A little Italian with an inspired take on pizza and pasta
TWO young scienceboffins-turned-brewingentrepreneurs are launching a brewery in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
On August 13, Cindy Slater and Stefan Just will introduce their brews with the launch of Balgowan Brewery, at a
one-day festival in the Mill Session series offering great live music, craft beer, and family fun.
The launch open day will be a celebration of this exciting new brewery from 11am until 6pm, accompanied by live music from three acts: The Silver Band, Salty Dog, and Duncan Park. The live music line-up will segue into discs with renowned radio DJ Elvis.
The new brewery is situated at Midlands Forest Lodge, halfway between Nottingham Road and Howick.
Balgowan Brewery is a company registered by two young, enthusiastic entrepreneurs who are products of Rhodes University. Slater obtained her PhD in biochemistry in 2015 while Just studied applied mathematics and physics with electronics and recently submitted his thesis for his MSc in electronics.
After leaving Rhodes they decided to settle on the Midlands Meander and concentrate full-time on their brews and forming the brewery.
After months of experimentation, they have scaled up and perfected their brew process with recipes for several types, with the aim of creating quality and authentictasting beers using local as well as imported ingredients.
The launch will take the form of a Mill Session – a series of music-themed events which Midlands cornerstones Di and Terry Acres have been running mostly from their Caversham Mill for the past five years. The Silver Band was formed by some of the country’s finest musicians and entertainers: Alistair Coakley (lead guitar, vocals – ex Hotline, Stimela), Gary van Zyl (bass guitar, vocals – ex Clout, Juluka), Derrick Dryan (lead vocals, harmonica, congas – ex Ballyhoo) and Leon Shaw (drums, ex Mean Mr Mustard).
To add to the talent and musical fun at the Balgowan Brewery launch, the Mill Sessions has brought in Salty Dog: great Durban-based band that plays cover versions of rock tunes from the 1960s to the 1990s. The members are Paul Fuhri (vocals – ex Ritz and Stir), Errol “Smelly” Fellows (guitar and vocals – original member), Gordon Jackson (vocals, guitar), Avril Kotze (vocals) and Grant Halliday (drums – ex Anarchy). Guitarist Riki Rix (ex Anarchy) will be performing with Salty Dog at the launch gig.
Duncan Park is primarily a guitarist and singer but also plays other instruments including bass, charango (small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family), banjolele (banjo/ukelele), harmonica, pennywhistle and percussion. His lo-fi, bluesy, folk rock ‘n’ roll style is good fun and enjoyable.
Elvis Gangiah (DJ E ) is an accomplished club DJ, radio personality and dance music producer and remixer.
So beer lovers – or not – are invited to a day of fun, tasting beer, chatting to brew masters Slater and Just about brewing and its process plus some great music. There will be child-minders. Some great traditional South African braai food and bunny chow will be available… and open fires.
Balgowan Brewery launch at Midlands Forest Lodge on August 13, 11am6pm. Tickets are R80 prebooked, R100 at the door. Under 16 free. To book e-mail cavershammill@mweb.co.za, or call 033 234 4524. Pizzetta 139 Helen Joseph (Davenport) Road,Glenwood Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11.30am to 10pm Phone: 031 201 1019 OUR thumbs were inked and votes cast, so to celebrate our participation in the democratic process we went in search of a meal.
I was a bit surprised to see we had the restaurant largely to ourselves on a Wednesday night, but my wife speculated that maybe people had brought their partying forward to Tuesday evening, knowing Wednesday was a public holiday.
I like the ambience of this restaurant. It is well lit, cheerful and there is the choice of sitting on the balcony facing Helen Joseph (Davenport) Road, or a veranda on the side, or inside. It was a blustery evening and sitting indoors it was warm enough to take our jackets off.
Our waiter, a varsity student, seated us, brought the menu and immediately took our drinks order. Lime and soda (R19) and an Amstel beer (R19).
From the starters we chose the four seasons bruschetta (R65) to share, consisting of four slices of toasted Italian bread with a taste infusion of two meat and two vegetarian toppings. This was an inspired choice, giving us an excellent starter that included roasted peppers and Parma ham; tomato, cheese and pesto; caramelised onions, mushroom and Gorgonzola and finally salami, artichokes and olives.
The restaurant is known for imaginative gourmet pizzas. You can have half and half of the large size. But for our mains we choose from the selection of pasta dishes.
My wife had the wood oven baked cannelloni (R78) consisting of onion, spinach, button mushrooms and Danish feta, topped with a creamy béchamel and Neapolitan sauce. It had lots of vegetables and was delicious.
I choose the sautéed marinated rump steak strips (R89). I chose the linguine, with the pasta and steak being tossed with onion, garlic and marinated brown mushrooms in a creamy Gorgonzola sauce. The flavours were surprisingly subtle and overall it was enjoyable and a good portion.
With our main courses we had two glasses of Anura Legato merlot house wine (R26), which went down smoothly with our pastas.
I asked our waiter if he had voted and he ruefully admitted he had forgotten to register for the election.
I could not help but wonder how true this was of potential young voters in general. We know the Independent Electoral Commission put a lot of effort in trying to get first-time voters to register to vote, and also to get themselves to polling stations.
Satisfied with our meals, we choose to share a portion of Italian kisses (R39). There were two chocolate and two caramel flavour kisses on a bed of cream. After enjoying these we finished off with two good cappuccinos (R18).
This restaurant certainly gets my vote as a fun, relaxed venue that offers good food.