Seed & Circus

23 December 2019

SEED & CIRCUS

17 Constitution Street, Cape Town

The wife found mention of this new kid on the East City Precinct block and suggested we go there for breakfast today. She finds out about new places by keeping her fingers on the internet pulse; I wander about in the CBD and discover them by happenstance. Her way might be more effective.

Seed & Circus is on the Constitution Street side of the Castle Hotel, which also hosts Holy Smoke and some South American themed watering hole, and is but a stone’s throw from The Harrington, Bootlegger and the other newish joints on Harrington Street.

It still has a soft launch menu written out on a white board against the rear wall, so I guess we can call ourselves early adopters on this one.

The service and barista counters, and behind them the kitchen, are on the left as one enters, and there is also a service counter to the street, with counter seating on the pavement on the other side of the entrance. The interior space is quite lovely, with sections of old, worn, bare brick contrasting with plastered surfaces and exquisite framed artwork and decorations. There’s plenty of light, both natural and from the stylish light fittings, playing off the blonde wood tables to create real warmth. There’s banquette seating with small tables along the side wall, more small tables at the front, a  lounging nook at the rear and one communal table. The ambience combines rustic with modern to  great effect.

The breakfast menu is limited to three options, and we had all three.

The wife chose the Circus fry up with Usana (do you know how many hits you get when you google “Usana”? I’m guessing the reference is to a farm in the Stellenbosch area) poached eggs, Lowerland polenta toast, tomato ragu, mushrooms, spinach and avocado. (R95) She declined the jalapeño that’s part of the dish and added bacon (R36).

My choice was the Turkish eggs (definitely now a breakfast dish du jour), also with Usana poached eggs, labneh, greens, chilli beurre noisette dill, crispy chickpeas and Frankie’s sourdough toast. (R80)

Our initial respective espresso and flat white were on the house because they’d run out of their coffee and were forced to bio borrow some more from Bootlegger. The coffee is served in glass cups.

The wife really enjoyed her dish even if the polenta toast quickly lost its toast-like crispness but felt that R131 for her light breakfast was on the pricey side.

The Turkish eggs were okay, with a lovely hit of chilli at the back end of the meal and the toast was excellent but I don’t see the point of adding  crisp  chickpeas to a dish with so much yoghurt because they were almost soggy by the time I got to them. Like shakshuka, though, Turkish eggs is not a very filling dish.

Seed & Circus offered no pastries and, to fill the gap, we ordered the whole wheat pancakes with chia and flax seeds, berries, orange blossom mascarpone, and moskonfyt. (R80) This was not a bad little dish, with a nicely caramelised crust on what I would call flapjacks and not pancakes, plenty berries and enough mascarpone and syrup to keep the dish moist to the end.

We had a flat white each (R26 a cup) to wash down the sweet dish.

Both of us really liked the place (it gave the wife an instant yearning to be abroad), the service was excellent and the food was good.  Given that it’s still soft launch days, I suppose the menu might change and be expanded and I’d look forward to more choices.