msafiri_2017_4

28 / TRAVEL / Cape Town
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Left: Beta Beach,
Bakoven
Right: Colourful
Bo-kaap houses
ON A RECENT AFTERNOON at The Gin Bar, a
favourite watering hole in Cape Town, a young entrepreneur
named JP du Toit shares his plan to produce his own brand
of artisanal tonic water. The local micro-distilleries have
been producing such wonderful artisanal gins, he says, that
they shouldn’t mix them with mass-produced tonics.
This is the kind of clever suggestion that you hear a lot
these days in Cape Town. The Mother City has been
fostering her entrepreneurial spirit, especially in areas that
were once rundown, taking advantage of big spaces and low
rents. On the east side of the city centre, the industrial spaces
of Woodstock have been converted into homes for collectives
of designers, restaurateurs, artists and coffee roasteries.
The same thing is happening amid the Victorian houses
of the central business district – locally known as the CBD –
where, out of the settling dust from construction and
renovation projects, a new, thriving heart of restaurant and
nightlife has emerged.
The Gin Bar is “hidden” in a courtyard behind the
storefront of Honest Chocolate, a small artisanal chocolate
company. Inside, the men are sporting neat beards as effortlessly
as the women wear grandma cardigans. The menu
sticks to four expertly-crafted cocktails, named Heart, Head,
Soul and Ambition – the four elements of Cape Town’s
current success.
There are two dedicated gin bars within Cape Town’s
DBD. The other, named Mother’s Ruin, stocks 150 kinds of
gin, 15 of which are South African. In most cases, this
means they are infused with aromatic herbs unique to the
southwestern tip of Africa growing as nearby as Table
Mountain. These infusions are working so well they might
just be the reason why the juniper spirit has taken such a
strong foothold in Cape Town.
RESTAURANT STRIP
The fastest, and most recent, developments in the CBD
have been around Bree Street, a seventeen-block stretch
which, in the past few years, has emerged as a new hotspot in
the city’s bar and restaurant scene. Up and down the street
are new hipster hangouts. Clarke’s Bar & Dining Room (at
no. 133) boasts fresh oysters from South Africa’s West Coast
along with a menu of American-styled comfort food, while
across the street, Charango Grill and >
“Hidden behind an artisanal chocolate company
is The Gin Bar’s courtyard terrace”
Contemporary African
art has a new home
ZEITZ MOCAA
The year 2017 is set to become a
very exciting one for Cape Town, as
the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary
Art Africa is scheduled to open in
September. Named after German
art collector and businessman
Jochen Zeitz (who will be
providing its founding collection),
it is set to become the world’s
largest museum dedicated to
contemporary African art: stretching
over 9,500 square meters, spread
over nine floors of a former grain
silo complex at the V&A Waterfront.
The grain elevator on top of the
museum will be converted into a
luxury hotel, simply named The Silo.
zeitzmocaa.museum
Above (top): The Gin Bar;
Cape To Cuba restaurant;
Kalk Bay parking
Opposite page (clockwise
from top left): Bean There
coffee bar in central
Cape Town;
Outside The Old Biscuit
Mill in Woodstock;
Urban wall art;
Street view De Waterkant
Left page: The Gin Bar, Dana van Leeuwen
Right page: Barbara Groen, Mirjam Bleeker (bottom left)