A Stroll Down Bree Street: The Coolest Block in Town

When visiting Cape Town and situated in the city, Bree Street offers easy access to a range of restaurants, eateries, and bars all along one stretch of road. Similarly, Oranjezicht City Farm market has a rich offering of food experiences concentrated in one place – with a convivial atmosphere and a sea view.

The English pronunciation sounds like the name of the cheese, but Bree derives from the Afrikaans word breë, meaning broad. The street is indeed comfortably wide, making it both pedestrian- and parking-friendly. And with Table Mountain at the top end and the foreshore at the bottom, it’s central and convenient for anyone working, living, or staying in the City Bowl.

While there have been pockets of restaurant activity on the street in the past, more recently it’s become a desirable address and something of a culinary node. Just over 10 years ago, small, owner-run businesses were drawn to the affordability of shop spaces on Bree and began opening on the upper part of the street.

 As is the natural progression, this attracted bigger, more mainstream players who saw potential, and in a relatively short time it developed to accommodate dining at three distinct levels: independent proprietors and food-and-wine entrepreneurs who care about provenance, experienced chefs turned chef-patrons, and restaurant groups.

Starting at the upper ‘mountain end’, on the right, there’s the possibility of a puffy-edge, leopard-spotted Margherita at Pizzeria by Pizza Shed. What began as a small suburban takeaway operation specialising in Neapolitan-style pizza during lockdown quickly grew in popularity to warrant restaurants in two locations.

 Further down on the left there’s the pared back elegance of Between Us, which has a view of Table Mountain from the veranda. It’s owned by twin sisters Jamie and Jesse Friedberg, who enjoyed early success in the city with their Loop Street café Skinny Legs & All. Having created a new home in a building on Bree with heritage status, the interiors combine original Cape Sandstone with a terrazzo floor and carefully curated fresh-cut flowers. Their effortless style follows through with food that speaks to the seasons and a simplicity that is comforting yet elevated. There’s coffee in a hand-thrown ceramic cup with ‘cake for breakfast’ (rum banana bread and brown butter) or oxtail ragu with fresh pappardelle for lunch.

 On the corner of Bloem Street and facing a line of fever trees that divides the breadth of the street, is Café Frank. Owner, Debora Wynne, opened on pre-boom Bree Street with a hole-in-the-wall hatch – a bold move at the time. Her rotisserie has since blossomed into a full-blown café loved by the legal fraternity, with staffers on e-bikes carrying lunch deliveries down the hill in the direction of the Cape High Court. Cooking is from scratch and the core offering remains: burnished roast (free-range) chicken with freshly prepared salads that change daily. Regulars know to ask for the ‘rotisserie potatoes and onions’ cooked in the roasting juices and during winter there’s house-made chicken soup and generously filled chicken-and-leek pies wrapped in a ruffle of phyllo pastry. It’s handy to know there’s chilled wine and beer for purchase (or for enjoying with lunch) – handpicked by Debora and in line with the same sustainable principles she applies when selecting ingredients. For a mountain view choose a street-side seat in the plant-enclosed parklet out front.

First pass Open Wine on 72 Wale Street, an Italian-owned Enoteca showcasing South African wine with jazz sessions on Sunday afternoons. Then continue up into Bokaap, and at Rose’s Corner Café turn right into Rose Street to find Warda Cornelius who has been lovingly frying samoosas at her street stall for over 20 years. She cooks only a few at a time so even if it’s a few minutes wait they are crisp and warm. And among the other savouries and sweet treats are koesusters, which might be described as an oval doughnut with hints of cinnamon and ginger, dipped in syrup and rolled in coconut. Community members walk up for their regular order and minibuses of tourists make a stop too. Over the road and a few steps on at 104 Wale Street is Atlas Trading Company, a longstanding spice shop with a loyal following. On a Sunday head higher up to 95 Wale Street where, under the arch, Tauriq Essop serves Akhni. It is cooked in one pot, so the flavour of the lamb permeates the fragrant, spiced rice and potatoes, and finished with yoghurt and fresh coriander.

Honest Chocolate makes slabs of chocolate by hand from single-origin, ethically sourced cocoa beans from Tanzania, some of which are wrapped up in artworks by South African artists. By day slip into a forest-green velvet banquette for hot chocolate (short and dark or tall and milky) and by night use it as the portal to The Gin Bar. This now-not-so-secret spot with apothecary styling and a fairy-lit back-alley courtyard sells remedies for self-medicating in the form of cocktails with names like The Heart, The Soul and The Hope, all made with local gin. When feeling peckish after a gin aperitif, the natural solution is to ascend the staircase with wooden balustrade (just off the courtyard) to find a seat at Bodega Ramen upstairs but booking ahead is a sensible move.

 One shopfront along on Wale Street is Ouzeri, though it feels like Ouzeri was born on Bree. In the lead up to opening, chef-owner Nic Charalambous built a steady following through a series of pop-up dinners and his last residency was just around the corner at Leo’s Wine Bar (see below). A softly lit interior of muted tones and layered textures, creates a warm, inviting atmosphere and dining follows the style of the Greek taverns it’s named after with an array of shared plates. Nic expresses seasonality and a commitment to sourcing locally through the cooking and culinary tradition of Cyprus and Greece. Start with warm green olives seasoned with paprika, citrus and coriander or chickpea fries with taramasalata and a jug of barrel wine from the Swartland. There might be neatly trimmed lamb ribs, satisfyingly crisp on the surface and succulent underneath, presented with skordalia, or, to finish, a Cypriot milk pudding with ruby pomegranate sorbet.

 When the pink neon sign above Max Bagels flickers on at 5pm it turns into Leo’s Wine Bar for the night. An inside counter runs the length of this tiny venue with most of the seating on stools in a compact street terrace outside. There’s an everchanging blackboard list of wines by the glass, which allows for the opportunity to taste many local, low intervention wines – often natural, sometimes lesser known – which makes for interesting discoveries. The menu also does a costume change for the evening, to offer open-faced pizza bagels. Max Bagels was opened by Matthew Freemantle and Andrew Kai and Matthew takes the lead at Leo’s, with regulars often curious to see what limited-release bottles he may have laid his hands on.

 Right next door to Leo’s is Tomson, headed up by Andrew. Here he serves the dishes he grew up with when dining with his family, at home and in restaurants. The red-and-white branding may be discreet, but it’s easily identified by the enticing smells of Cantonese roast duck emanating from the entrance. This has a been a constant since opening, along with crispy pork belly and smacked cucumbers. More recent lunchtime additions are Hainanese chicken rice and wonton noodle soup. And a little bonus bowl of Laoganma’s Spicy Chili Crisp is placed on the table with orders. Like Leos much of the seating is at long, low tables outside and although it makes sense to step from drinks (at Leo’s) into dinner (at Tomson) it’s inevitably busy so best to book in advance.

 Across the road is Clarke’s Bar & Dining Room. When Clarke’s opened, no one could get enough of the cheeseburger with grass-fed beef and buttery brioche bun – and it’s still considered a benchmark. On the surface the feel is that of a contemporary diner, a casual, breezy go-to for tomato soup and a grilled-cheese sandwich or all-day Bloody Mary brunches, but from the beginning this has been built on sourcing ingredients made or grown with care.

 Veer left onto Church Street and into Scala. There’s a certain drama to this black-and-marble basement space (once a nightclub) with bold statements on the napkins and high energy at the pass. The hook is house-made noodles, coated with a smooth egg-rich sauce and crisp nuggets of guanciale as created by Italian chef Luciano Monosilio – touted as the ‘king of Carbonara’. The owners also count Burger & Lobster, Iron Steak and Bar, and Hacienda restaurants as part of their portfolio, all of which are concentrated around Riebeeck Square on the Bree-street border.

 The theme of the chef-patron establishments that follow further down is a strong grounding in fine-dining rules and, as a result, license to break them. Chef Matt Manning opened his restaurant Grub & Vine to focus on bistro-style cooking, backed by Michelin-star training at establishments in London. It is complemented by a thoughtfully compiled list of respected local and international wines – from classic to renegade and some in between at Culture Wine Bar. When chef Liam Tomlin first opened Chef’s Warehouse on Bree Street he brought a calibre of cooking that reflected his international experience and acclaim, yet he was uncompromising in changing the format: a no-bookings policy, shared table eating, stools instead of chairs, and a daily menu served as three tranches of tapas for two. He has since moved across the road from his original location to open The Bailey, a three-story restaurant with a bistro, brasserie, and whisky bar. This includes a private dining room featuring works by late South African artist Paul du Toit [pauldutoit.com], whose sculpture ‘Into Tomorrow’, representing solidarity and collaboration, can be seen on the corner of Riebeeck Square. Completing the Paul du Toit triangle and looking onto The Bailey from the facing Cape Heritage Hotel is his big, brightly coloured figure ‘Expanded Canvas series’.

 On the opposite corner is Rosetta’s café and brew bar. Rosetta is a roastery first, but now has a home on Bree where their coffee can be fully appreciated as they would have it prepared. Speciality grade beans from South and Central America, Africa, and Asia are micro-roasted to showcase unique qualities and two of these single-origin coffees are on offer daily: a progressive and a classic. The baristas offer guidance, but there’s a purity to the progressive as a pour over (served black), presented with an accompanying card sharing origins and flavour notes. Accompaniments, like burnt Basque cheesecake or the dark-chocolate-and-rye cookie, are similarly pure yet complex. In summer reach into the fridge for a chilled bottle of Taishō iced coffee or the Kyoto-style, brewed in a Japanese ice dripper for up to six hours.