{"id":6329,"date":"2010-02-26T12:27:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T10:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=6329"},"modified":"2010-02-26T12:27:46","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T10:27:46","slug":"bellavista-country-house-sweet-and-cape-whale-coast-dmo-sour-service-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/accommodation\/bellavista-country-house-sweet-and-cape-whale-coast-dmo-sour-service-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Bellavista Country House Sweet and Cape Whale Coast DMO Sour Service Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Sweet Service Award <\/strong>goes to Bellavista Country House and Panorama restaurant, located between Stanford and Gansbaai, and neighbouring Grootbos, a surprise oasis of 5-star accommodation luxury and excellent cuisine,\u00a0owned by Swiss national Georg Schwegler, for inviting WhaleTales to experience the property.\u00a0\u00a0 Set high up\u00a0against the Waterkop mountain, the property has a lovely view onto Walker Bay, and the fynbos of the farm below.\u00a0\u00a0 The popular Panorama restaurant, visited by guests from Hermanus and Gansbaai, has a fine-dining menu which is reasonably priced and the food was excellent.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The restaurant is run by two chefs who previously worked at Allee Bleue in Franschhoek, and the service was professional and reactive, if a little withdrawn, whilst the wine list is extensive, with two wine list choices – top-end wines and more affordable wines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Sour Service Award <\/strong>goes to the Cape Whale Coast Destination Marketing Organisation, for reacting to\u00a0its Sour Award of 28 December by sending a lawyer’s letter stating that “not only is the content of your publication concerning our client plainly untrue, but also slanderous.\u00a0\u00a0 You published these statements with the obvious and clear intentions to defame our client, and bring our client’s work, standing, good name and reputation into disrepute”.\u00a0\u00a0The letter demanded “an unequivocal apology in respect of all untrue and defamatory matter concerning our client.\u00a0 In such written apology, you are to acknowledge the untruthfulness of your earlier statements, withdraw all imputations made, and express your regret that they were ever made”.\u00a0 The writer gave 7 days for this demand to be implemented (but sent the letter to the wrong address, so it was only received 10 days later), failing which the DMO threatened to issue a summons for damages and apply for an interdict!\u00a0\u00a0 Nowhere in the lawyer’s letter did it state which parts of the long article it deemed to be “untrue” or “defamatory”.\u00a0\u00a0WhaleTales <\/strong>has been around the block long enough, and\u00a0has written for the media, and knows what can\/may be said.\u00a0\u00a0Information sources were the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, an e-mail sent to all members of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, the DMO constitution, and the DMO website itself.\u00a0\u00a0 The blog post that the DMO is contesting can be read here.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 The DMO seems to be short of funds, yet seems to deem it important to waste its money on a threatened court case with no\u00a0foundation, and does not appear to\u00a0value the country’s Constitutional\u00a0freedom of speech!<\/p>\n

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards<\/strong>\u00a0are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.\u00a0 Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at <\/span>info@whalecottage.com<\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales <\/span><\/strong>newsletters on the <\/span>www.whalecottage.com<\/span><\/a> website.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sweet Service Award goes to Bellavista Country House and Panorama restaurant, located between Stanford and Gansbaai, and neighbouring Grootbos, a surprise oasis of 5-star accommodation luxury and excellent cuisine,\u00a0owned by Swiss national Georg Schwegler, for inviting WhaleTales to experience the property.\u00a0\u00a0 Set high up\u00a0against the Waterkop mountain, the property has a lovely view onto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,124,14,20,248,22,21],"tags":[577,3412,3294,32378,3295,3296,32369,3121,1565,3666,3413,595,32386,2245,32373,1771],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t