The Silo building was a grain silo in the Cape Town docks
It has been adapted and hugely altered by heatherwick studio into premises for two tenants:
The Silo Hotel and the Zeitz Mocaa Art Gallery
After a fortuitous meeting at a wine tasting, we received an invitation to sample their Brunch
which takes place from 11.30am to 3pm every Sunday in the hotel's Granary restaurant
The Hotel and restaurant reception area is filled with art, but still has some of the features of the original grain silo
The sparkly picture of the woman must have nearly blinded the artist
It is made up of tiny sequins, each one applied individually
Heavily detailed restaurant entrance with Ardmore fabric-covered sofas and a display of African tribal art
The bar and serving area under heavy steel beams which support the mezzanine floor above
and the signature floor to ceiling faceted glass windows give views of the city and harbour from many angles
A welcoming glass of Graham Beck Brut Cap Classique
The menu of the day. The cost is R350 per person
Such helpful and friendly staff, which shows that excellent training can result in happy staff
A view of the wintry Table Mountain, wreathed in cloud, from our corner table, with the Synchrolift below us
It is used for refurbishing smaller vessels
Enigma XK is a converted former British Coastguard vessel
She is now an ultra-luxury expedition yacht and is for sale with an asking price of US$18 000 000,
should you be in the market for a useful toy....
Soup arrived in a charming vintage china cup and saucer
It was a rich and savoury butternut, so deliciously savoury that Lynne thought that she tasted duck stock
but we were informed that it's purely good vegetable stock
Next comes the Brunch Etagere to share
It means " a piece of furniture with open shelves for displaying small ornaments, which is very appropriate
Top shelf had a crisp and buttery croissant dough onion roll which is very moreish, and some melba toast
Below: good Parma ham and some rolled ham, with some dressed leaf salad
Bottom shelf: two delicious smoked salmon rolls with capers and lemon, perfect with the onion roll,
and some local hard cheeses
To go with our Brunch, we ordered two different rosés by the glass:
La Residence Rosemary Jane Rosé, served very cold
Rather like an Orange wine with notes of sherry lees on the nose and flavours of orange and oak
It is made for the hotels in the Royal Portfolio
which includes La Residence in Franschhoek and The Silo
Clifton Atlantic Rosé is produced from Mourvèdre for The Clifton Collection
by Bottega Family Wine’s winemaker, Reino Thiart
It was shy to begin with but had good fruit; a food wine
We could then chose one of the courses listed on the menu
The Tempura Prawns served on sushi rice,
with pickled cucumber, and lots of avocado and spicy siracha mayonnaise, was really enjoyable
It's rather like eating a very large plate of fried sushi
Three large prawns with perfectly crisp Tempura batter
The soy sauce was poured below the rice, and the accompanying salad added refreshment
Perhaps some dressing for the salad?
The rather small hamburger is served on an English muffin, topped with a fried egg (John ordered sunny side up),
half an avocado, lots of bacon and cubes of feta cheese
We were ably serenaded all during the meal by John Neil who is a versatile Cape Town recording artist
We had been invited for the previous Sunday, Lynne's Birthday
but, because of the Taxi strike, were moved to a week later, which we didn't mind at all
They had not forgotten the birthday and a lovely plate arrived with a slice of rich chocolate cake
which reminded Lynne of her favourite Opera cake
Served with a swirl of orange gel and piped white chocolate mousse
There were two choices of dessert, so we had one each
A true to expectations moist Sticky Toffee pudding with cinnamon ice cream
set on a streusel crumb with leaves of caramel toffee
A light as air milk chocolate mousse, tasting of really good chocolate like Valrhona; pale but full bodied
Topped with chocolate shavings and tiny squares of moist, dark, almost gelled chocolate
and piped white chocolate, a dessert full of flavour and texture
A very satisfying meal and a lovely way to spend a Sunday
We must thank all the staff who were so good to us. Johandri Ras the Assistant General Manager of the hotel,
Anika de Jongh, Food and Beverage manager, Andre the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager
and, especially, kind, gentle and helpful Peter, our Malawian waiter
We had been invited by Johandri Ras and he came to see that we had enjoyed the lunch
He asked if we would like to go with him to see some of the suites in the hotel and he took us up to see two
First, the Red Suite which has its own lounge with dining/meeting table and kitchen area
It is on a corner of the building and has magnificent city views
Can you imagine waking up to this? The windows are all one way glass, so no one can see inside
A comfortable bed with views of the harbour and the mountain
Oh my, what a way to enjoy a bath. Love the red Chinese cabinet holding the lotions and potions
Then into another room, beautifully decorated and with huge crystal chandeliers
With its own balcony
and its own bathroom, which also has a chandelier
All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right
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