NOT CHANGING ITS SPOTS

Those who remember Melville restaurant The Leopard with fondness will be glad to hear its new incarnation remains tops when it comes to quality

You can’t miss them. They look forlorn and befuddled. They have that unmistakable air of quiet desperation about them, like characters from a JM Coetzee novel.

No, they are not members of the We Miss Thabo Mbeki Club, though one could easily mistake them for those miserable fellow South Africans. After 10 years of dour looks and befuddlement, that club’s members are over their misery and are now active members of society. They no longer bemoan the sad state of SA’S institutions, our people’s slide into poverty, or the rising unemployment. They don’t even get affected by the sniggers one hears from diplomats as President Jacob Zuma enters the halls of the UN.

The people I am talking about are former patrons of the quirky, stylish, committed and immensely popular Melville restaurant, The Leopard. In June this year, after a successful seven-year run, the owners shut the place down — much to their chagrin of the patrons.

I was one of them. I loved the place. I had my very first Whiskey Old Fashioned (a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters, then adding whiskey and a twist of citrus rind) in this establishment’s waiting area. It was mind-blowing.

Back in 2012 I wrote that our gorgeously named waiter, Stevie Wonder, was great.

At the time, I was particularly impressed by The Leopard’s fidelity to good quality and service: “This was my second visit and I wanted to try the kabeljou, which my lunch partner on my first visit had raved about, but our waiter came back and said they had just looked at the fish and were not happy with its freshness so were not prepared to cook it. Many establishments would have just chucked it in and let me deal with the consequences.”

These are the kind of people who should be running restaurants. Their commitment to quality is outstanding. They are not like the president reelected by the ANC just a week after first went to The Leopard in 2012.

No matter. Thankfully for those of us who loved Andrea Burgener’s inventive menus and wine list at The Leopard, we now have the reinvented and quite different The Leopard: Kitchen, Larder & Can Do. This new establishment is a deli, takeaway and catering service.

The first time I came across its food was when my lovely wife brought home a takeaway coleslaw salad. I love coleslaw. I grew up on it. Sunday lunch would be nothing without coleslaw at my mother’s house. And I always believed no-one could beat that recipe. Well, coleslaw lovers, take heed: The Leopard makes a mean coleslaw.

This is how it works: the shop at 44 Stanley sells larder goods (“from our own free-range meat products like bacon, sausage and ribs BBQ to an array of deli and grocery items”) and a small selection of hot takeaway lunches that you can order on Ubereats, which is what we did.

The menu ranges from rolls to wraps, curry, chicken pie, sea bass and haddock fish cakes (incredibly delicious), stews, soups and salads. You can order the deli items on Ubereats, too.

We had the coconut coleslaw with daikon radish, a celery and chickpea salad, a chickpea and green pepper stew, the fish cakes and beef meatballs.

The order took 20 minutes to arrive at our house. The food was absolutely divine. Our satisfaction was great.

We miss the old Leopard. But this reborn version is, well, just great.

The Leopard ★★★★

44 Stanley Avenue Milpark, Johannesburg Tel: (011) 482-9356

★★★★★ Thuli Madonsela ★★★★ Excellent ★★★ Good ★★ Poor ★ Jacob Zuma I

I love coleslaw. I grew up on it. Sunday lunch would be nothing without coleslaw at my mother’s house