After a two week renovation period, the first branch of The Deli Coffee Co has opened, on Kloof Street, home to the former Melissa’s, ironically the first outlet which Melissa van Hoogstraten opened twenty years ago. Melissa’s has closed down all its company-owned stores, while most franchise stores have changed their names, and are continuing to operate, the company having gone into liquidation. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Somerset Mall
Cuban cigar-rolling comes to Cape Town, paired with Bisquit Cognac, at Luvey ‘n Rose!
What a lovely evening it was yesterday, to take me away from what had been a challenging pre-Full Moon day, and forget about the world out there, at the Habanos cigar-rolling demonstration held at Luvey ‘n Rose. It made me realise how fortunate we are to have so much to experience in our beautiful city.
Luvey ‘n Rose was opened by Ignatius Claassen on Rose Street last year as an Art and Antique Lounge, and one of its attractions, in addition to its collection of art work and antique furniture offered for sale, is its good cappuccino, friendly barista, and nostalgic Buena Vista Social Club, which music is perfectly paired with the cigars they offer for sale. My father
was a passionate cigar smoker, and it was worth going to Luvey ‘n Rose’s new home on Loop Street just to enjoy nostalgic sniffs of the cigar smoke-filled venue. Interestingly the attendees were predominantly men, but the women that were attended were passionate cigar smokers. I spoke to one lady, who confirmed that she smokes cigars regularly, but would never touch a cigarette.
Roque Perez Rodriguez has worked for Habanos S.A. in Cuba for the past 30 years, the company being a state-owned cigar monopoly in that country, controlling the promotion, distribution, and international Continue reading →
Barry Lewis Sweet Service and Duchess of Wisbeach Sour Service Awards!
The Sweet Service Award goes to Barry Lewis from Hermanus, a former Manager of Whale Cottage Hermanus, who came to the rescue when I had forgotten to bring my laptop charger back to Cape Town with me earlier this week. Barry was coming through to Somerset West the following day, his sister Carole told me, so I arranged for it to be collected from Somerset Mall, spending the rest of the day catching up on e-mails and Social Media postings. Continue reading →
Melissa’s Sweet Service and Pick ‘n Pay Franschhoek Sour Service Awards!
The Sweet Service Award goes to Melissa’s Head Office, which showed its appreciation for ‘constructive criticism and feedback such as yours is seen as a very valuable tool in our endeavours to achieve and maintain the highest possible standards’. They acknowledged that the service problems experienced at their Kloof Street branch on the day that they opened their new branch in the Somerset Mall are ‘not of the standard that you should expect’, sending a voucher with an invitation to return for the ‘true Melissa’s experience‘. While the letter probably is a standard customer response one, Esti Pienaar, Systems Manager, expressed genuine interest in the service deficiency when she called.
The Sour Service Award goes to Pick ‘n Pay Franschhoek, for getting the purchase of gift vouchers so badly wrong. Wanting to save time due to the slow process in loading each voucher individually, we called ahead, and the manager Craig was willing to prepare the 20 gift cards for us. Adding shopping to the voucher purchase, the cashier got herself completely confused, despite the manager standing next to her, and despite confirming a number of times which amount had to be paid, she made an error about the amount due. Adding insult to injury was that none of the cards worked when our staff used them at other Pick ‘n Pay branches. This meant that the whole transaction had to be redone a week later. The worst part was the rudeness of the store manager Stuart Downie, in trying to blame the empty gift cards on ourselves, instead of apologising for the error made by his cashier and her manager!
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 WhaleTalesnewsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.