Bree Street is once again welcoming city-dwellers and tourists to visit the trendy foodie street on Sunday 17 January, when the street will be closed to traffic, many of its restaurants will be open, and entertainment will be offered in the street. It is the second such event in a year.
Open Streets is an international initiative, which allows the residents of an Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Babylonstoren is expanding its offering of fruit and vegetables, by now growing various varieties of mushrooms in its Mushroom Cellar.
* Eurostar is to introduce a London – Amsterdam route from 2016, a four hour journey.
* Xolani Mancotywa, Sommelier at the Saxon Hotel, has reached the Finals of the international 2013 Best Young Sommelier, having won the South African title. He is competing against eleven other such country winners in Washington on 18 October. The competition is sponsored by the Chaîne de Rôtisseurs, a global gastronomic society.
* An innovative way of attracting business into the city in the evening is First Thursdays, the 20 or so city centre art galleries staying open until 21h00 (some even later) on the first Thursday of each month, Continue reading →
On 28 September 2008 we posted the first blogpost on this WhaleTales blog, not knowing where this journey would be taking us. Five years and close to 2000 blogposts later, we look back as well as forward.
Looking back
I had set myself a goal of blogging daily, and while I question my wisdom at times, it has kept the rhythm going, and forced me to find material to blog about. My biggest fear is that I will run out of things to blog about one day!
The statistics from Google Analytics help in casting an eye back: in the five year period we have achieved 1,4 million pageviews, with 759452 unique readers. We were a Finalist for the SA Blog Awards’ The Most Controversial Blog in 2010, and try to stay true to this accolade. We have reached the 5th position on the amatomu.com Popular South African Blogs list. We have been included in the 100 Great SA Travel Twitter Feeds.
Many of the most popular blogposts Continue reading →
Despite one of the worst winters ever experienced by the Cape hospitality industry, few restaurants have closed down recently. A surprise however is the movement of staff between restaurants. This list of restaurant openings and closings is updated continuously, as we receive new information:
Restaurant Openings
* Beerhouse has opened on Long Street, with 16 beers on tap and 99 bottled beers from around the world.
* The House of Machines has opened on Shortmarket Street, building motorcycles, offering good Evil Twin coffee, and serving very healthy food.
* Pure Good has opened downstairs in the Associated Magazines building opposite Parliament, and is owned by Shannon Smuts, the first MasterChef SA Finalist to have been eliminated.
* The Harbour House group has opened La Parada Spanish Tapas restaurant on Continue reading →