28 / TRAVEL / Cape Town Previous pages 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 <strong>2017</strong> 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)
TRAVEL / 29