When last we were invited to the Italian restaurant,
Volare, at Peddlars & Co on the Spaanschemat River Road in Constantia, Chef
Brad Ball told us that they had plans to open other restaurants in the complex.
Just a month ago, they opened Graciales - the name is a blend of Gracias and
Sociales and it's a tapas bar. On Friday, having accepted the invitation, we
visited. Generously, they set a cab to fetch us and we had a lovely evening
with great food
Peddlars by night
Graciales philosophy
Bright tiles and jam jar
lights add a touch of difference
No frills on the tables,
easy to clean and the cutlery comes in a tin can with paper serviettes
The sign on the wall near the bar
Craft beers on tap, wine
specials, winter Glühwein and daily specials
We like the idea of the
Peddlars winter specials! Especially if you finish early on a Friday
We started with a Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc, crisp and tropical
The restaurant starts
filling up. We had just arrived, at 7 pm
The Tapas menu
With Tapas, you share
all the dishes.Our first dish was one of the platters. Apparently it is one of
Brad Ball’s specialities and customers insist it that it should be on the menu.
Slow cooked lamb, accompanied by aubergine crisps, tzatziki, humus, a tomato
relish with hot harissa paste and mini pita breads. You eat any combination you
like, but we found everything together to be the best. De-lish-ous.
Next to share were the
very tender, deep fried Calamari strips with a lemon mayo and the Asian Beef
Tataki - very tender seared beef cut thin with an Asian dressing, black and
white sesame seeds, spring onions and hot chillies. Basically a beef Carpaccio
with Asian flavours
And finally, (sadly
rather fatty) belly of pork and nicely salty edamame beans cooked in their
pods. Edamame are green soya beans. We had this with some red wine. Lynne had
Beau Constantia Pas de Nom and John Steenberg merlot. Someone needs to render
some of that fat out, please
We shared the Petit
Fours plate and had it with double espressos. One chocolate truffle and one
rose turkish delight each and we halved the gooey mini lemon meringue tart. That
meringue went everywhere
They have some superb
aged wines in their vinoteque at quite reasonable prices for these vintages
and these particular wines
and these particular wines
Seating for the bar
outside has a winter blind to keep out the weather
or you can enjoy bar
snacks in the bar
It looks like a great
place to meet friends
Cleaned down for the
night as we left, having enjoyed our evening very much. The staff were great,
especially our waiter, JP van Eeden. We were sad that Chef Brad was not there, but
delighted to hear why. He was on his honeymoon!
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