Playground of Gourmet Pâtisserie
For those that have not yet had the pleasure of indulging in the wonders offered at Coco Safar’s flagship store in Sea Point, Cape Town, what awaits you is a fusion experience like no other. It defies labels, being the perfect culmination of café, pâtisserie, coffee roastery, and brewery. Coco Safar takes the best aspects of each of these concepts, refines them, and houses them in extravagant style in one of the Mother City’s trendiest inner-city areas.
Coco Safar in Sea Point is located in the newly-built Artem Centre. This galleriastyled shopping centre offers visitors the chance to browse the best of the local market, with well-known brands mixed in. The design aesthetic is minimalist and stylish, while still retaining a decidedly welcoming quality. It’s one of the hottest new developments in the Mother City, and the perfect new home for Coco Safar.
When guests first enter the Artem Centre, they are greeted by a stylish and stunningly upholstered, elongated bench equipped with European style tables, attached directly to the olive green quilted backing. A giant bronze globe sits at one end, a nod to the global appeal of a concept such as Coco Safar.
Their concept is simple, and it all starts with luxury. The store’s interior oozes exotic comfort – all dark wood with tasteful use of bold colour. Chairs are upholstered in brown leather, with olive green accents, and floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the space add an abundance of natural light. Plants are also dotted throughout the space, providing a charming contrast to all the reflective glass and elegant dark wood. Most of the luxury accents in the store were sourced and made locally in Cape Town, something that was important to the owners.
Every last detail at Coco Safar has been curated and perfected, from the ambient music and lighting levels, to the monogrammed wooden boards and the Italian side plates. Each piece of cutlery and crockery gleams and shines, patiently awaiting the final touches of a perfect pastry, macaroon, éclair, or any number of sweet delights on offer.
The pâtisserie display case, located against the back wall of the store, beckons patrons in its direction with the promise of something out of this world. The owner, Wilhelm Liebenberg, has often expressed his desire to create the first Michelinstarred café, and you can see that ambition in these little pieces of edible finery. The chefs at Coco Safar spend a huge amount of time developing the recipes before they are served to the public – every mouthful needs to showcase the flavours of each dish to absolute perfection.
The Luxury Café also offers a delectable selection of savoury lunch items, including Bao Buns and Lamb Bobotie. The dishes are made with only the best and freshest ingredients – after all, you can’t make sensational food without sensational raw materials.
Coffee is a hugely important component of Coco Safar. Their coffee machines were specially made in Europe and shipped to Cape Town at great expense. The water goes through various processes within the machine before it is pulsed through their freshly roasted coffee. And yes, they do roast their beans on site. It is all too common to see over-roasted coffee served in Cape Town, but lovers of the bean can be assured that their cups will contain coffee roasted to perfection every time. The team of highly skilled barristers have all learned the tricks of the trade, but most importantly they understand how to handle coffee and how to get the most out every bean.
Not only do they serve delicious coffee at the café, they also sell it at their Capsule Emporium. All of Coco Safar’s coffee capsules are biodegradable, and offer patrons the ability to enjoy delicious coffee without the fear of a huge impact on the environment. These capsules are made of compostable bio-plastic and will start to break down soon after their contact with water. Coco Safar’s City Roast collection takes the very best qualities of some of the biggest cities in the world, and contains them within a Third-wave coffee capsule. The range includes Napoli, Manhattan, Havana, Saint-tropez and Lisbon. They are also the creators of the world’s very first Grade-a Rooibos capsules – Stellenbosch is their Green Rooibos capsule, and Kaapstad is their Red Rooibos capsule.
Most recently, Coco Safar added the world’s first botanical micro-brewery to their already impressive offering. These include Red and Green Rooibos Cold Brew, Citrus-coffee Cold Brew, and Rooibosinfused Tonic Water. Health nuts can rest assured that everything produced at the micro-brewery is only sweetened using the best and purest maple syrup – which Coco Safar imports from Canada, naturally. Their entire range is available in bottles and on tap, so sit down and enjoy the flagship Coco Safar – a soon-to-be global brand.