Balthazar
A suburb where "poor, huddled masses" and people with pasts wash up in the hope that their futures will be better. At the moment it too is poised between post-glory decay and rebirth.
Our waiter at Baltazar has a story. He fled Kinshasa in then-Zaire when Laurent Kabila made his triumphant march into the capital. He knew Kabila did not like university intellectuals who were studying decadent western subjects like English. It's been an epic trek between Kinshasa and Muizenberg, and he still doesn't know whether his family is alive or butchered. But every night he smiles his sweet, shy smile, and overfills glasses with wine, and asks, in his precise and curiously formal English, if every-thing is OK. He dreams of making enough money to return to the now-DRC and resume his abandoned studies.
The young couple in the corner, so fascinated with the future reflected in each other's eyes that they hardly spare a glance at the food on their plates, have a story. As intense, if not as textured with incident, as that of the grey-haired man who bustles in and, before he reaches his table, orders the ostrich frikkadel and a glass of red wine. Thomasina, the tortoise-shell cat that deigns to visit occasionally, has a story - one she's too haughty and sleek to share.
And in the kitchen is Peter Hoffman. It's his story that gives all these others a setting. He responded six years ago to the enthusiasm of an older brother who'd visited South Africa. Now he has stopped cooking in other people's kitchens, and has opened his own restaurant, serving the foods of his German background, spiced up with the gypsy flavours of Eastern Europe.
Baltazar is in Muizenberg Village. It's higgledy-piggledy, with coffee shops and pubs and craft stores and dance studios and wine shops filling the nooks and crannies. In a converted shop, Baltazar is simple and welcoming, with walls painted a very friendly "sunshine-falling-on-ripe-wheat" yellow. Decoration is minimal, mostly limited to some clever paint effects.
Share the starter platter. It consists of smoked salmon trout, fried goat's cheese balls with cranberry sauce, and a brinjal, tomato and garlic spread, which is delectable with the homemade rye bread. Eisbein, kassler chops, and veal schnitzel feature on the mains menu, prepared with a light and authentic touch. Peter also does a mean musselcracker with garlic butter and crisply delicious potato rösti.
The daily specials are dictated by the confluence of his imagination and what's available in the markets. Apple strudel headlines the dessert menu - natürlich. There is also a fabulous chocolate torte with a superior homemade custard; and röte grütze, or red berry compote.
The winelist is poor. Van Loveren Semillon is good at R36, and you can select Spier Merlot and Audacia Shiraz at R75, but there's not much else. Peter knows the winelist has been neglected. He promises an improvement soon.
There are far too many restaurants in Cape Town getting away with serving unexceptional food in unremarkable surroundings. Peter Hoffman is different. He cares, deeply, about the food and the food experience. His story deserves a chapter called Success.
Average three-course meal: R110.
By John Maytham
Address: Baltazar, 33 Palmer Road, Muizenberg. Tel 021 788 4912. Open Tues-Sun for lunch and dinner. BYO R15. No smoking. Street parking.
Food: 3.5
Wine list1
Ambience: 4
Service: 3.5
Value: 4
