Wham, bam, Sloppy Sam

 11 May 2024

 

SLOPPY SAM

Shortmarket Street, Heritage Square, Cape Town

 

Frankly, who’d equate a name like Sloppy Sam to the concept “Mediterranean Kitchen”? In my imagination, Sloppy Sam is the proprietor of a BBQ & beer shack in the backwoods of a land time wishes to forget.

 

In truth, if you were ever a fan of Anatoli in its pomp under the ownership of Tayfun Aras, Sloppy Sam, with some of Mr Aras’ recipes and even items from the restaurant, probably represents your best time warp journey to the glorious past of the Anatoli the wife and I loved so much.

 

Some of the dishes are that familiar and they are still that good.

 

The entrance to the restaurant is an odd thing. There’s a huge lit up sign over the doorway leading into the building but then you find yourself in a hallway, with an Italian joint on your left, some kind of bar in front of you and a white, barely open, stack door just beyond the trattoria but with no signage. We asked for directions, as men accompanied by their wives do, and were directed towards the stack door. 

 

We stepped into a cosy space that reminded me partly of Anatoli (minus the Turkish carpets on the walls) and partly of Bouchon, as Sloppy Sam feels a bit like a wine cellar, given that there are no windows.  

 

The tables and chairs are mismatched, simple and basic, there’s at least one Oriental carpet to cover the floor. And the wall decorations are minimal; it’s not a luxurious dining room but it’s a welcoming one.

 

Mr Aras and his wife, having since become friends of ours, had invited us to join them there to introduce us to the relatively new location of an eatery that’s been well-established in Cape Town for many years. Mr Aras, who seems to know every restaurateur in town, has been friends with the owner of Sloppy Sam (not called Sam) for well-nigh 30 years.

 

The restaurant had previously been on Somerset Road in Green Point and though we’d vaguely taken note of it, dismissed it because of the aforementioned notion that it was a BBQ & beer joint.

 

Apparently there are proper main courses as well, such as slow cooked lamb shank, but the menu we were given principally consists of about three pages of scrumptious-sounding mezze. As I’ve mentioned, some of them were available at Anatoli too and some not, but all of them read as enticing.  There were also various off-menu times, from the mezze or main course perspective.

 

Basically, if you’re a mezze maven, you’re going to love the variety that Sloppy Sam offers and you might lose all perspective when you order because it might be extraordinarily challenging to  prioritise only a manageable number of dishes.

 

Trust me, I used to be a lawyer.

 

With my heads up about being conservative in our ordering so as not to overburden the table with delicacies we ultimately can’t finish, we went with 11 mezze and 4 naan.

 

The women shared a bottle of red wine and the men drank beer. 

 

We had a Greek salad, hummus, muhammara (off menu), halloumi, pickled octopus, dolmeh, kofte, oven roasted brinjals, chicken wings, lamb riblets (off the bone) and mini börek. Our host was gracious enough to give us four portions of halloumi, börek and chicken wings, whereas the standard serving would’ve been three portions.

Sloppy Sam claims to be famous for the riblets and the chicken wings and I guess it ain’t bragging if it’s true. These two items were insanely good.

The riblets were tender, succulent and deeply flavourful. The tender, falling-off-the-bone, oven baked chicken wings  were a revelation. I just couldn’t fathom how an oven baked chicken wing could remain that succulent and not be dried at all. Superior chicken cookery.

 

The naan were fluffy and light and would’ve sufficed as main courses, with some olive oil or a smear of two of hummus or muhammara. This kind of freshly baked good bread is a taste of  heaven.

 

Everything was a joy to behold and a celebration to consume. We fell on the food like peckish locusts and stripped the plates bare.  It was that clichéd, legendary type of evening of good food, good company and love, life and laughter.

 

The dessert options aren’t that spectacular, either baklava or  ice cream.  We shared two pistachio ice creams between the four of us and, at R69,00 for a rather petite portion, I thought it was very expensive even for a home-made dessert.

 

Our host offered us various post prandial drinks on the house, which we declined, and he generously didn’t charge for the wine, the ice cream and two espresso’s. 

 

We split the bill and each couple paid R600,00 each, including tip.

 

The wife and I love this type and style of food and if it’s as well done as tonight’s dishes were, we do tend to over indulge, so our relative restraint tonight served us well. We left replete yet not stuffed.

 

I, for one (and I think I can speak for the wife, though I’m generally loath to do so) would happily return to Sloppy Sam to eat my way through the menu and perhaps to forego the mezze (however challenging that may be) in favour of a main course or two.