What's Cooking

What’s Cooking

RESTAURANT NEWS Hedda Mittner

Hermanus restaurants getting back on their feet

Two weeks ago, when I went on a walkabout to find out how our restaurants were doing in the midst of the stay-away, I found several closed doors, and those that were open, were operating under extreme pressure due to a lack of staff. On the whole, though, the morale of our local businesses was bolstered by the many volunteers who lent a helping hand to keep their doors open and their kitchens functioning, even if they were only able to offer a limited menu to their customers.

It was a different picture this weekend, with our restaurants and coffee shops all open for business and most, but not all of their staff having returned to work. There can be no doubt that all these establishments have suffered enormous financial losses due to the unrest, yet most owners have treated their staff members with compassion and supported them as best they can.

Nic Kennedy and Theo van Niekerk of the Vanderbolt Coffee Company are opening a new restaurant in Sandbaai called Vb. on 1 August.

PHOTO: Hedda Mittner

Partners Tam Yeatman and Gordon Schoeman are the new owners of Embers, which opened last month in Harbour Road where Piccolo’s used to be.

PHOTO: Hedda Mittner

It is encouraging to see not only our existing restaurants getting back on their feet, but even new ones opening. In the midst of all the unrest, Theo van Niekerk of the Vanderbolt Coffee Company pursued the opportunity to open his own eatery by taking over Casa Beira-Mar in Sandbaai, after its owner, Ricardo Braganca, relocated to the CBD to open Casa Ricardo in Aberdeen Street.

Hermanus Gas assists restaurants

Stoffel Frick, owner of Hermanus Gas, stands among a small number of the hundreds of extra gas cylinders they have bought at a discounted price to assist local restaurants.

Restaurants in Hermanus that were directly affected by the unrest during the past few weeks will get some reprieve in their running costs, thanks to Hermanus Gas and Total Gaz South Africa.

“When the management of Total Gaz heard about the unrest in our town and saw that the volume of gas used has dropped significantly because restaurants were not able to trade, they decided to offer us a discounted price for the next few days.

“We took the decision to buy as much gas as possible at the discounted rate and offer local restaurants gas at the lower price,” says Stoffel Frick of Hermanus Gas.

“Although we can only buy the gas from Total at the discounted price for one week, we have decided to buy as much as we can afford to, so that we can assist the restaurants over the next two weeks. In total we are spending more than R207 000 on the deposits alone for the extra cylinders we are buying,” he says.

Stoffel says they have ordered so many extra cylinders that he’s had to rent extra space to store them. A 48 kg cylinder of gas is now available to restaurants at R864 (excl. VAT).