NOSTALGIA IS HARD TO BEAT
Memories of Jo’burg in the 1970s, and particularly the old Fontana and Zoo Lake picnics, come rushing back with a visit to a Linden restaurant
Food is not just what we put in our mouths. It is not just the smells and the taste. It is much more — it insinuates itself into the deepest crevices of our brains and forms memories; it coalesces into things that jump up at you out of the blue in an unguarded moment one day far out in the future.
When I was a small child my father would pack us and my mother into his Wolseley 6/99 on a Sunday afternoon. After taking in a bit of Jo’burg we would pop into Fontana, a rotisserie kitchen restaurant, and buy two whole chickens. The smell of that chicken: my word! My father would pay for our purchase and off we would go. Now, 1970s Jo’burg was a segregated city.
But the apartheid architects could do nothing about the park at Zoo Lake. You see, the founders of Zoo Lake proclaimed the land open to people of all races, and even in the dark days of apartheid this remained so. Thus off we would go to Zoo Lake with our picnic. We would arrive, settle down on the lawns and tuck in. I still remember the taste of that chicken, the sheer satisfaction of savouring the myriad herbs and flavours contained in the juices and flesh of it. They were the worst of times, the 1970s, but moments like those in the park were also the best of a young boy’s life.
There were four of us last week at Rosto, a new, casual and funky chicken restaurant in Linden, when one of us said: “I know. It reminds me of Fontana!”
And those of us who knew Fontana back then nodded with recognition as the memories flooded back. Food. The memories never leave you.
Rosto specialises in “100% happy chicken, free to roam outdoors, grain fed, no routine antibiotics, no growth hormones”. Our loquacious waitress told us that the happy chickens are reared in Limpopo. They are spit roasted in front of a wood fire for our enjoyment.
The restaurant aims to serve chicken the old Italian way. Though the good bird is central, there are lots of Italian starters and accompaniments. You could go for meatballs (pork, lamb, beef or chicken or red lentil and sweet potato) and some salads and the outstanding coleslaw. From the oven there is melanzane, lasagne and cannelloni filled with ricotta and spinach.
There is quite a bit of pork going on at Rosto. There are the meatballs, and they do pork and chicken sandwiches on focaccia. That’s because Thursdays are la Porchetta days — they put a whole deboned pig, rolled with rosemary, sage, roasted fennel, garlic and white wine, in the wood-fired rotisserie. It sounds divine.
We loved the clean and happy decor — and the small deli, with olive oils and tomato sauces and other bits you can buy, was very pretty indeed.
You can have your chicken whole, half or quartered — or go for the wings. There are three flavours: tomato and chilli, lemon with wild oregano and finally the salsa verde.
How was it? The meatballs were to die for. My lovely wife and I thought the slaw was amazing. The chickpea chips were great.
All four of us raved about everything except what we came for: the chicken. It was, well, a bit disappointing. Not bad, you understand, but it perhaps needed a bit more time in the rotisserie?
This is a lovely place. It also delivers via Ubereats. I will be ordering and visiting.
But that chicken needs to up its game a bit. Competition — both current and in my memories — is tough.
I remember the taste of that chicken, the sheer satisfaction of savouring the myriad herbs and flavours contained in the juices and flesh of it
Rosto Italian Rotisserie ★★★½
69 7th Street Linden, Johannesburg Tel: (011) 888-0369
★★★★★ Mcebisi Jonas ★★★★ Excellent ★★★ Good ★★ Poor ★ Jacob Zuma