Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The Independent on Sunday featured Cape Town in an article entitled “48 hours in: Cape Town”, one of a series of “48 hours in ” articles,  last Saturday.

The article motivates Cape Town for its “dramatic location, tumultuous history and collision of cultures, Cape Town should be on everyone’s wish-list.   In January South Africa’s most attractive city offers the ideal escape from the northern hemisphere winter: near-perfect days and cool nights.  And, bluntly, it’s a cheap city: the South African rand has mirrored sterling’s decline, and the exchange rate at the start of this year is exactly the same as a year ago.”

The article recommends accommodation in the Mount Nelson, or the ”boutique hotel for a more modest option”, An African Villa, or Cape Town Backpackers.   It recommends the following for the 48-hour visit:   going up Table Mountain with the cable car, window shopping in Long Street, lunch at the Noon Gun restaurant to eat koeksisters, museum visits, visiting the Castle, dinner at Nyoni’s Kraal (”dining with the locals”!), attending a church service at St George’s Cathedral, the Footstep’s to Freedom city walk, lunch at Andiamo in De Waterkant, a picnic in Kirstenbosch, and wine-tasting in Constantia.

Sadly, the article has neglected mentioning the beauty and popularity of Camps Bay’s and Clifton’s beaches, and the restaurants in Camps Bay, which are jam-packed this summer.

Sol Kerzner, owner of the One&Only hotel group, which is opening a new hotel in the Waterfront in May, and was the visionary creator of Sun City and the Palace of the Lost City, celebrated the new year with 300 friends and family at his Leeukoppie Estate in Hout Bay on New Year’s Eve.

While Kerzner lives in the UK now, he chose sunny Cape Town to entertain VIP guests including John Cleese, spotted at The Grand Cafe in Camps Bay the week before, Sir Richard Branson, and Sarah, Duchess of York and her two daughters, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, reports The Times (renamed from the Sunday Times).

The newspaper reports that “showgirls” served the Moet & Chandon, while guests dined on Beluga caviar, oysters, crayfish, braaied chops and chicken, and pancakes.  The crowning glory was a “magnificent” fireworks display at midnight.

The Minstrels strutted their stuff in Cape Town yesterday, as the minstrel association agreed in the last minute to bury its differences with the City, and to continue with the Minstrels march, to “do it for Cape Town” reported the Weekend Argus

Every year the Minstrels’ march is threatened with closure close to the early January date, usually about required financial support.   The City of Cape Town has acknowledged that the Minstrels Carnival “is an integral part of Cape Town’s rich history and culture, and a significant tourist attraction”, according to the City’s Acting Manager for Arts and Culture, Albert Webster.

A long-term agreement between the Kaapse Karnaval Association, an umbrella minstrels’ body, and the City is being negotiated.    The City funds the Minstrels with a R 1,2 million budget. 

More than 60 troupes and 20 000 persons participated in the Minstrels’ march.   Every year, the march causes traffic problems in the city, especially in the Wale and Strand Street areas near Bo-Kaap, and little traffic police support is visible.

A survey conducted amongst 20 000 foodlovers by the Good Food Guide in the UK has identified the ten aspects about restaurants which diners dislike most intensely.

The Telegraph reports that double -tipping tops the list of restaurant bugbears by far, i.e. requesting a tip when a service charge has already been added to the bill.    Second on the list is over-attentive waiters, who top up wine glasses when they are still full, and take plates away when diners have hardly finished eating.

The other gripes restaurant patrons have are charging for a cover or bread without disclosing this upfront, offering small food portions, turning tables by pressurising current diners to finish eating quickly, charging for tap water, sitting too close to other patrons, being served out-of-season ingredients, the use of French terms on menus, and open salt and pepper bowls.

The Good Food Guide advises reastaurants to heed the customer feedback, to ensure that they survive the global credit crunch.

Lester, the Store Manager of Woolworths in Willowbridge, receives the Sweet Service Award for coming to the rescue of a client on New Year’s Day, who wished to order breakfast at the in-house restaurant of this store.   The customer sat on a ledge, waiting for a table to come available at 11h45, and ordered a glass of water and a cappucino, and asked for the menu.  A lunch menu of sandwiches and salads only was presented.   It was visible to the customer that other patrons were having breakfast, and the waiter was asked for the breakfast menu.    Terence the waiter said it was not possible to order from the breakfast menu anymore, as breakfast closes at 12h00, even though it was 11h55 at that time. A new Manager Heinrich, who only started his first working day on that day, went inside to the food preparation section, and did not bother to communicate to the customer that he could not organise the required omelette.   A supervisor called Steven came from the preparation section, and said that breakfast had closed at 11h30, and that there was no flexibility on this, even on New Year’s Day.  Two staff members were asked to call the store manager, but it took 15 minutes for him to come to the table.   

Lester was most open to listening to the customer complaint and request, especially given that the Breakfast menu does not specify a closing time for serving breakfast.  Lester explained that the store had not received most of its breads on New Year’s Day, and that this affected the serving of the breakfasts.  However, a number of items on the lunch menu are sandwiches, and the waiters did not communicate problems serving any of these due to the bread shortage.

Lester was able to persuade Alex, the chef on duty, that the requested omelette could be prepared, even though a considerable waiting time could be anticipated, he warned, as the stoves had to be switched on again!   Twenty-five minutes later the requested omelette was served, with two slices of toasted rye bread.  Heinrich refused to divulge his name to the customer or to his colleagues, probably being worried about getting into trouble for his poor service on his first day of employment!

The Sour Service Award goes to the Sunday Times, which must have the most inefficient call centre in the country.  Repeated calls to the call centre, to renew existing subscriptions, as well as to start a new subscription, in the past three months have not led to one succesful renewal or new subscription.  The standard line is that one must pay first to receive delivery.  To pay, one must receive an invoice.  Each operator is provided with the postal address details, and confirmation is supplied that the invoice was typed while the call was being made. However, no invoice ever arrives.  The company is also not able to undertand that the invoice address is a postal address, which is different to the delivery addresses!    The subscription problems must cost the company thousands of Rands of lost income as a result of its subscription inefficiency. 

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.

Table Mountain is South Africa’s only nominee for the New7Wonders of Nature, after the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company stepped in by funding the entry fee for this icon of Cape Town, and even South African tourism, reports News24.

Earlier this month it was reported that S A Tourism was supporting the nomination process for the four South African finalists Kruger National Park, Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain and the Vredefort Crater.

However, S A Tourism has now withdrawn its support and sponsorship, on the grounds of its lack of funds for the $ 199 administration fee per entry!   SA Tourism Global Communications Manager Wendy Tlou is quoted as saying:”    As you may know, we work on budgets that have been allocated according to projects that are planned for a particluar financial year.   Given the impact of the fluctuating exchange rate, and that we operate mostly internationally, where the rand is not as strong as we would like it to be, this has a very negative impact on our budgets.    As such, we’ve had to let go of projects that could have brought SA even more publicity purely because of some of these constraints.”

Entries for the campaign closed at midnight last night, and the public around the world can vote for its top seven wonders of nature between January and July, whereafter 21 finalists will be chosen, open to further voting to select the New7Wonders of Nature.

The price of petrol is set to decrease by between R 1, 05 - R 1, 11 per litre on 7 January 2009, according to the Shell South Africa website.    This brings the price of unleaded petrol to just over R 6 per litre.

The decrease in the price of petrol is excellent news for the tourism industry, in that it will encourage South Africans to travel again, despite continued forecasts for a tough 2009.   Further predictions for a decrease in the interest rate will stimulate the tourism industry too.

The Champagne and Oyster Bar Bouillabaisse, which has successfully operated in Franschhoek for the past two years, has spread its wings and opened a new branch in Cape Town today. 

The upmarket tapas-style eatery is designed around a central food preparation station, and patrons sit on bar chairs with a full view of the station.   The menu is identical to that of the Franschhoek restaurant, and includes predominantly fish dishes, but meat lovers and vegetarians are catered for as well.    The portions are small, and the idea is that one enjoy a number of different bites to eat, building up one’s own menu.

Located in The Rockwell, parallel to Somerset Road in De Waterkant, Bouillabaisse and its sister restaurant Crepe Suzette are the first retail outlets to open in what will become the food centre of Cape Town, when its Epicurean Food Emporium opens in May.    The Market will provide the freshest foods under one roof.

Camil Haas, the Bouillabaisse chef and owner, will be largely based at the Cape Town branch, while his wife Ingrid will travel between Franschhoek and Cape Town.

Hotels in Durban are experiencing a poor festive season, with bookings down by 10 - 15 %, despite special offers, reports the Sunday Tribune.

The newspaper quotes Gerhard Patzer, the local Chairman of FEDHASA and GM of the Hilton Hotel in Durban, as follows: “For the hotel trade, it’s definitely been the worst Christmas in five years.   It’s clear that people are cagey about holiday spending - obviously trying to save money and paying off cars and debts, instead of going on holidays.”  

“Everyone is trying to negotiate better deals, also booking for much shorter periods - two or three days, instead of a whole week” said Alan Vels, the past FEDHASA chairman.

The article also quotes Mike Sutcliffe, the manager of the Durban municipality, as saying:”…compared with Cape Town, Durban’s hotel trade had done “pretty well” under the circumstances”.   This would seem to imply that Sutcliffe is saying that Cape Town is not doing well this festive season, which is far removed from reality, as Cape Town is buzzing.

Just two weeks ago the same newspaper proclaimed that the “year-end stampede to Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast is well underway and it could be a record season”!    The article speculated that 2,5 million visitors could be expected in the region, compared to the usual 2 million.   It also stated that beachfront hotels were 90 % booked at that time already.

Vida e Caffe is set to open its first two London stores, its magazine Obrigado reports.  

The hotshot coffee shop with a Portugese touch and distinctive red branding, has spread in major cities, and has branches in Stellenbosch, Sea Point, Willowbridge, Camps Bay, Somerset Mall, Cavendish, Claremont, the V & A Waterfront, Canal Walk, Kloof Street, Green Point, Bayside, Green Market, Black River Park, Constantia and Collosseum.    In Johannesburg the seven branches are located in Sandton, OR Thambo airport, Greenside, Rosebank, Hyde Park, Parktown North, Bedford Square and Commissioner Street.   Knysna and Bloemfontein each have a Vida, while there are three in Durban.

A joint venture is also on the cards between a Vida e Caffe and Nando’s Peri Deli in Rivonia.