Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

Jean-Pierre Rossouw, compiler of  ‘Rossouw’s Restaurants’ guide, has just published his 2009 edition, and awarded 3-stars, his top rating, to 13 restaurants in the country.

The Cape-based 3-star restaurants, according to the Weekend Argus, are Aubergine, Bosman’s, Ile de Pain, Jardine, La Colombe, Magica Roma, Mariana’s, The Tasting Room , Rust & Vrede and Zachary’s.   Other 3-star restaurants are Butcher Shop & Grill and Thomas Maxwell Bistro in Sandton, and Ritrovo in Pretoria.

Interesting omissions are Overture, the scenic restaurant of Bertus Basson on the Hidden Valley Estate and close to Rust & Vrede, and Terroir, outside Stellenbosch, both restaurants being on the Top Ten Eat Out list.   In his previous edition, Rossouw was demeaning to Overture about its driveway being very steep, which is absolute nonsense, and should not have clouded his judgement of the restaurant!

Another fatality of the credit crunch is the closure of coffee shop Donatella’s in the V & A Waterfront, which belonged to Ian Halfon, owner of the St. Elmo’s pizza chain, and of the Balthazar and Balducci restaurants in the Waterfront.   It closed overnight last week.

Recently Madame Zingara, The Showroom, Summerville, Cafe Delmar and Wangthai in Camps Bay, 48 on Hout, and Riboville closed down.

Selected outlets of Melissa, The Dros, Cattle Baron, Cape Town Fish Market,  Wangthai, Sundance Cafe’s, and St. Elmo’s have closed down recently, reports the Weekend Argus.                                                                  

Good news is that ex-Showroom owner Bruce Robertson has opened The Quarter in Long Street, in the same building as the New Space Theatre, and two doors away from The Showroom Cafe, which also belongs to Robertson.

The three Vida e Caffe coffee shops that recently closed on Greenmarket Square, in St George’s Mall and in the Bayside Mall, have re-opened, now belonging directly to the franchisor, and no longer to the franchisee.

Auctioneer Rael Levitt of the Alliance Group and City Partnership CEO Andrew Borraine warn of further tough times ahead, and say that this will affect the restaurant trade, in that there are too many new restaurants combined with a cut back by patrons eating out at restaurants.

The third annual Franschhoek Literary Festival this past weekend has been a success, despite extremely heavy rain over the Festival weekend.   Restaurants, shops and accommodation establishments all benefited from the Festival.

Featuring a line-up of speakers including Andre Brink, Max du Preez, Zubeida Jaffer, Shaun Johnson, Vikas Swarup (author of ‘Q & A’, which became the Oscar-winning movie ’Slumdog Millionaire’), Justin Cartwright,  Christopher Hope and the biographers Pippa Green (Trevor Manual) and Jeremy Gordin (Jacob Zuma), many sessions were sold out.   Franschhoek chefs Reuben Riffel and Neil Jewell spoke about their books ‘Reuben Cooks’ and ‘Bread & Wine’, respectively.

Good news for Franschhoek is that Andre Brink announced that his next book is to be set in Franschhoek. 

The Autumn Music Weekend by Christopher Duigan, a regular visitor to Franschhoek, which ran alongside the Festival, was as excellent as ever, especially the “I Got Rhythm” concert.  

The play ‘Bafana Republic III’, which had its premiere at the Festival, was less of a success.  The dinner at Bread & Wine was found by Festival goers to not live up to expectations.

Stellenbosch wine brand Kleine Zalze is the largest South African brand in the British hospitality trade, according to a survey conducted for ‘UK On Trade’, reports Bolander. 

The ‘Wine On Premise UK 2009′ evaluated 12 500 wine lists of 560 wine distributors in the UK, and selected Kleine Zalze as the most sold South African brand in hotels, restaurants, and pubs.  The brand is also ranked the 14th most distributed wine in the UK.   The report attributes Kleine Zalze’s success to its wine quality, packaging and PR.

Kobus Basson, the Managing Director of Kleine Zalze, says that his company talked to the UK hospitality industry on how they could improve their wines for greater consumer enjoyment, and feels that his company has achieved its success as a result of this.

Cape Town has been named Africa’s leading destination for the second year running by the World Travel Awards, and the award was accepted by the City of Cape Town and Cape Town Tourism jointly.

Cape Town Tourism was named a finalist in the Best Tourism Organisation and Best Marketing Campaign in Africa categories.   The Mount Nelson Hotel was named the Best Hotel in Africa, SAA best airline in Africa, OR Thambo International as best African airport, Europcar the Leading Car hire company in Africa, Cape Town as leading Port in Africa, and S A Tourism was named as Africa’s leading Tourist Board. 

The winners of the World Travel Awards are voted for by travel agents.   The awards have been running for 16 years.

 The Sweet Service Award goes to Jason, the Branch Manager of Defy in Cape Town, for preventing his company from receiving a Sour Award.    The Service Department is not known to be very service orientated, usually booking the service call for 4 – 6 working days ahead.   A reference number was received and a date organized for the repair of a tumbledrier in Franschhoek.   As the technician had not arrived by 3 pm on the promised date, the customer called the service centre.  She was told that the technician had called in the morning.  No message was left by the technician nor did he try to contact the customer again later that day.   The customer was told that the technician had already left the area, and that he would therefore only be able to return in two days.  The customer was not happy with the delay, as a firm arrangement had been made.   She was fortunate to be able to get the cell number of Jason, the branch manager, who was out of the office on that day.   He took control immediately, and promised that the technician would come on the following day.  The customer called Jason again, when the technician could not issue a Tax Invoice, only a job card, for the replacement of the fan belt.    Jason immediately offered to allow the service to be free of charge, given that the repair was two months after the guarantee expiry.  

The Sour Service Award goes to Karibu in the V&A Waterfront, for poor service to a group of tourists having drinks there, and disputing the bill.  The nomination comes from Amanda Burman:  “On Saturday 2^nd May  Philippe Sella (*Philippe Sella was one of the greatest rugby centres of all time, the French legend being the first player to win 100 caps for his country) stopped off with a few of his clients for pre drinks before lunch at Karibu Restaurant in the Waterfront.    All were French speaking but Philippe is able to speak fairly decent English.   I arrived just before they received their bill.   They ordered Beers, one other drink and Whiskey with Coke. The waiter asked what type of whiskey.  and went on to mention a “million” different brands. They “stopped” him and Philippe repeated  “just a normal whiskey with coke”.   On presentation of the bill, Philippe realized something was wrong when the total came to a whopping  + R2 300.00. While he was questioning the waiter, I spotted someone “cowering” behind the bar counter,  went up to him and asked if he was the Manager. He answered in the affirmative and of course I berated him for not stepping forward to deal with this. He showed absolutely no interest and had no idea how to handle the situation. I told him to make sure the owner gets hold of me to sort this out.    A gentleman by the name of Werner phoned and told me he was a part owner. He was rude and abrasive,  basically insinuated that I was lying as his waiter had told him a different story. I asked him what happened to “the customer is always right” and told him that he was ripping off the foreigners and to boot he was ripping off a very well known and very honourable gentlemen. He didn’t care at all and eventually slammed the phone down on me.  I was at another establishment by this time and the Proprietor was so angry that she too phoned him but she received the same treatment. About 15 minutes later, he phoned me back with words to the effect of “I just want you to know that my waiter speaks fluent French so there could have been no mistake with what they ordered. That’s all I have to say on the matter” and again he slammed the phone down on me. I checked with Philippe if at any time the waiter spoke French to them and of course he said NO.   The total was so high because the waiter had served 5 (double tots – not asked for) of – wait for it –  Johnny Walker BLUE with coke! This portion of the bill came to R1 750!   Philippe has been bringing groups to SA ever since he retired from rugby in 1995. Cape Town is one of his favourite destinations. Clearly Karibu will not be on his list for the future!” 

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.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be red on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.  

With three restaurant closures in Camps Bay to date due to the credit crunch, the remaining restaurants in Camps Bay are pulling out the stops to attract patrons to keep them alive through the winter low season.

Four Camps Bay restaurants are offering good winter specials:   Tuscany Beach has offered a two-for-the-price-of-one for a few years now, and benefits from a full restaurant as a result.   It offers the special for all dinners throughout the week, and for lunches on weekdays.    It is also offering 20 % off sushi and oysters, and offers a bottle of Seidelberg Chenin Blanc at R69 and a bottle of Merlot at R 80.

Two sister restaurants, Bungalow and The Kove, are also offering “Winter Warmer Specials”.  They have only operated for six months, and need customer support to survive the quiet winter.  Bungalow is offering half price tapas and cocktails between 17h00 - 19h00, and “live, fresh crayfish” for R 99 (weight undefined) and a most unusual “Rainy Day Special” of “half price off everything if it’s raining”!

The Kove is offering 50 % off every dish between 17h00 and 18h45, offers one meal free for four ordered, a two-course meal with a glass of wine at R 100, and a 3-course meal with a glass of wine at R 130.

President Zuma announced his new Cabinet on Sunday, and has appointed Marthinus van Schalkwyk the Minister of Tourism.   He was previously in charge of tourism and environmental affairs.  The creation of the stand-alone ministry for tourism signals the importance of tourism as one of the largest revenue earners for the country.

The Western Cape government too has a new minister of finance, economic development and tourism Alan Winde, in its all-male cabinet, with the exception of its Premier Helen Zille.   While the DA says he has been their spokesperson on financial matters, and that he has owned a tour operator business, the industry does not appear to have heard of him before.   He is Knysna-based.   Winde’s interesting challenge will be to decide what he should do with problem-child Cape Town Routes Unlimited, and its relationship with Cape Town Tourism.