Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2025 i Cape Etc

CAPE TOWN IN WINTER IS A DIFFERENT KIND OF MAGIC. THE WINDS SOFTEN, THE CLOUDS ROLL IN AND THE CITY SHEDS ITS SHOWY SUMMER SKIN. There’s something deeply comforting about the way the mountain disappears into the clouds, only to reappear, stoic and striking, between cold fronts. It’s a season that asks less of us socially and offers more to those who seek out its quieter joys. Winter invites stillness but never stagnation. We trade rooftop cocktails for fireside dinners, beach walks for forest hikes, and long lunches with a view for sitting in cosy corners with hot drinks in hand. Our city doesn’t shut down when the chill sets in. If anything, it sharpens its focus. The light slants differently, the pace slows, and the details come into view.…

INVITE FROM AN ICON Winter Sundays at The Pot Luck Club are a culinary celebration, writes Ryan Vrede Stepping into The Pot Luck Club on a crisp Cape Town Sunday is like being swept into an indoor winter fantasy. Despite the chill, the Old Biscuit Mill hotspot is buzzing with energy – thanks to its Winter Extravaganza Sunday brunch, a feast that’s as comforting as it is indulgent. I experienced it first-hand, and here’s how it unfolds: From the moment you step off the lift, the mood is set: live jazz hums in the background, low lighting creates a cosy glow, and communal tables invite easy conversation between strangers turned temporary brunch buddies. You’re seated at 11 am, offered a flute of Graham Beck’s elegant Brut or Rosé Cap Classiques, or…

On a crisp Tuesday afternoon in June, Cape Etc had the pleasure of joining a food tour with Unexplored Cape Town, a local initiative that takes hungry adventurers beyond the picture-postcard view of the Mother City. Led by Guides Dennis and Fez, the tour promised a curated walk through Cape Town’s culinary and cultural corners – and it delivered. We gathered at Church Square, framed by the elegant Labotessa Luxury Boutique Hotel. A hidden gem in plain sight, Labotessa’s bold design aesthetic – a mosaic of luxury finishes and colourful collectables – sets the tone for a city that is anything but bland. Though we didn’t sit down for their famed high tea or award-winning breakfast, a peek inside certainly warranted a return visit. Before departing the square, Dennis and…

Piketberg’s charm hangs in the early morning air, just before the town begins to stir. Somewhere, the faraway echo of freight trucks on the N7, the clink of a teaspoon in a kitchen, and the scent of tobacco from the pipe of a gnarly, crosslegged oupa on a stoep make up the scenery on a typical day. If you stand still long enough, the mountains speak to you. Not in words, exactly, but in the silence. I grew up in this town. It’s the kind of place where you waved at every person, whether you knew them or not – and chances were, you did. It was where aunties shared cigarettes over fences and gossiped about whoever got their furniture repossessed. The rhythms of life here were shaped by the…

I never wanted to visit Istanbul. It wasn’t on my list of dream destinations, nor did I imagine myself wandering its ancient streets, bargaining at the Grand Bazaar, or staring slack-jawed at the domes of mosques I’d only ever seen in picture books. Yet here I am – still jet-lagged, still dreaming of Urfa kebaps (a kebab with lamb or beef ) and the Bosphorus at the golden hour – and already plotting my return. Türkiye surprised me. Deeply. Not in the tired ‘what a hidden gem’ kind of way, but in the sense that I’d been blind to the beauty, history and vibrancy that Istanbul contains. It’s chaotic, layered, warm, ancient, modern, mystical and real – all at once. And it got under my skin in a way few…

DEEP SOUTH SURRENDER Tintswalo Boulders in Simon’s Town offers oceanfront tranquility with a personal touch. There are few places in Cape Town that master the art of balance quite like Tintswalo Boulders in Simon’s Town. Tucked just above the famous penguin colony, this boutique villa manages to feel both like a luxurious escape and a home away from home. I recently spent two nights there, and I’m still mentally replaying the slow rhythm of coastal life it gifted me. From the moment I stepped inside, the villa felt warm – not just in the temperature-controlled sense, but in the emotional one. There’s an unpretentious elegance to the place. It’s small enough to feel exclusive and intimate, yet cleverly laid out so that other guests never feel like they’re in your…

If your appetite for learning (and eating) is only just beginning, here’s what Dennis from Unexplored Cape Town recommends: Favourite bookshops Clarke’s Bookshop (Long Street) The Book Lounge (Corner Buitenkant & 71 Roeland Street Must-watch Not in My Neighbourhood (Kurt Orderson’s documentary on Cape Town gentrification) Top five authentic Cape Townbased restaurants Andalousse (North African) The Persian Peacock (Iranian) Olympia Café (Greek) Saray Restaurant (Turkish) Experiences Cape Malay/Creole cooking class and Bellville Food Tour: WhatsApp 079 786 5551 Castle of Good Hope Cape Heritage Museum Walk of Remembrance with Traci Kwaai: awehkaapstad@gmail.com Cape Peninsula tour with Nadja: 072 676 3520 District Six Museum site tour with ex-residents Bo-Kaap walking tour with Fazlin: 079 184 2837 Senegalese cooking class with Khadim: 065 868 0072 Snorkelling with Cape Raad: caperadd.com Township tours…

You could fancy yourself in a Mediterranean vineyard A bone-dry Cap Classique whose bubbles are fine and delicate. Brioche notes on the nose and subtle citrus flavours. I was at Hout Bay Vineyards’ Summer Open Day, up a steep, cobbled slope at the top of Grotto Road, outside a home constructed of Table Mountain sandstone that felt as much a part of Skoorsteenskop’s immense rock face as the boulders strewn around, with the verdant, wooded valley sprawling below. Other people swirled wine in tasting glasses, too, beneath the shade of a 105-year-old Kalamata olive tree. There was woodchip underfoot, and an English springer spaniel named Cooper zigzagged between the café-style tables. On a wall was a striking mural by the late South African artist Paul du Toit. He was a…

‘Back into the labyrinth that is Vredehoek,’ my friend would mutter nearly every time he wound through the suburb’s maze of side streets to arrive at my front door. Vredehoek spills down from Table Mountain in a unique arrangement of Art Deco buildings, mid-century apartments, and compact urban homes nestled between Devil’s Peak and Oranjezicht. The quiet suburb is often recognised by the Disa Towers – contentiously designed and affectionately dubbed The Pepper Pots – which rise from the mountain’s base, their unusual shape intended to soften the relentless South Easter that hounds residents through summer. The suburb was proclaimed after the First World War by European settlers and named Peace Corner – peace for the white community, in the sense that the war had ended. But like many places…

Korean culture is having a moment. Teens idolise girl groups and boy bands who have skyrocketed K-pop (Keipap, an abbreviation of Korean popular music that fuses Western dance music, hip-hop, R&B and rock) into the world's orbit. In 2024, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) ranked South Korea seventh among the top 10 music artists worldwide. Flying the ship are the boy band BTS and the girl band Blackpink with 76.6 million and 57.8 million Instagram followers, respectively. K-dramas (Hanguk deurama, an abbreviation of Korean dramas), Koreanlanguage TV shows produced in South Korea since the '60s, were mainly viewed locally. Now, Netflix offers many options to a global audience, Squid Game, Business Proposal and Crash Landing on You, to name a few. In 2024, the streaming service reported…

The southern Overberg is a land of canola fields and rolling hills fragrant with fynbos, a place of ancient forest vestiges, farms turned feral to restore the Renosterveld of old, kloofs still frequented by leopards and beaches by brown hyenas. The barnacles of history cling to this place: from our early ancestors who eked an existence from the rockpools to the first Trekboers and shipwreck survivors who settled here. Millennia of human habitation give this southern land a nostalgic cast: from Stone Age remains and the cottages of fisherfolk to grand Cape Dutch homesteads. It is a coast of lighthouses whose beams and horns have tried in vain to warn ships from the most treacherous of capes. The Deep South is a piece of Africa like no other. The barnacles…