Summer in the city; activist art in Parliament Lane; MCC and munchies at the Mount Nelly; exquisite Italian at Villa 47; beach babes at Table View; vineyard lunch at Chef’s Warehouse Beau Constantia
Another flawless morning dawned in Cape Town – how lucky we were with the weather this whole time! From our holiday apartment at 27 Leeuwen Street, it was only a short walk to Greenmarket Square.
Not having visited the CBD for some years, it was initially a shock to see refugees encamped against the walls of venerable St George’s Cathedral.
The character of the market, too, seemed to have changed considerably. I remembered a more eclectic selection of wares; now it was mainly African crafts and curios.
As the sign in the photo above reflects, the foreigners fear for their lives in the townships – or “the community”- where it seems that the tougher life becomes, the worse the zenophobia.
Not only South Africans, but also Ugandans, Zimbabweans, Malawians and other Africans work at these stalls, though many of them are not the owners. The few vendors I spoke to came across as extraordinary people doing their best in dire circumstances.
Unfazed, Ellie shopped up a storm – fabric gift bags, colourful print pants, tribal jewellery and more – before getting a group of child dancers for a video to send to her and Steve’s daughter. “Hello Peyton!” they cheerfully shouted for the video. A little later, we saw them performing their hearts out at the bottom of Parliament Lane.
Then I found Patrick Holo from Guguletu, an “activist”artist and sculptor whose work appears in the nearby National Gallery. He was selling his charming lino-cuts among the Parliament Lane squirrels.
I bought my favourite two of his dozens of linocuts – one a township scene, the other a medley of musicians; the artist’s father, Jon Holo, was a pianist. They’ll be perfect for the house Roy and I are planning to build in Burns Beach, Joondalup WA next year.
De Waal Drive and the gracious old Mount Nelson Hotel are at the top end of Parliament Lane. It was 11.30am – surely cocktail time somewhere in the world – so we bellied up to the bar for bottle of Boschendal Brut bubbly.
That morphed into a delicious lunch on the shady terrace: club sandwiches, a salad, a mixed platter of cheese and corn samosas, lamb kofta, masala cauliflower and chicken wings, before Ellie found the hotel gift shop and purchased the perfect designer beach bag.
A slow wander down trendy Long Street brought us back to the apartment – and that view!
Review: Villa 47, 47 Bree Street
For dinner, it was another stroll down to relaxed Italian bistro Villa 47, described as “a three-floor culinary concept” that’s also home to Locanda and Martini Terrazza.
Chef Clayton Bell came from the Constantia Uitsig restaurant that closed down in 2013. Our meal was outstanding.
Highlights included my my Panko-fried gorgonzola salad and the signature Villa 47 tortellini, the lightest, fluffiest and tiniest parcels of prosciutto crudo with a tomato and chilli sauce; and Roy is still talking about his polpino carpaccio starter.
Afterwards, we stopped in at friendly Frogitt & Vonkel wine bar for a post-prandial glass of wine. And then returned to our apartment and irresponsibly stayed up until the wee hours, singing and dancing to LM Radio.
Last Day – Table View and Sunday Lunch in Constantia
Despite blue skies, the breeze brought some haziness into the pictures taken at Table View. Similar archetypal Table Mountain shots can be achieved at Bloubergstrand, a bit further away from the city.
From there it’s about a 40-minute drive to the Constantia wine region and picture-perfect Beau Constantia wine estate. Its Tasting Room and the Chef’s Warehouse Beau Constantia (rated one of the country’s top 10 restaurants) are glass-sided boxes set into a hillside with verdant vineyard views.
Though the restaurant is usually (and was now) fully booked weeks in advance, I took Karin’s advice and called that same morning to ask for a table on the terrace, where availability is dependent on the weather. The terrace was open, I got our table, and when we arrived they let us have us a table indoors, where it was cooler. (Inside information, if you will.)
At the Tasting Room, we hurried a bit through the tasting (R100 per person. We tried the Pas de Nom Chenin Blanc, the Pas de Nom Rosé (Pas de Nom and the bearded icon on the labels refer to modest estate owner Japie Bronn); and then the Lucca and the Aidan – both red blends, named for his daughter and his son respectively.
Minutes later, downstairs at CW Beau Constantia, we plumped for a bottle of that rosé to go with lunch.
Karin had promised an amazing setting, and that it most definitely was. What’s more, our table was right next to the show kitchen where Head Chef Ivor Jones* and his team were cooking up a fabulous tapas-style lunch. It comprised three courses of two or three items each (R1,000 per couple) plus an optional dessert for which you pay extra.
(*Ivor Jones (34) was previously Head Chef at famed gastropub the Test Kitchen in the Cape Town suburb of Woodstock.)
Here’s the menu:
If you can’t get into CW, Karin also recommends lunch at the iconic Groot Constantia Manor House – or at Bistro Sixteen82 at Steenberg estate. Constantia Glen has lovely wine for tasting, she says, and offers a ploughman’s lunch. Other good options for wine-tasting and possibly lunch are Klein Constantia (home of the incomparable Vin de Constance naturally sweet wine) and Buitenverwachting.
Goodbye until next time, Cape Town. We had a wonderful stay.
