CATCHING THE KLOOF STREET ZEITGEIST
This part of Cape Town has so many fine restaurants it’s easy to get confused. Here’s a brief guide
Kloof Street in Cape Town’s Gardens area is one of the most happening streets anywhere. Don’t take our word for it; global media company TimeOut last year named it one of the 33 coolest streets in the world for its “bucketload of local buzz”.
The road is spread out beneath striking views of Table Mountain, meandering past restaurants, bars, boutiques, hairdressers and art galleries, not to mention its fair share of estate agents.
Besides the enticing restaurants (including Black Sheep, Café Paradiso, Kloof Street House and Blondie), there’s also Unframed which has been named the world’s best icecream store.
Then there are the specialist stores, including Premier Shoes & Locksmiths a third-generation business which has been operating since 1930 and Gardens Continental Butchery, which has been going for 38 years.
Occasionally, a new business finds a niche. Chef Amori Burger’s new restaurant, Upper Union, just off Kloof Street, is hoping to do just that.
Burger is known for having opened six restaurants in Joburg over the years, the most recent being Van der Linde, which was popular in Linden before Covid hit.
She then went to work for the More Family Collection at Sabi Sands and, when they decided to open their first restaurant to the public, they turned to her. The result is Upper Union in Cadogan Square, a heritage building on the street of the same name which has just undergone a renovation. It has a mosaic-type entrance of emerald, black and white, which sets the backdrop of Victorian design, with décor by Artichoke Design, which has a certain colonial flair.
The restaurant is billed as being “curated for the curious’” with influences from Africa, Cape Malay and beyond. But for Burger, it’s about creating a menu that she’d want when holding a dinner party at her house.
“The menu style is family menu, but not just small plates. There’s a protein, main and side, and small plates,” she says.
Burger has never been shy of texture and flavours, and likes her offerings bold and punchy, much like her personality, as those who saw the Afrikaans TV show she hosted, Op die Spyskaart, can attest. Her food mixes creamy with salty, acidity with sweet, in colours that are as inviting as the taste.
The menu changes regularly. On the day the FM visited, the house bread was kubaneh (something like brioche meets rolled flatbread), mebos (made from salted and sweet apricots) and makhni (butter from “happy cows”).
The starters were ox tongue with Marmite, kohlrabi and horseradish with caper berries, and ajo blanco (a popular Spanish cold soup) with green grapes, almonds and thyme. The main course was charcoal-grilled Karoo lamb with baharat sauce, fig and red onion bhaji with tamarind chutney and yoghurt, plus a fire-grilled red cabbage. On the side, there was Boland semi-hard cheese, candied walnuts and almond, and a candied summer pumpkin with chicken skin, béarnaise and puffed grains.
Dessert was bluegum-roasted pineapple, tawny port, and honeycomb semifreddo plus chardonnay poached pears with dark pepita caramel with Milkwood goats kefir custard.
There are two menus: one is the curated chef’s menu with various plates put together, and the other is a choice of small plates to choose your own.
The cocktail list created by the award-winning mixologists at Just Short cocktails includes Cape To Casablanca (Madre mezcal, honey, harissa, roasted carrot and dry sherry), Strawberries & Dream (Beefeater London Dry, strawberries, tea and vanilla) and Tokai
Forest (house-blend rum, peach, rosemary, citrus, Campari and crème de cassis).
It’s a fabulous menu, but it’s not the only Cape Town restaurant to have one. As Burger points out, Cape Town is harder to crack than Joburg, because it’s the food scene of South Africa.
Which is why so many restaurants are doing something unique to put their name on the map. Burger’s restaurant, for example, is very different to Nourish’d Café & Juicery up the road, which is all about salads and smoothies, gluten-free sourdough, vegan broths and cleansing juices.
But it’s part of what makes the area so appealing to hipsters and décor fundis, as well as those just looking to get their keys cut.