WHILE working at American Express on a high-profile incubator team piloting new products and services for about three years, Greg Zeleny came to SA on holiday. Like many others, he fell in love with the country and decided to make it his home.
“I wanted to break free of the monotony of the 8am to 8pm work life that New York City and banking puts you through,” says Zeleny, who was born in New Jersey in the US and moved to Cape Town in 2002.
“I wanted to focus on living my life, getting healthy again, travelling, exploring, being in nature, and going to the beach. I didn’t know what I was going to do in SA but I knew I didn’t want to be stuck in the corporate world. So I resigned.”
As Zeleny settled into his new life, he expressed an interest in attending a secret dinner party. But the idea of “underground” dining was unfamiliar to his friends, which is why he hosted a Thanksgiving event of his own. Inviting around 40 people to his apartment, and seeing strangers around the table end the evening as friends, was the basis for the creation of a restaurant called [spasie], the Afrikaans word for “small space”.
“[spasie] was inspired by the desire to create a culinary playground: a platform for SA’s top chefs and young, rising stars to step into our kitchens and create culinary magic,” he says. The underground restaurant (literally, given that it’s below street level) officially opened in November 2014.
“We wanted to create a space where Capetonians could come and be inspired by the work of these talented chefs.”
One of [spasie]’s signature events is the Chef’s Table. Every Thursday and Friday, the restaurant gives a different guest chef the keys to the open-plan kitchen. Free from their normal routines, the culinary rock stars have freedom to create a four-or five-course menu that includes wine pairings. Guests are also encouraged to interact with the chefs, who then get individual feedback when they sit down with the two dozen or so diners over dessert.
“Every week is a highlight,” Zeleny says. “We’ve had amazing teams step in from Ellerman House, The Roundhouse and The Cape Grace as well as top restaurant chefs like Michael Deg (Delaire Graff), Harald Bresselschmidt (Aubergine), Christo Pretorius (The Twelve Apostles), and more. We’ve also had independent chefs like Craig Cormack, Steffen Olivier, Jaco Redelinghuys and our own Nicolas Charalambous. Bertus Basson (Overture) even hosted a ‘Meet your Meat’ evening where he brought in live animals and introduced the guests to them to stress the importance of knowing where your meat comes from. Pretty cool, right?”
Another weekly highlight at [spasie] is Pocket Watch Wednesday. At its core, the evening is an underground food speakeasy where people come together around communal tables to relax over games like Cards Against Humanity and Twister, all the while enjoying gourmet street food in a casual setting. But the only way to get into this invite-only event is with one of the vintage pocket watches floating around the city.
“The idea came from wanting to create something unique and that brought people together in a fun way,” Zeleny says. “So we handed out 10 vintage pocket watches around Cape Town. They were all set to different times between 7pm and 8pm and all tagged with instructions that the watch was your entry for you and five friends.”
The watches are passed to different people from week to week to keep the clientele evolving. And as the crowd changes, so too does the event itself. For example, one of the recent Pocket Watch Wednesdays was a James Bond-themed evening. Inspired by 007’s latest bullet-dodging escapades in the film Spectre, tuxedoed guests enjoyed custom-designed Belvedere martinis for the night. For Zeleny, it was another example of how “the magical pairing of food, wine, cocktails, and creativity” comes together to create a memorable event.
[spasie] has big plans. First, they’ve just launched Art + Wine pairing evenings where they will bring in a new artist, together with premium wine farms, to host an exclusive tasting for guests. Second, they’ve just sent out an invitation to the inaugural [spasie] Young Chef Invitational, sponsored by Whirlpool, which will see 12 of SA’s top restaurants send their best young chefs to create magic in the [spasie] kitchens.
Third, and most exciting, they’re moving to what The Wall Street Journal in the US called “Cape Town’s hippest block“: Bree Street. [spasie] plans to bring on board a full-time executive chef and will be offering an à la carte gourmet dining experience, along with an optional Chef’s Table set menu on Thursday and Friday evenings. They’ll also continue the tradition of giving guest chefs a platform and will invite top chefs and rising stars to step into their kitchens once a month (instead of weekly) to take over the menu and work directly with the [spasie] team.
“We’re hoping to keep the Church Street venue — we’ll call that ‘underground’ — and will continue to host our signature Pocket Watch Wednesday nights there as well as private events, corporate functions, weddings, and more,” Zeleny says.
“We’re transforming [spasie] into what we hope will be one of Cape Town’s top restaurants by the end of 2016 and we couldn’t be more thrilled.”
• Call 021 422 1492, e-mail hello@spasie.co or visit www.spasie.co
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