Paradigm shift

 9 May 2023

 

SHIFT ESPRESSO BAR 

Corner of Kloof and De Lorentz Streets, Gardens, Cape Town.

 

Shift is on the same site where Cocoa Oola once reigned supreme. I used to work around the corner and Cocoa Oola was my regular breakfast, lunch or coffee spot.  I barely go to that part of the City Bowl these days but ended up at Shift because I did a food fact finding mission along Kloof Street.

 

The folks who bring us Shift seem to have gutted the space and completely reinvented it in contemporary chic bistro style with central banquette seating around a narrow rectangular display top and many tables dotted around the room. The kitchen and service counter have been pushed back to provide all that floor space.

 

The breakfast menu offers unexciting breakfast options, unless a scrambled egg and sweet corn bowl is your idea of edgy eating. The menu does cover the basics, though.

 

I was in reckless mood and ordered the croque Monsieur, described as a French croissant filled with ham, Emmenthal cheese, Parmesan cheese and bechamel sauce. (R90)

 

The risk was not adequately rewarded. 

 

What I got was a perfectly nice, tasty ham and cheese sandwich with a dessert spoon quantity smear of bechamel.  Lovely light breakfast but not a croque Monsieur’s apprentice.

 

I don’t want to boast (okay, I do want to) but when I make a croque Monsieur, I have two slices of toast, smear one with whole grain mustard, add a slice of gypsy ham and top that with the cheesiest of bechamel cheese sauces (Emmenthal and aged Cheddar), place the second slice of toast on top of that, pour over more cheese sauce, add grated Parmesan,  and grill the whole shebang in the oven until the cheese starts caramelising, 

 

I’ve had good responses to that.

 

As consolation I ordered a slice of carrot cake (R65) and this also turned out to be underwhelming. The cake consists of three tiers with icing in-between. The first tier was on the cusp of being dry but had residual moistness but as I progressed up the tiers the crumb became progressively drier and at the end I concluded, unless the baker just doesn’t know how to bake a decent carrot cake, that I’d been offered last week’s cake.

 

Oh well, not everyone can be a winner, can they now?

 

The coffee is good, the service excellent and the joint is lovely. 

 

The bill, with an espresso and an Americano, came to R205,00 before tip.