Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The 2010 Eat Out magazine lists five pages of “10 of the best….” restaurants, many of these not being on the top 10 restaurant list.

The best restaurant sommelier list includes The Atlantic Grill, Azure, Catharina’s, Delaire Graff (interesting that the restaurant is included, only being 6 months old), Hartford House, Jardine, Ritrovo, Roots, Rust en Vrede and Signal.

The 10 best cheese platters are to be found, amongst others, at Caveau, Cotage Fromage, Hartford House, Mosaic, The Saxony and Zacharay’s.

The 10 best bathroom list includes Catharina’s, Grand Provence, maze, and Roots.  Missing from this list, it is believed, is the bathrooms of Delaire Graff, the cleanest and best smelling cloakrooms ever experienced.

Best value for money restaurants include Bellini’s, Sinn’s, Societi Bistro, and Pronto.

Some of the best bread boards are to be found at Cape Atlantic at the Table Bay Hotel, The Food Barn, Ile de Pain, Jardine, Manna, maze, Reuben’s, and The Saxon.

The top desserts are the Grand Marnier souffle at The Green House, the ginger and pistachio cake at La Petite Ferme, the chocolate mousse at Overture, and the strawberry vacherin at Terroir.

The best service comes from Rust en Vrede, Auberge Michel, Aubergine, Grande Provence, Cape Colony, Fyndraai, Mosaic, and Roots, amongst others.

The best tea and cake are served at the Mount Nelson, Cape Grace, Myatt, The Cellars Hohenhort, The Saxon, The Westcliff, The Twelve Apostles and the Vista Bar.

The restaurants with the best view include Buitenverwachting, Delaire Graff, Dieu Donne, Harbour House, La Vierge, Overture, Salt, and Tokara.

The best coffees are served at Doppio Zero, Miss K, and Ritrovo.   The best winelists and cellars include the following restaurants: Buitenverwachting, The Greenhouse, Linger Longer, maze, Mosaic, Ritrovo, Roots, Sands at The Plettenberg, and Zachary’s.

The “restaurants that buzz” include Caveau, Olympia Cafe’ and Pronto.  

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

The Sweet Service Award  goes to OYO restaurant in the V&A Hotel in the Waterfront, which invited a number of writers to a yummy crayfish lunch, to try out its crayfish special of R 185 for 500 grams (the same offer is available at Salt restaurant in the Ambassador Hotel).  The restaurant has bought a 7-ton pre-allocation of crayfish, giving it 14 000 crayfish tails.   The crayfish is served grilled or cold, depending on the diner’s choice.  It is served with a choice of three sauces: lemon butter, garlic, and peri-peri, and home-made mayonnaise.   The main course was preceded by a most beautifully decorated 5-oyster dish served on a bed of coarse salt, served in 5 styles: dukkah, Bloody Mary, tempura, verjuice and pickled.  The Boschendal Brut Rose’ was an excellent match to the seafood lunch.   The dessert was a beautifully presented cherry and champagne jelly and ice cream with a fine biscuit cup holding a finely chopped fruit salad and served with a Rooibos African Ruby Vermouth made by Klawer Cellars.   The Friday afternoon lunch was the perfect way to end off a busy week.   The OYO name comes from the shape of two plates and a cocktail glass in the middle, a waiter explained.   The service from the waitrons was very attentive.

The Sour Service Award goes to the Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa for wasting R 235 000 of taxpayers’ money when he stayed at one of Cape Town’s most expensive hotels, The Table Bay Hotel in the V & A Waterfront, for 17 days, while his parliamentary residence was being renovated.  His accommodation included stints in the Presidential Suite when the hotel was allegedly fully booked on some nights, as well as accommodation for 5 bodyguards and 2 officials.  The Minister denied that he had made the hotel arrangements, blaming  “officials in his office”, according to a report in the Cape Times.   He also claimed to not know the high prices charged by the hotel.   A week later The Sunday Independent reported that the same Minister spent R 578 499 at the Hilton Hotel in Durban.   He justified this expenditure as accommodation for a crime prevention roadshow!

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 read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

Conrad Gallagher, celebrity chef and youngest chef ever to win two Michelin stars, has had his restaurant Geisha Wok and Noodle Bar in the Cape Royale Luxury Hotel in Green Point provisionally liquidated.   Affected by the liquidation too is the collection of Sundance coffee shops, which also belongs to Gallagher - the Sea Point and Buitengracht Street branches in Cape Town are definitely closed.

Gallagher owes the hotel rental, as well as MacBrothers for equipment.   In addition, his staff walked out during a meal, as they had not been paid for two months.  

In addition to his restaurant in Cape Town, and his coffee shops, Gallagher was a consultant to the Atlantic restaurant in the Table Bay Hotel, and was a consultant to the Sun International Hotels and the Trump Group.

Gallagher has fled to his home country Ireland, reports the Cape Times, but Gallagher claims that he will return to Cape Town.   It is reported that Gallagher initially left Ireland with a trail of debt.  

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Sol Kerzner, celebrating his 40 th anniversary of hospitality with the opening of his new One&Only Cape Town last week, told students of the University of Johannesburg that excellent service is one of the most important ways in which hospitality establishments can combat the credit crunch, reports Business Day.   He also recommended patience, in weathering the financial crisis.

Kerzner started his career in South Africa in 1969, and made his mark when he developed Sun City and the Palace of the Lost City in the Eighties.   He left the country when potential legal action was threatened in relation to casino hotels he set up in the then independent “homelands”.    He attracted attention when he opened the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, setting himself up as one of the world’s most successful hotel and casino operators.   He created the One&Only brand, standing for so-called “6 star” service, with hotels in Mauritius, Dubai, Maldives, Mexico, the Bahamas, and now also in Cape Town.

Stating that he made the decision to erect a One&Only in Cape Town in 2003, he speculated that he may not have gone ahead had he known that the world would be in a credit crunch at the time of his hotel’s opening,   “….if I’d known that we’d be 10 to 15 percentage points down on occupancy.”   Some of the One&Only projects have been put on hold due to the world economic crisis, but the Cape Town and Mexico hotel projects went ahead.

Kerzner stated that it was vital that international service standards be maintained at South African hotels.    Therefore well-trained hotel staff is vital for the hospitality industry, as the best planned and best designed hotels can only be as good as the staff that run them, he said.

Many of Kerzner’s staff have been attracted from other leading hotels in Cape Town, including The Table Bay, the Cape Grace, the Mount Nelson, the Grand Roche, and Steenberg Hotel.

One of the largest German TV channels, ARD, broadcast a wonderfully positive one and a half hour movie called “Traumhotel - Kap der Guten Hoffnung” (Dream Hotel - Cape of Good Hope) last night.    It will be the most positive PR for the city in the German market, which no S A Tourism or Cape Town Tourism budget could afford to pay for in terms of exposure and positive communication.

Although stretching credibility a little by throwing in a side-story about a wonderful game reserve at which wild animals like elephants, giraffe, rhino’s, gnu and other buck walk around the actors as if it is the most natural thing in the world, the scenes shot in Cape Town captured the beauty of the city, and focused on all the most scenic spots, including Table Mountain, The Sentinel in Hout Bay, Seal Island off Hout Bay, Cape Point, the V & A Waterfront, Boulder’s Beach and the penguins, killer whales breaching (killer whales are rarely seen in Cape Town), dolphins (not seen that regularly), the Mouille Point lighthouse, Muizenberg Beach, Greenmarket Square, Noordhoek beach, a Constantia wine estate, and even some shots of a township.  

The main action of the story was set in the Table Bay Hotel, of which the hero of the movie is the General Manager.  He is so well connected that he can organise the move of a soccer stadium to be built from the township to an undefined new area, and can help save the theft of baby lions by poachers at the game reserve.   Not much of his time was spent managing his hotel in the movie!    An impressive cruise liner was also in Cape Town harbour when the movie was shot.

Not one negative aspect of the city was reflected in the movie - it was a glowing testimony to one of the most beautiful cities in the world!    All that was missing was some action at Camps Bay beach, although the closing shot was of the Atlantic seaboard.

Cape Town has been voted the top city in Africa and the Middle East by Conde Nast Traveler in the Readers’ Choice Awards, in the company of Buenos Aires (The Americas), San Francisco (USA), Bangkok (Asia), Sydney (Australia/Pacific) and Florence (Europe).    San Francisco has won as the best USA city sixteen years in a row, mainly based on its good restaurants.    Singapore Airlines won the best airline award on international routes for 20 out of the past 21 years, and Virgin America won on domestic routes for the first time.   Crystal won the large cruise liner award, and Seabourn the small cruise liner award.  

Jerusalem and Damascus took second and third place after Cape Town as Top Cities in the Africa/Middle East category. 

Three Cape Town hotels were rated the best in Africa, namely the Cape Grace Hotel, the Twelve Apostles Hotel and the Table Bay Hotel.   The Grande Roche in Paarl was voted the second best Resort in Africa.  Reported in the November issue, the awards list reflects the votes of more than 32 000 readers. 

Nils Heckscher, MD of the Winchester Mansions Hotel,  appears to have little to do in his day job, volunteering his services on many industry Boards.   He is currently serving as past-Chairman on the FEDHASA Cape Board, is a Director of  Street Smart, and is Chairman of the Tourism Marketing Levy of South Africa (TOMSA).    He was a Director of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, but resigned earlier this year when the politics got to him.    One could say that Heckscher is an “association-junkie”.  Perhaps it is time that he allowed some new and younger blood to serve on industry bodies.

Heckscher’s latest target is Cape Town Tourism, probably because of its new Marketing role and R 24 million budget, having been nominated for one of the two Director slots available.     He is up against tough competition, with eight other nominees, including Mbulelo Kwali, Chairman of the Black Management Forum; Sabine Lehmann, CEO of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company; Colin Nyoni, Owner of Nyoni’s Kraal; Jennifer Seif, Executive Director of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa; and Arno Vorster, previous Chairman of Cape Town Tourism, and an Internal Auditor at the City of Cape Town, the provider of the new Marketing Budget.    The election takes place at the Cape Town Tourism AGM on 16 October.

Phillip Couvaras, GM of the Table Bay Hotel and Chairman of FEDHASA Cape, has been appointed to the Board of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, according to the latest FEDHASA Cape newsletter, but surprisingly his appointment has not been publicly announced by new Western Cape Province MEC for Finance, Economic Development & Tourism Garth Strachan, nor by Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU).   In fact, the CTRU website still lists the Board which was in place until June, most of which directors, including Heckscher, no longer serve on the Board.

An ad for the “Klassische Kaproute”, appearing in the latest edition of Suedafrika magazine, proudly displays the Winchester Mansions in Sea Point, the Devon Valley Hotel in Stellenbosch, the Belvidere Manor in Knysna, and the Lalibela Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape, inviting guests to “erfahren Sie die atemberaubende Schoenheit des Kaplandes!” (experience the awesome beauty of the Cape!).

However, Lalibela is not in the Western Cape, which is traditionally referred to as “The Cape”, making this ad misleading. Prior to the political change in 1994, the Eastern and Western Cape were one province, called the Cape Province officially and The Cape colloquially.

The Winchester Mansions Hotel page in the brochure on the website of the Cape Clasical Route pushes the boundary of believability when it claims to be “Cape Town’s leading Beachfront boutique hotel - situated on the Atlantic Seaboard”. The hotel has four stars, and fellow Atlantic Seaboard hotels The Ambassador, the V&A Hotel, The Twelve Apostles, the Table Bay, the Cape Grace, the Radisson, The Peninsula and the Bay Hotel could equally make such a claim as far as location goes.  However, only the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay is at the beach, while the Winchester Mansions is not.   Furthermore, the hotel can hardly be described as “boutique”, a much abused term in accommodation marketing. Nils Heckscher, ex-FEDHASA Chairman and ex-Cape Town Routes Unlimited director, is the GM of the Winchester Mansions Hotel.

FEDHASA is an association purporting to represent the interests of the hospitality industry.  However, the association pays lip service to its Small Accommodation segment, consisting of B&B’s, Guest Houses and Self-Catering establishments, and in essence therefore is nothing more than a hotel association. 

Currently four of the six FEDHASA Cape Board members (Phillip Couvaras from the Table Bay Hotel, Nigel Pace from the Cape Grace Hotel, Nils Heckscher from the Winchester Mansions, and Susanne Faussner from the Greenways Hotel) are from the Hotel segment, despite roughly equal numbers of hotels, small accommodation establishments, restaurants and allied suppliers making up the roughly 550 membership of FEDHASA Cape. Currently there is no Small Accommodation owner to look after the interests of this segment on the Board.  

In June, Faussner allowed herself to be nominated in the Small Accommodation segment, despite her hotel not meeting the description of B&B, Guest House or Self-Catering establishment.   This nomination was condoned by then-Chairman Nils Heckscher, who motivated his decision on the basis of the Greenways Hotel being “small”, clearly not  being aware that the FEDHASA Cape website clearly defines which type of establishments are represented in the Small Accommodation segment.  Hotels are a separate segment within FEDHASA Cape. 

Couvaras was elected as the new Chairman of FEDHASA Cape at the AGM in June, against a Guest House owner and a Restaurant representative.  He had only been in the country for four months when he was elected, an unknown entity in the local hospitality industry.   He naively admitted that he had been encouraged by the FEDHASA Board to stand as Chairman, to prevent the control of FEDHASA Cape from falling into non-Hotel hands!   After his election, he admitted that he did not know anything about Cape Town Routes Unlimited and Cape Town Tourism, and what they stood for. 

The recent press release sent out by FEDHASA Cape about MATCH is testimony to the big hotel perspective that FEDHASA propogates, especially as it has a MATCH representative on the National FEDHASA Board.  FEDHASA has encouraged all its members, including small accommodation establishments, to sign up with MATCH, despite hearing that MATCH is not favourable for Small Accommodation establishments.  Faussner was dead against the MATCH terms a year ago, when she was the Alternate Director of FEDHASA Cape! 

Couvaras angered his Alternate Directors by keeping them from the 1 August Board meeting by means of a dishonest e-mail, announcing the postponement of the Board meeting to a later date.  However the Board meeting did in fact take place.  An e-mail written to Couvaras 9 weeks ago, with subsequent reminders, to question the reason for the dishonesty, and the reasons for excluding the attendance of Alternate Directors at the Board meeting, remains unanswered, as do telephonic messages left with his efficient-sounding secretary.   Support for a reply from Couvaras was sought from National FEDHASA Board Chairman Eddy Khosa, who promised to return calls, but never did, and from Brett Dungan, CEO of FEDHASA’s national office, who refused to discuss the matter and rudely put down the phone.    Khosa remains Chairman of FEDHASA’s national board, despite having been suspended as CEO from the Johannesburg Tourism Company earlier this year. 

None of the Board members of FEDHASA Cape were elected constitutionally at the AGM, but this was written off to a “technical omission” and has been ignored.  Past Chairman Nils Heckscher and Couvaras have a very elastic interpretation of the Constitution, to suit their needs.

FEDHASA Cape recently tried to exaggerate the restaurant robbery situation is Sea Point, probably because one of its Director’s restaurants was affected, for the sake of obtaining publicity for the association.  The Sea Point police expressed its dissatisfaction about the misleading information in FEDHASA’s media statement.

For many years FEDHASA has set itself up as the lobbying body for the hospitality industry, and its media releases claim that it is “.. the lobbying body and watchdog for the South African hospitality industry nationally, and in all tiers of government on tourism, legislation, trading conditions, taxation, education and related industry issues.”   This is a hugely overstated claim, as no such discussions take place in FEDHASA Cape board meetings.  The Association did not manage to achieve any success in getting its input to the Sectoral Determination for the Hospitality Industry to be adopted by the Department of Labour.   Surprisingly, the Department of Labour is not represented on the national Board of FEDHASA, being one of the most important stakeholders for the industry.

Since its inception four years ago, Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) had one Board position for a FEDHASA Cape representative, taken up by Previous-FEDHASA Cape Chairmen Neil Markovitz and Nils Heckscher.   Heckscher resigned from the CTRU Board earlier this year, but would not tell his FEDHASA Cape Board why he had done so, other than citing “personal reasons”.   His letter of resignation from the CTRU Board was subsequently leaked to the Cape Argus, and cited the Board politics as one of his reasons for the resignation.  It is surprising that Heckscher did not persevere, in using his often-quoted strategy of “quiet diplomacy” to sort things out.  His resignation is detrimental to the hospitality industry, as it no longer has representation on the CTRU Board, now chaired by ex-Sun International CEO Peter Bacon.  FEDHASA Cape and CTRU have had an incestuous relationship, in that CTRU Executive Director Bekithemba Langilabele has been co-opted on to the FEDHASA Cape Board for the past few years. Despite the industry’s criticism of the ineffectiveness of CTRU in marketing Cape Town and the Western Cape, discussions about CTRU and how it could be given input by FEDHASA to meet the industry’s needs better were not encouraged by Heckscher.

Last year Heckscher and Langalibalele set about a rewrite of the Constitution, and their most important change was the introduction of a clause giving the Board the power to eject a fellow Director from the Board, despite directors being nominated and elected by the FEDHASA membership. 

Many FEDHASA members have questioned their membership benefits, and complain about being bombarded with e-mails from the association.   The administration and the marketing of the Association leave much to be desired, but this is condoned by the Board.   The fiduciary duty of the Board directors, prescribed by the Companies’ Act, cannot be exercised as the financials are never discussed in Board meetings.  The organisation’s finances are not very stable, with more members resigning than joining. The 2007/2008 financials were presented to the Board one week prior to the AGM.  Questions were refused, and directors were told to ask them at the AGM!

Couvaras, his Board and Executive Officer should be asked to resign, given their dishonest and discourteous behaviour towards the Alternate Directors.

The unprofessional and dishonest behaviour by Couvaras, and condonation thereof by his fellow directors, has led to the resignation of this writer as Alternate Director from the Board of FEDHASA, and the termination of the membership of all four Whale Cottages as FEDHASA Cape members.