Eat to the Sweetbeet

 2 June 2023

 

SWEETBEET

Gardens Centre, Gardens, Cape Town

 

I get there at roughly 09h40. The eatery seems to be open for business but the seating area is empty and there are no service ambassadors, so after wating a bit in one of the booths, I go to the service counter with an array of small bowls of stuff, well, elements, on display and a notice that indicates I could be the exulted owner-builder of my dish. I’ve never been in the construction trade but I manfully took the multiple-choice card and ticked one each of the many building blocks of my bowlful (the alternative is a wrap) of healthy goodness, returned to my table and waited.

 

Sweetbeet took over the space once proudly, yet with less and less reward, occupied by Cassis Salon de Thé and I walk past it often on my excursions to do upmarket grocery shopping or collect the many medications the wife and I take.  The  look and get up is bright and modern and, I must say, inviting.

 

The owners have done away with the banquette seating Cassis had, and installed three or four booths on one side, to complement the single tables dotted about.

 

For the first hour I was there, I was the only customer before other patrons started trickling in. My mission had been to do a Friday morning breakfast at Sweetbeet and I was mildly disappointed to realise, despite being open at what I consider breakfast time, it doesn’t serve anything that one would traditionally associate with breakfast.

 

The coffee is supplied by Vida é Caffé and is good.

 

The basis of my meal was quinoa, to which I added falafel, black beans, cottage cheese and tortilla crisps. There might have been one or two additional elements but those are the ones I recall.

 

I suppose I shouldn’t have chosen so many dry elements because I really had to squeeze maximum unctuousness from the cottage cheese to lubricate the falafel and generous quantity of quinoa. The crisps were a great textural alternative.

 

I suppose it’s the nature of the beast, but a cold (room temperature) bowl of goodness is not as belly pleasing as a hot, cheap and cheery fry up.

 

My belly was full and the ingredients seemed to be fresh and of good quality but this kind of meal is not indulgent and  though I felt healthier afterwards I was not quite at peace with the world.  I didn’t stick around long enough to enquire whether they had any sweet treats.

 

My meal, inclusive of espresso and Americano, cost R147,00. A female server did appear later on but wasn’t hugely efficient and I had to go to the counter to get my bill and pay it. I was halfway down the concourse when it struck me that I hadn’t added a tip.  I’m a bad man.

 

I would figure Sweetbeet (which seems to have another outlet in Canal Walk) as the stomping ground for Millennials and subsequent generations, given the nature and style of the food on offer, which is not exactly what I would call hearty fare but, hey, slightly older guys do  not influence the future of food unless they cook it.