Keeping the tourists fed and happy
● Establishments also understand importance of looking after locals who supported them in leaner times
During the Covid-19 lockdown nobody lost their jobs, but rather every single employee took a salary cut and they pulled together selling takeaway food, Elizabeth says
Knysna’s most prominent four restaurants are having a season that is even busier than it was in pre-Covid days with the return of foreigners from the traditional European market, and, since February, there have been more visitors from the Middle East, US and Canada than before.
The Quartet, 34South, Drydock, Tapas and Sirocco — all located on the estuary with lagoon views, two at the Waterfront and Tapas and Sirocco on Thesen Island — is cooking with tourists, but also on the boil for locals just eating and shopping as usual.
Kudos to the group owned by Charles Von Tonder and Leslie Pieters, because no matter how busy these restaurants get in season, they always look after their locals with the philosophy that the Knysna community has been their bread and butter in leaner and challenging times, and are the best ambassadors for the four restaurants.
So, this is how it rolls for Knysna locals, but also for a dedicated Garden Route following: Every day of the week Elizabeth, daughter of Charles, posts on a Daily Delights WhatsApp group (there are 1,500 members) the promotions of the day happening at each of the four venues.
I don’t think there is a local who doesn’t go for the seafood Saturday special, half-price drinks and music at Tapas on a Friday night, and promotional Sushi at Sirocco and 34South.
Every day there is an offering at each one of them from pizza to steaks and seafood — something to suit your mood and take your fancy at surprisingly good prices given the way food costs have skyrocketed.
In tough economic times, it makes sense that we take advantage of the promotions that are just that!
There is no way that I could buy and cook 15 prawns with chips and a complimentary drink for R125, which is the Drydock Saturday special.
And as for half-price sushi at one of these establishments (on different days of the week), where else can you go big on sushi without breaking the bank?
Frequenting one of the four is, for many of us, a weekly habit — something we build into our grocery budgets, a place where we go to meet friends, a way of life here.
Tonnes of Norwegian salmon is flown in every week for the sushi and the Yellowfin tuna comes freshly caught from the Cape coast.
I can’t begin to even source salmon at an affordable price and besides making sushi is a speciality — something best left to one of the 16 sushi chefs here who send out about 1,700 plates of sushi a week.
34South is known as the home of the oyster, and, no matter what time of the day you are here, you will see people tucking into these mollusks.
Elizabeth tells me she spent time last week with the families in this area who have for years been picking oysters on this coastline.
Twice a month on spring low tide is when they are harvested to ensure they are not over-picked.
I don’t eat oysters but have had friends who would kill for them.
The cultivated oysters that aren’t harvested locally come from Saldanha Bay.
This group of restaurants is the biggest employer after the Knysna municipality with about 380 permanent staff.
Louise Davids has been with the group for 27 years and she is in the receiving department.
Her job very important as she is the quality controller.
Mareqe Lee has been in the fish section for 27 years while Xolani Mtshafuto is now the head baker, having joined the group 20 years ago.
Sidney Grootboom is only one of the many wonderful stories among the staff compliment — he was once a car guard and is now a senior waiter about 15 years later.
Many other staff members have worked here for decades.
During the Covid-19 lockdown nobody lost their jobs, but rather every single employee took a salary cut and they pulled together selling takeaway food, Elizabeth says.
The story started in 1997 when Leslie and Charles built 34South from the ground up.
Charles comes from a corporate background and Leslie once headed up the catering division for Pick n Pay. Both are successful businessmen but didn’t have specific restaurant experience.
A year after starting 34South they bought Drydock, then Sirocco and Tapas, both on Thesen Island — all taking advantage of being on Knysna’s famous estuary.
What is fascinating to me is that each one has a different character and menu, so if a tourist visits Tapas, for example, they will visit Drydock for a different experience — there is no-one feeling that even makes the four feel like “family”.
Locals know that if you feel like an “opskop” then Tapas is the place for tequila, music and even dancing on the tables.
You could even join the league of reprobates who compete in drinking beer out of a funnel.
Check out the walls of Tapas which are lined with Tequila bottles and you will get the gist that this is the place to party.
Sirocco, just across the way from Tapas, is, however, very different.
It’s home to good food and you might get a little more dressed up to go here because it’s well more elegant, often chosen for special occasions.
For the ultimate hangover cure, look no further than the 34South breakfast pizza stuffed with egg and bacon, and fried onions in all their glory.
The kitchens here are open seven days a week, come high days and holidays serving breakfast, lunch, and supper, everything from burgers to Mediterranean, Mexican, sushi, and even Thai cuisine, among all the usual menu suspects.
And then there is the 34South retail space which entices tourists and locals.
Hard to describe it, because it is a bespoke place for prepared food and gifts, spices and wine, you name it.
They beat any airport shopping with 4.5kg Toblerone chocolates, nine of which recently sold for more than R3,000 a pop.
Now in time for Easter, of course, handmade local bunnies have popped up in obscene sizes which will keep a chocoholic busy until August.
There are old-fashioned tins of sweets, and liquorice specialities... delicious and pretty things that will keep you browsing for ages.
I can’t think of another shop quite like it anywhere that I have ever seen offering this variety.
People drive from Mossel Bay and George to shop here for things you won’t find anywhere else, like Asian sauces and spices, and, of course, they still have Hellman’s mayonnaise.
Locals tend to take a shopping basket and visit the fridge to pick up a snoek pate, a prepared lasagne, bacon mac and cheese is a favourite, and chicken curry or oxtail in winter.
The prices of these readymade meals very often knock spots off grocery stores in town.
This is also the place to hover at the bakery for their famous baguette with salt and rosemary all self-respecting locals know about, not to mention sourdough or ciabatta bread and sweet treats.
I have given up buying steak anywhere else because their 250g Karan beef sirloin is better than anywhere else and a very reasonable price.
There is something else in this fridge that I buy often, but I am too mean to share what it is, in case next time I get a craving there is none in that fridge.
When it comes to gifts, nothing beats this abundant space whether you want a small souvenir like a Knysna fridge magnet or perhaps a Tshirt, cap, or item of clothing, with the nautical 34South theme.
There is at any given time a selection of 20 special SA wines chosen by the team for the oenophile.
Long and short, this group of restaurants has a huge impact on Knysna.
Load-shedding has had a big impact.
Instead of flourishing with the increase in tourists and from solid local support, keeping chip-fryers, coffee machines and other electricity-gobbling gadgets running, eats heavily into profit, says Elizabeth, but the group is trying hard to not penalise the customer with their prices and that is evident to see.