The Aviary Cafe

5 July 2019

THE AVIARY CAFÉ

205 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town

This New Woodstock vibe is growing on me. Two Fridays ago, I ate breakfast at The Mash Tun, The Aviary Café’s neighbour and competitor directly across Sir Lowry Road.

The Aviary is in an old Woodstock building with a beautifully restored and painted exterior and next to it there’s a multi storey newbuild, behind the preserved façade of another old Woodstock building, still in the process of completion. On this side of the street, at least on this block, the intention seems to be to preserve some of the feel of Woodstock of yore, whereas the Ironworks Building on the opposite side of the street is completely new.

Sadly, the attractive exterior of The Aviary Café is the best part. It seems to me, once the proprietor put in the seating, the service counter and kitchen, that the budget was exhausted leaving no money for tarting up the exterior, except for a veritable forest of foliage, probably to camouflage the lack of interior styling.

The café takes the space of what would once have been a corner store with large windows on Sir Lowry Road and a smaller, higher one on the side street. This gives the interior plenty natural light.

There is one communal table in front, three small, square tables and three high tables to the side. Seating is bar stool (high and low) style, and though the table tops, and stool seats are decent, solid, light wood, they’re supported by precariously fragile-looking, white metal frames, that might be cutting edge but also come across as cheap.

There’s one too many of the small tables in the limited space and the abundant greenery (plants on almost every horizontal surface and hanging from the celling) made me felt claustrophobic. There’s so much of it, the proprietor might be on a mission single-handedly to counter the detrimental global warming effects of the loss of Brazilian rain forest.

A couple of artworks liven up the area around the service counter and there's a huge Rorschach blot that might be mould or bare concrete high against the rear wall. Seeing as how my eyesight isn’t 20/20, I did fancy it as an abstract wall decoration.

If you like hanging out in plant nurseries, this could be your paradise but if you want genteel cosiness, this ain’t it.

When you visit the WC around the back, it’s really clear how much of a work in progress this building is. The empty space next door to the café is under construction and the toilets are defiantly old and unrehabilitated.

The breakfast menu offers all day breakfast with dishes called The Hollandaise (R72), The Mainstay (R38 base price but if you want bacon, tomato or mushrooms, it will be more), The Omelette (R55), The Turkish (R60) (why on earth has this become fashionable in non-Turkish eateries in Cape Town, and seemingly replaced shakshuka?), Huevos Ranchero (R65), and your granola as the health option (R58), plus avo on toast (R60), filled croissant (R45) or scones (R38.)

Turkish eggs do not a Turkish breakfast make (it’s much more bountiful than that) and yet I still felt like earing foreign. The Huevos Ranchero is described as two eggs baked in a Mexican tomato sauce with spinach, served with freshly prepared guacamole, sour cream and coriander and crispy sourdough in the side.

I’m fond of huevos ranchero. Once Clarke’s was the benchmark for it but, if memory serves, Jarryd’s is now far superior. If it were once a hot ticket breakfast item, it seems to have faded, replaced by shakshuka or Turkish eggs as the leftfield (yet still non-vegan) option on breakfast menus.

Aviary Café’s interpretation of the dish is a new take on it and I’m not quite sure I approve, though it was quite pleasant.

The guacamole had bits of onion to add texture. The huevos was more like scrambled egg infused tomato and onion sauce and had an amusing little kick as one delved deeper. The slice of bread was good but hardly crisp.

I finished with two fresh, light buttermilk scones, jam, cream and grated cheese, which, truth be told, was more emotionally satisfactory than the main dish.

I couldn’t decide whether I liked the coffee, so I guess it’s s no from me, then. It wasn’t acidic, it didn’t seem full roasted either. Perhaps it was the milk. Whatever it was, it was unconvincing.

Would I return? No. 

It’s a neighbourhood joint, a would-be hipster café (without hipsters and without vibe) with a cheap and cheerful aspect. It’s always good to have more options and as part of the Woodstock Renaissance it’s welcome but one has the premonition that it won’t be around in a year’s time.  Unless something changes radically here, I would imagine that the discerning punter would rather hang out in the sleek, chic, Ironworks Building.