Bagel bite at Bootlegger

 1 April 2022

 

Bootlegger

112 Kloof Street, Cape Town

 

Frankly, if your bagel gold standard is New York Bagels, no other bagel in Cape Town ever satisfies and it’s no different  with Bootlegger. The bagel isn’t bad but it’s not a premium bagel either.

 

Bootlegger has become almost ridiculously ubiquitous in Cape Town and surrounds, almost like the Starbucks of the Western Cape, albeit more of a restaurant than a simple coffee shop with snacks. The food isn’t always value for money and I guess the quality varies from joint to joint, but as is the USP with chain eateries, Bootlegger is NOT like a box of chocolates. You do know what you’re going to get. 

 

This outlet is situated in what was once the Kloof Street post office and after that a Madame Zingara shop that went belly up with the rest of that brand. 

 

Optimistically, for a city like Cape Town where the weather IS like a box of chocolates, they’ve got bench seating and four small tables outside on the pavement and an open front stoep section with mostly small tables and one large, communal table. Inside, the main seating area is behind a large glass window, separating it from the stoep and which gives lots of lovely natural light  with banquette seating with small tables against the rear wall and one side wall, and a couple of large four-person tables in front of them. The service counter takes up most of a second room to the side, which also has counter seating looking out onto Kloof Street.

 

The place was quite full by 10h00. All of the banquette seating, bar one table, was taken up by six single MacBook users. The other table was a tourist couple. Over the course of the next hour, three more MacBook users came in. This gives one an revealing look at who Bootlegger appeals to.

 

I accept that some might find this fascination with the MacBook count at coffee shops a tedious hobby horse of mine, but it is intriguing that one hardly ever sees a PC laptop in a coffee shop. 

 

The menu is extensive and caters for all manner of taste and preference, with nothing particularly exotic but with an emphasis on the trendy as one would expect from a brand whose demographic support is invariably millennial and younger.

 

I was pushed for time, or so I thought, and wanted something quick and simple, hence my choice of the salmon and cream cheese bagel (R82.)  

 

As a light breakfast bite, it was very tasty and there was ample salmon but the crust on the bagel isn’t crisp enough for my taste, the crumb is too bready and the bagel is munificently topped with sesame seeds, which I don’t care, or see the need, for.  This bagel reminds me of the packaged bagels one gets at Woolworths that are a reasonable substitute for the good stuff, when that’s unavailable,  but never a properly adequate replacement.

 

The passable quantity of espresso (R23), between the half thimbleful from some places and the generous amount from others, is served in a glass.  The latté (R36), which I took in a take away cup, is excellent yet what I would call stretching the realms of pricing credulity.

 

The bill came to R223 before tip and included a second  cream cheese and salmon bagel for the hungry wife who collected me after an early hair appointment. 

 

I quite liked the ambience of this Bootlegger, in that it’s spacious enough yet still has a sense of cosiness and, if the weather allows, it would be splendid to sit outdoors even if the busy street is a smidgen too close. At Bootlegger the coffee is good, the service is usually efficient and friendly and the food is decent. 

 

As it happens, this was my third meal at a Bootlegger over the past seven days. Last Friday I ate a bunless burger in Green Point

and last Monday I ate the falafel bowl at the Gardens Centre outlet.  

The bunless burger was a pleasant surprise, with a perfectly soft poached egg, tasty patty and crisp sweet potato fires. The falafel bowl, not served in a bowl at all, was less satisfactory, as the chickpea balls were deep fried  into a hard shell, which is not how I’ ve grown to know and love falafel. There was a lovely little salad, though. I skipped the, presumably, super garlicy dressing. 

 

If you like big chain coffee shops, Bootlegger is as good as it gets. That’s it, though.