We had such luck yesterday afternoon in Calitzdorp, at The Red Coffee Pot Coffee Shop & Restaurant (quite a mouthful to say in hindsight). Calitzdorp is a quaint little town in the Klein Karoo of the Western Cape and in such towns, you are bound to find gems like The Red Coffee Pot.
Owner Ockie Calitz was warm and inviting and it wasn’t long before we were being taken on a little tour of the 18th Century farm house. I adore vintage pieces, especially appliances and furniture and this place certainly didn’t let me down in that respect. The dining room contained little antique tables with cheerful table cloths; the old Aga-styled stove warming the room.
Outside were more tables with mismatched chairs in bright and wonderfully garish, conflicting colours. At the back of the garden stood a beautiful and stoic looking building which we were told was an original Jewish shop, erected by one of the many families that had settled in the area years back.
It wasn’t long before we had been brought out a pot of steaming coffee which was placed on a tea-light inside a sweet Asian dish to keep warm. So while the sun still shone, we drank our coffee outside and chattered effortlessly with Ockie and his partner. Before we knew it, the sun had set, the African heat had rapidly disappeared and dusk had fallen over the peaceful garden.
Expecting more ‘home-cooked’ food than fine dining, we were more than pleasantly surprised when our food arrived and what was placed in front of us looked more like something you would expect in a classy restaurant than in a quaint, small town eatery. Rog was soon devouring his slowly braised lamb shank (which fell off the bone with a small nudge of his fork) and I happily got going on my chicken breast stuffed (I’m not sure I care for that word; it wasn’t stuffed, it was elegantly filled) with feta and wilted spinach. Both our meats were served with velvety mashed potato, carrots & beans and each forkful was better than the last.
It is this captivating entrepreneurship that we are seeing more and more during our trip and it is really pleasing to experience it first hand. A recurrent theme that is also becoming more evident by the day is the importance of socialism in these small towns. It saddens me that we continue to find at least one or two ‘drankwinkels’/bottle stores in every town and to grasp the fact that while alcohol is largely consumed in social situations in the western world, in South Africa it appears to be a way of escaping boredom and avoiding unemployment.
What strikes me as fascinating however is that whenever we have come across a cafe or coffee shop in a tiny village or town, people relish in the healthy and friendly atmosphere and appear to love the excuse to socialise with locals as opposed to sitting outside drinking in the middle of the day. I’m not professing that a cafe is going to end alcoholism but maybe it could be a start?
It seems to me that it works along the same lines as a youth centre; children have a safe place to go and they are statistically less likely to become involved in crime. Adults have an approachable and appealing place to go and surely they will be more likely to buy a cup of coffee and chat with their friends than sit on the side of the road with a beer? Lets hope so.
One of your best yet Miss Savitt.
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