Ekasi evolution: Baily’s menu reflects

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.

People 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

Botlhale with his parents, Cyril and Sibongile, at their eatery

bought a vehicle to use as a maxi taxi. His business grew to a point where he owned a fleet of minibus taxis.

Building on this success, he began expanding his footprint by establishing various stores – including a hardware, coal yard, numerous general dealers, a pharmacy and, the most innovative of all, an educational toy manufacturer. While doing this, he also partook in a construction project that built some homes in Alexandra that still stand today. This was all done during the mid-1980s.

The space on which Baily’s stands – on the corner of Vasco Da Gama and 2nd Ave – was once the site of the general dealer, butcher and pharmacy. With the property being quite big, Botlhale’s aunt ran her spaza shop in only one section of the building for more than 20 years. At one point, she invited some of the local kids to utilise more of the space and turn it into a car wash, which still operates to this day.

Sadly, in 2019, Botlhale’s aunt, Nkele Baily, passed on. Bothlale explains, “After my aunt passed away, my grandfather pulled me aside and said, ‘We’ve got this property, it needs to be used. It can’t be left vacant – do something’.” His grandfather feared that if the property were left vacant, people would begin to occupy the space.

“I remember I used to crawl around here when I was a baby. When I was growing up, my aunt used to tell me, ‘This place belongs to you’, not knowing that when she passes away, my grandad is going to say, ‘You’re the one I can entrust this to’.”

A new chapter

Botlhale eventually heeded the call and, together with his parents, revamped the place, which was in pretty poor condition following his aunt’s passing. “We took about four months to renovate the place.”

They eventually opened their doors for business on 7 December 2019. “Eish, that day was terrible. Because it was raining during that time, we didn’t get to finish the renovations. We had committed and invited people, so we went ahead nonetheless. Those who arrived on time had to wait for us to finish up this and that. But we served kotas that day and people came in and had a personal experience.”

He goes on to admit, “We literally didn’t know what we were doing, truth be told!” But it helped that they brought in a professional to show them how to construct a kota, with Botlhale briefing the cook on what he wanted to see in his kota. “The signature of the fried onion rings on a kota is our invention – before us, that’s not something I came across.” The popularity of their kotas took off like wildfire. By early 2020, they were interviewed on Power FM radio station, which provided a significant publicity boost – so much so that they attracted corporates from around Sandton, Woodmead and surrounding areas that would place orders so large they couldn’t even serve their sit-in customers. “They saw our stuff on social media and things got extremely busy. We started getting corporates making huge orders. At times, we had to close, as we couldn’t take any more orders because the kitchen was just too busy. And you must remember that we were still new to this process. But we prioritised and learnt along the

way. When a corporate calls us now, it’s not an issue,” an assured Botlhale says.

Then Covid struck

Botlhale tells me they did various specials in the days leading up to that fateful date in late March when President Ramaphosa locked down the country, as a way of clearing stock because they didn’t know when they would open again. “We took precautions from the very first day, when the first few cases were occurring. Our staff were already masked and we asked people to sanitise when they walked in. We were doing those things before it became official in the country. Also, as part of our social responsibility, we closed down the gaming spot that we have for kids.”

The money made during this clearance sale was given to their employees. “We were like, ‘We don’t know when we’re going to come back, but here’s this money to try hold you down during this period’,” says Botlhale.

Learning lessons

He says Covid was a big lesson for them. “We went home and got to re-strategise.” Having started this business just three months before lockdown, Bothlale says the break gave them the opportunity to ask, “What have we learnt?”

They reopened months after closing during Level 5 of lockdown, dedicating the first week to cleaning the place. When they started operating again, Botlhale insisted they adhere to Covid-19 protocols of mask-wearing. “We were serving literally through pick-up. But, you know, being in the township, Level 4 lockdown meant nothing. As soon as the military had left, people didn’t have masks on anymore.”

While other eateries around did their sit-ins, Baily’s only took kerbside orders and made home deliveries, as opposed to before Covid, when they only did corporate deliveries. “Covid came and we realised that we have to do deliveries because people are sitting at home.”

The pre-Covid Baily’s frenzy that existed was reignited as soon as they reopened, with a huge influx of people wanting to try out their kotas. “There was that boom when we reopened, for people try out Baily’s. We were doing deliveries in these, charging R15 a delivery,” Botlhale says, pointing to a Toyota Condor and Fortuner parked outside.

He and his father were the delivery guys, but it took a toll on them. “I remember I’d get home wanting to cry, because that’s how tired I was! You’d get orders from one end and then have to rush to the other.” They did this for at least three months. Deliveries were revolutionary for the Baily’s business, as more people found it convenient. But it got to a point where they would have a cut-off time for taking orders on certain days. “At the end of the day, we were giving people like three-hour delays – so by 12:00 to 13:00, we’d stop completely.”

With people increasingly working from home, their corporate orders inevitably slowed, but the delivery services kept the business going. “We realised [delivering ourselves] was not sustainable. Then I signed us up with Uber Eats, which wasn’t in the area at the time. I remember we literally switched on the Uber Eats app and an order came in immediately,” says Botlhale.

And there‘s a fair bit to choose from too.

“Baily’s specialises in traditional South African food, so whatever you grew up eating, we sell – mogodu (tripe), chicken feet, beef stew and sheep’s head. We want people to reminisce and think of their time growing up,” he explains.

Nkele Baily with a baby Botlhale at their property in Alex Botlhale with his grandparents, Ronald Boy Baily and

Hilda Kedibone Baily

Taste of the kota

And what about the famous kota, you ask? The first thing you notice is that it’s quite big, so you’re not exactly sure where to start. But that doesn’t matter because it’s overwhelmingly delicious – and there’s the secret Baily’s ingredient. “Love. Every single kota made here is made from love. But I think it’s also just being different… the onion rings, first of all – it’s something no one has tried.”

Botlhale says the journey your tastebuds go on when eating the kota is key. “It’s engineered that, when you bite, it’s this flavour first and then you go to this and to that. The first thing you always taste is the bread and the chips. It’s the softness and the sweetness of the bread, the chips second with the saltiness of the spice, and then the sweetness comes again with the sauces. But the sweetness of the sauces is completely different to the bread. You’ll then get the crunch of the lettuce, then the atchaar and have the super saltiness of the meats and then the onion rings. It’s supposed to play with everything in your mouth,” he says.

But over and above anything else, he genuinely believes in the good taste of their food. “As long as someone tastes our food, they’ll come back,” Botlhale concludes.

MORE THAN A GAME

Baily’s restaurant will be relaunching its arcade in collaboration with Tshepiso Malema, who runs Gamer’s Territory arcades. They are planning on revamping the gaming zone for kids adjacent to the restaurant: “We want kids to dream; we want kids to see beyond the reality of the township. Some kids here have grown up in Alex but have never been to Sandton. With the virtual reality, we want to send the kids to Dubai!” Botlhale enthuses.