Café Vintcent and Artizaan: two for the price of two.

 3 November 2023

 

CAFÉ VINTCENT / ARTIZAAN

Prince Vintcent Building, Bland Street, Mossel Bay

 

Every now and then serendipity strikes and sparks unexpected joy. That joy is elevated when it’s found in an otherwise barren landscape.

 

The wife and I were in central Mossel Bay for some shopping and were feeling peckish and she googled “coffee shops near me,” as one does these days, and was alerted to a foodie cornucopia in our immediate vicinity. 

 

Woke Café was one such enticing option but, on name alone, it wasn’t our dream café.  

 

On the other hand, both Café Vintcent and Artizaan, in the 

the Prince Vintcent Building, constructed in 1901 as an old-fashioned merchant’s headquarters, were across the street and sounded promising.

 

The interior space of the large building has been converted into a shopping arcade with several small businesses and the aforementioned eateries cheek by jowl in an approximation of the narrow, winding streets of the medieval quarter of  a large, historic European city. It seems a bit incongruous and somewhat daring for Mossel Bay. 

 

Café Vintcent sits on a corner and floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides provide lots of natural light. The interior is beautifully furnished with plenty of comfy chairs and small tables, and there’s outside seating too. The furnishings combined with the high, original ceiling beams of the old building and polished granite floor (with patterning that reminded the wife of Jackson Pollocks finest work) create an old-timey, cosy  atmosphere and gives one a general sense of great well-being. 

 

There is good free wi-fi and you don’t have to ask for the password; scan a QR code with your smart phone and you’re connected.

 

Artizaan, across the way, is smaller,  Spartan, with mostly counter seating and only a couple of tables. You wouldn’t hang out there like you’d do at its neighbour. If you dine in, it’ll be chow down and run.

 

The kicker is that Café Vintcent has no kitchen and offers only hot beverages, alcohol and cake. Artizaan does have a kitchen and patrons of Café Vintcent can order food from them at an outside service hatch and they deliver.

 

And boy, does Artizaan deliver!

 

The wife had the pesto chicken wrap and I had the pulled Asian beef wrap, R163, 00 for both.  Not to be too coy about it, it’s the best damn food we’ve had in central Mossel Bay.

 

Thin, crisp wraps, plenty of pesto with the succulent chicken and a zesty chilli heat with the tender, juicy beef.  We grinned while we ate and the flavours did the Futterwacken on our palates.

 

Our sweet treats, from Café Vintcent, were the lemon cheesecake for me and a cake in a cup (carrot cake in a plastic cup) for the wife. Both were yummy. The cheesecake had a dreamy creamy texture and a subtle infusion of lemon, and the carrot cake was moist and delectable. Both these cake offerings were on special, R65 for the cheesecake with choice of coffee and R50 for the carrot cake with choice of coffee, not bad at all.

 

The coffee was good.

Café Vintcent sells wine, ceramics and other gifts and the wife bought a bottle of Hartenberg shiraz for her father who was quite happy to add it to his collection.

 

The bill at Café Vintcent came to R315, including the wine, before tip. 

 

Our experience at Café Vintcent was life affirming but I must advise that I’ve heard it’s in the market. Apparently, the arcade doesn’t have the requisite passing trade to fuel a booming commercial venture and the coffee shop itself is probably not quite the speed of the average denizen of  Mossel Bay who most likely prefers the joints along March Street or restaurants in shopping malls.