, and voted for Carole Armstrong-Hooper, owner of Highlands Country House, and a better qualified representative of the Smaller Accommodation category.  Other Board members elected without controversy were Roy Davies from the Vineyard Hotel, heading the Hotel category, and Michele de Wit in the Allied category.   Those watching the politics within FEDHASA Cape will be delighted that Heckscher’s two-year term as past-Chairman on the Board is finally over.  His political games have been described as “poison” by some of his fellow Board members, and this can be endorsed by this writer. 

What will be interesting is what happens to Franco, who took over Couvaras’ slot on the Board of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, given that Elzinga now has been elected as the Chairman. 

From the time that MATCH launched its accommodation bookings for the World Cup four years ago, FEDHASA nationally but also the Cape branch supported and pushed contracting with MATCH as “the right thing to do”.  Nationally FEDHASA even took on a MATCH director onto its Board!    Hotels had loyally signed up 80 % of their room stock with MATCH.  Whilst a Director on the Board of FEDHASA Cape, this writer protested about the stringent legal terms and conditions, as well as the pricing directive, that the small accommodation establishments were subjected to in the MATCH contract, given the German experience of large-scale MATCH cancellations without refunds close to the start of the 2006 World Cup. The other Board directors condoned the MATCH actions!    MATCH has become a “swearword” countrywide, and in the hospitality industry specifically.  Heckscher was a particularly strong MATCH advocate, probably because of the benefit it would have for the Winchester Hotel he manages.  Ironically, his hotel received most of its room nights back from MATCH when the FIFA accommodation and ticketing agency cancelled the majority of room nights it had originally booked!

Brett Dungan, the national CEO of FEDHASA, who has been heavily criticised in this blog for his role in pushing a private accommodation booking portal (Rooms4U) he set up for the World Cup, is said to be leaving FEDHASA National, possibly as a result of his alleged abuse of his position at FEDHASA to further his personal interests. Elzinga will take over his position as CEO of FEDHASA National, but based in Cape Town, it is said – more politics, some would say, and supported by a headline in a report by Cape Business News :“CTICC Managing Director Finds a new Job”!  Being Chairman of FEDHASA is an honorary position that is not rewarded with compensation.

To read the original article “FEDHASA is a farce”, click here.

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