Their visitor books will in the future belong to a museum, documenting great South Africans who have visited and recorded their impressions.
Joe Slovo, Walter Sisulu, Miriam Makeba, Helen Suzman, Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer, Phillip Tobias . . . have all been there, eaten royally, and left their mark in three large A3 books. ”There” is Gramadoelas, one of the city’s most enduring restaurants. The owners, Eduan Naudé and Brian Shalkoff, sub-title their restaurant “Exotic African Restaurant at the Market Theatre”. Their food might be exotic but the ambience in the restaurant, with its high ceiling, eclectic mix of paraphernalia and large bay window on the eastern end of the old market building, captures a slightly chaotic elegance, and therefore, a comfortableness that almost feels like home. The two are pretty famous, not only here but across the world, with queens, presidents, actors and singers frequenting the place, not on a one-off basis but every time they are in town.
So, what’s it all about? Being in the business for 41 years, since 1967, is what. You know your market very well after all that time. You are also pretty relaxed within yourself, and know how to make your customers feel relaxed too. Of course, tasty, creative dishes help as well. First restaurant Naudé and Shalkoff have heads full of memories of experiences that others only dream of. Like having a restaurant in London patronised by actors Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, and where the actors would have arguments, not too different from their passionate head-banging in the movie Taming of the Shrew. Naudé opened his first restaurant in London in 1959, with tongue and groove pine walls and benches, very much frowned upon by his snooty neighbourly restaurant owners in King’s Road. He called it the rather unimaginative The Casserole. “It was unpretentious and served simple cooking like chicken pies. People came in hordes,” he recalls. He ran the restaurant for two years and returned to Joburg in 1967, when he opened the original Gramadoelas in Hillbrow, before the Hillbrow Tower was built, but opposite where the tower was later built, in Goldreich Street. He chose the name “Gramadoelas”. He spent a lot of time thinking about the correct name for the restaurant. It’s a Khoisan word meaning “in the back of beyond”, he says. Shalkoff joined him in Hillbrow, and they moved into a flat in one of the suburb’s iconic Art Deco buildings – Clarendon Court, where they still live. Shalkoff was thrown into the food business “in the deep end”. He recalls his first cooking experience. “I was making my first steak. I washed the meat, a piece of rump, and threw it into a pan containing 3 inches of hot oil. There was a mammoth explosion,” he laughs. He says he had a French girlfriend at the time, Jacqueline van Heerden, who was “a brilliant cook who was prepared to part with her secrets”. Gramadoelas served Cape food like bobotie and sosaties, with Naudé consulting his aunts and sisters to get recipes. He also used the great book by C Louis Leipoldt called Cape Cookery.
Hillbrow and Joubert Park
Their Hillbrow Gramadoelas remained open until 3am, to accommodate the actors from the Civic Theatre (now the Joburg Theatre), who needed to unwind after shows. Gramadoelas stayed in Hillbrow for 15 years before moving to Bok Street in Joubert Park, remaining in this cosmopolitan suburb for 10 years. Then in 1992 the Market Theatre invited them to become the resident restaurant at the theatre, and they’ve remained there ever since. Naudé has collected old recipe books over the years, and some of the tried and tested recipes on the menu are still there, but that doesn’t mean there have been no new additions. “You can’t change too much but we have added new recipes, like mogadu or tripe,” he says.
They also offer mopani worms, crocodile steak, mielie bread and ostrich fillet. ”The menu needs a little vibration from time to time,” says Shalkoff. And, it seems, the buppies have found them. “The buppies like our restaurant, which we’re very grateful for.”
Last 25 years You know that someone is having a great time when they say the last 25 years have gone like a month. Time hasn’t stunted their memories, though, they come tumbling out - the Clintons in 1994, Queen Beatrice of Denmark a year later, Kenneth Kaunda, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Sir Richard Branson, the Queen of England in 1999. Although she didn’t eat much, she was “very chatty, very friendly, a big giggle”. And very punctual, they recall, on the dot of midday she walked into the restaurant.
Shalkoff says of this meeting: “I feel very good about it, I wondered if I would ever meet someone like this, and what I would do if I did.” The first time Madiba came to eat at Gramadoelas, shortly after his release in 1990, he walked in and said: “So, it’s the man with the food.” Shalkoff turned around and was greeted with Madiba’s outstretched hand and his famous smile. Some time later Madiba came to the Market Theatre for a preview and private dress rehearsal. A woman was eating at Gramadoelas, but jumped up to catch a glimpse of the famous man. She stepped forward to greet him, and ended up being invited to go to the show with him. “I couldn’t believe it, I’ve never experienced anything like that,” says Shalkoff, “those kind of things happen here.” Both agree that the higher the rank of the diner, the easier it is to communicate with them. Possibly a condition of them having to make small talk with strangers so often in their lives. Paleoanthropologist Tobias is one of the city’s most enthusiastic supporters of the restaurant. “I’ve always loved the warm atmosphere there which Eduan and Brian cultivated over the decades,” he says. And they’ve managed to carry that warmth and friendliness with them to different locations, he adds. Tobias knows because he used to patronise them when they started up in Hillbrow in the 1960s – he used to live next door to the restaurant. “I was almost an habitué of the restaurant - when my servant was off duty I would often slip down there for my Sunday evening meal.” He was so fond of the restaurant that he had his 50th birthday party there in 1975, inviting some 250 people to enjoy the celebration. “It was a huge party and most successful. There were huge cauldrons of curry, rice and many other dishes, and sambals that accompanied them,” he recalls. ”Gramadoelas has the pleasantest of menus extending over more than 40 years. I have many, many happy memories of the restaurant.”
Not a serious challenge Moyo moved next door in 2003 but has not offered a serious challenge to Gramadoelas. Whereas Moyo’s business relies on theatre audiences, being a newcomer to Newtown, Gramadoelas has a well-established clientele, not coming into Newtown for the theatre necessarily, but for the Gramadoelas experience. That includes the French ambassador, and foreign affairs officials of both South Africa and England. It’s easy to get into a rut when you’re successful, and be reluctant to change things that work. But this doesn’t apply to Naudé and Shalkoff. Besides their a la carte menu, they have a range of buffet menus – banquet, African, and small. Sprinkles of Morocco, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Senegal food can be found on the menu. And perhaps the one that many will try, Madiba’s favourite: umnqusho braised beef shin, beans and maize. So, what’s the secret of their success? “Persistent and hard work,” says Shalkoff, “we don’t have accounts, we pay cash for everything and take the discount. We watch our cash flow.” And they have consistently put in 16 hours daily for years. But I think it’s something else as well. This couple have been together for 41 years. That stability counts, for their personal happiness and for the consistency of good food and good service at Gramadoelas. That good food is produced by several chefs, two of whom, 63-year-old Edward Mthembi and 40-year-old Thembi Khumalo, attest to how much they love their work. “I love my boss,” says Khumalo, referring to both Shalkoff and Naudé. He’s been at Gramadoelas for 25 years. Mthembi says he’ll be at the restaurant until it closes. Such is their confidence Shalkoff and Naudé generously list the other restaurants in their neighbourhood, on their website, described harmlessly as “Our Neighbours”. And, if that’s not enough of a service to their customers, they detail their famous recipes on the website. But making them at home just won’t be the same as going to Gramadoelas.
Source: joburg.org.za
Update 2013:
Brian Shalkoff died in July 2013 after being attacked at his flat in Hillbrow, and Gramadoelas shut down in the same month.