I wandered lonely as a sheep out on the foam

 20 January 2022

 

SEEKING YET NOT FINDING

 

Sometimes one shouldn’t just rely on one’s whims for a Friday morning breakfast destination. The sensible approach is to do the research, prepare a schedule of visits and stick to the plan.  Today I allowed the fickle finger of fate to guide me and it took pleasure in betraying and mocking me.

 

You guessed it: this isn’t much of a restaurant review, just a brief mention of Bootlegger somewhere below.

 

Last week, when the younger goddaughter and I sat outside Butter, she pointed diagonally across Loop Street and said she could see a sign for Stellski’s. The name was familiar to me because it was on my shortlist of new-ish breakfast joints to visit in the near future, so I made a mental note of the location. I ought to have refreshed my research as well.

This morning I went there and found only a coffee bar. It seems that the parent unit is situated in Woodstock and I will have to travel yonder to sample its fast breaking delicacies.

Okay, so my spirits aren’t easily ground into the dust.  I regrouped and repurposed, and wandered through the nearer part of the CBD in search of a restaurant offering breakfast, specifically one I hadn’t been to before. I was disappointed and somewhat depressed after about 15 minutes. The part of the CBD through which I ambled was almost desolate with many closed and/or boarded up shop fronts. None of the joints around Greenmarket Square were open yet and all the once busy restaurant or café premises in the stretch of St George’s Mall between Longmarket en Shortmarket Streets are closed and empty. I don’t know whether all of this is fallout from the pandemic lockdowns or just generally tough economic times but to my mind the CBD is showing almost irreversible signs of  the fatal decay plaguing the CBDs of other major South African cities. Bustling it may be; thriving it is not.

I took an Uber up to the Ground Art Café, also on my shortlist, and had no luck here either but this time it was because the place was crowded and there were no empty tables either inside or on the pavement. I hope this is a Friday morning phenomenon, and intend returning on a midweek morning.

From here I ambled downhill on Hudson Street towards Somerset Road, past The Loading Bay and Origin, neither of which appealed to me today, and headed to the Cape Quarters in the hope that it might have a new joint or two.

Alas, the Cape Quarters has its share of derelict premises and not much new. By this time I was physically tired, footsore and mentally exhausted, so I followed the path of least resistance and had a salmon trout bagel (R79), a chocolate and pecan croissant (R35), an espresso and a latté (R50 for the two) at Bootlegger.

It was okay though the bagel is of the kind with crust and crumb that smacks of bagel shaped bread roll rather than your proper version of the classic.  The best use for Bootlegger still seems to be a place where you bring you MacBook and do some work, or perhaps have work meetings outside the office, while having a light snack and a hot or cold drink. It sure is popular.