The owners of Bespokery — a new restaurant in Parkview, Joburg, that specialises in Mediterranean-inspired cuisine — had the bad luck of signing their lease in February last year. Within 20 days, the lockdown began.
"You sit there and think: ‘Oh my goodness, what have I done?’ We’re not restaurateurs — this is our first restaurant, and just coping with level 5 restrictions made it even more onerous than it otherwise would have been. Fortunately, my husband [and the restaurant’s co-owner], Mitesh Pema, is a real optimist," says Nadia Singh.
Still, why would anyone open a restaurant in these times, when the industry has been ravaged? And yet many people have chosen to do just this.
Chris von Ulmenstein writes in her Whale Tales Blog that despite the lockdown, 68 new restaurants have opened in Cape Town and the winelands during this time.
"Top chefs have opened new restaurants, including chefs Peter Tempelhoff, Cheyne Morrisby and Liam Tomlin. Chef Cheyne’s Himitsu at the Camps Bay Retreat is the newest restaurant to have opened. Cape Town’s oldest pub, the Perseverance Tavern, has reopened with new owners," she writes.
But don’t be fooled — the industry has floundered in the lockdown. In Cape Town and the winelands, the latest permanent closure list contains the names of 97 restaurants.
New restaurants like Bespokery, which opened on August 28 and has since caused a flutter on social media, with people virtually writing love letters about the food, are betting they can defy this trend.
It’s also changed the way chefs are hired. Singh had to make a decision about hiring a head chef in a Zoom interview. Luckily, chef Michael Hibbins’s Instagram page, which showcased the food he’d made at Chantel Dartnall’s top-rated establishment, Mosaic, won her over.
When Singh and Pema eventually tasted his food a few weeks before they were due to open, they breathed a sigh of relief. "We started feeling confident about our decision to open a restaurant in a pandemic. But then revised level 3 restrictions were implemented and everyone recoiled. It was difficult to manage psychologically," she says.
Bespokery, at least, has an understanding landlord, which helped mitigate the cash crunch. The building the restaurant operates in has been owned by a single family for generations, and they were supportive.
The restaurant is inspired by the Mediterranean and offers a collection of dishes presented on small plates. Its tagline is "For fussy foodies".
Singh reckons that during the lockdown people realised they could cook, so now when they go out it has to be an experience. "They want beautiful, well-conceptualised creations that are big in flavour and happen to be gluten free or low carb, casually paired with a full-bodied cabernet in an unpretentious setting."
In some ways, she and her husband are living their dream. Until a few years ago, she had a corporate job that morphed into management consulting. In 2018, however, Singh attended the Prue Leith Culinary Institute "to get first-hand experience of this industry".
She then took the leap. "For us, food is so much about the energy involved. If people enjoy what they’re doing it comes across."
Singh says her beetroot cheesecake is "the most photographed lady on this strip without a mask".
She describes the taste: "It’s an earthy flavour from the roasted beets, emulsified with a selection of creamy cheeses and plated on a roasted seed base that provides a nutty contrast. The cake is rounded off with a peppery wild rocket salad. It’s the combination of flavour and texture that wows people."
Not that she didn’t have doubts. "I did at some point think: ‘What am I doing here?’" says Singh. "It’s a big undertaking, taking on a long-term lease, hiring staff and then presenting your dream to the public. That’s where Mitesh is so much better than I am. I see the ingredients, he can see the dish."
Surviving and expanding
Other established restaurants have had to reinvent themselves in different ways.
In July last year, after 212 years of service, Cape Town’s Perseverance Tavern closed down. It looked as if that was the end of the road. But two patrons involved in the hotel and entertainment industry, who’d been coming to the tavern for years, had a different idea.
They wanted to re-establish the oldest pub in the country, so they made an offer to buy it.
One of these patrons, Andre Brink, had run some big establishments — from the once hugely popular La Med in Clifton to Dock Road Café at the V&A Waterfront, and had worked as the general manager of Balducci’s.
He reopened the tavern on February 25. It’s an "iconic" place, he tells the FM. "We decided to take the opportunity when ‘prohibition’ ended," he says. "We made an offer and took over. We’re starting humbly; we want to be owner-operators."
The menu is standard pub fare, like bangers and mash and fish and chips. The idea is to have a monthly spit braai, and live music from Wednesdays to Sundays. And the restaurant is considering hosting a sports personality, possibly every second month, to engage with guests. "People have been dying for the place to reopen," Brink says.
Other established restaurants aren’t just surviving; they’re expanding.
Take Mastrantonio, which has been perched in Illovo, between Sandton and Rosebank, for 24 years. It’s still popular for its authentic and classic Italian food, especially among the blue-shirt corporate brigade of executives. Mastrantonio has now opened Mastro — a deli in Craighall Park. Why do this during the lockdown, though?
Gianni Mariano heads the Mastrantonio group (other brands include Don Armando and Il Leone Mastrantonio in Cape Town). He says the group had plans before Covid to open an emporium — bringing together different aspects of coffee, ice cream and some homeware. What made it easier is that the group owned the building the restaurant is in and decided to go ahead.
"It’s doing very well — it’s only been three months," says Mariano. Covid will end at some point, he says, and the group is run according to "very strict business principles — so we don’t overextend ourselves".
Stylish and full of well-known Italian brands — part fresh daily offerings and part packaged products — Mastro’s influences include Peck in Milan (which dates back to the 1880s) and Eataly, the large Italian marketplace concept with various restaurants, food, beverages, bakery and retail platforms now found around the world, from Sweden to Russia.
"It’s more than a plate of food — it’s an Italian way [of life] and the products have become an extension of the restaurant," Mariano says.
It’s brave, and, hopefully, should instil some much-needed optimism and hope among other struggling SA restaurateurs.
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