ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EKASI EVOLUTION: BAILY’S MENU REFLECTS THE CHANGING TOWNSHIP LANDSCAPE Being an entrepreneur in the township comes with many challenges and customers are often unreceptive to reimagined versions of their long-standing favourites. But the booming popularity of Baily’s and the restaurant’s creative approach to the humble kota show that change is afoot in Alex.
P
eople say, ‘Ah Baily’s, you’re gentrifying the kota,’ not understanding that at some places in Alex, the kota first began as a sandwich with just polony. It then evolved to adding chips, then an egg, and then the special – it’s just been a constant evolution,” says Botlhale Baily. The Baily’s offerings are quite pricey – costing more than your average kota – but Botlhale believes their kotas reflect the evolution of people living in the township. “I feel like, as black people, we are moving up the social ladder. We can afford more, and our tastes are becoming… let’s just say we have a budget now to back up our tastes,” says Botlhale. The family-run Baily’s restaurant in Alexandra is famous for its reimagined kotas and traditional food – but things have not been smooth sailing because of the family’s English surname. “On Twitter, there’s huge outlash all the time. We’ve trended a couple of times over people being angry,” says Botlhale. The anger stems from people not knowing the story behind Baily’s. “They think it’s a white family who’ve come to Alex to gentrify and steal from the township economy. And all of us are light-skinned, so it makes it a difficult thing.” As I sit with Botlhale at their restaurant in Alex, it is yet another day during which most South Africans are stranded in the dark because of load-shedding... but nothing gets the Baily family down. “I’m a third-generation entrepreneur – my uncle and dad have business ventures,” the 24-year-old tells Spot-On.
Family history His grandfather, Ronald Boy Baily, together with his wife, Hilda Kedibone Baily, started out with nothing when they began selling alcohol out of their oneroom home, which became a makeshift tavern. They shared this business with their children and then Ronald
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