Staff Photographer
If you’re going to name your restaurant after a bird, you have to expect reviewers to run through the list of avian metaphors. So here’s one: Narina Trogon is a rare sighting: an establishment for fine dining in Braamfontein.
A few decades ago it was easy to find good food in Braamfontein. We had Linger Longer upstairs and Leipoldt’s below; upmarket steakhouses; excellent Italian restaurants. One by one, they moved or closed, and the chains moved in, presumably on the assumption that students would eat just about anything and office workers could brown-bag it.
Enter Carlyn Zehner, an American who’s divided her life between Philadelphia and London. Zehner arrived in Johannesburg three years ago and loves cities. Looking for an old building to restore, she happened upon the deserted premises of a former steakhouse on De Korte Street.
The result is a restaurant that is first-rate in nearly every way: stunning minimalist decor loosely based on the colours of the elusive bird and some of the best food you’ll find anywhere.
There’s a reason the food is so good. The chefs combine youth — they’re both in their 20s — with good pedigrees. Ross Wilson spent several years working with Arnold Tanzer at Food on the Move. Paul Barrett comes from Sides at 10 Bompas. And a month after Zehner launched her new restaurant, she asked Andrea Burgener to join as a consultant. If you’ve been missing Burgener’s creativity, you’ll find it at Narina Trogon.
You’ll also find locally sourced ingredients, from cheeses to the stone-ground flour that goes into the bread (one day last week it was a choice of butternut, beetroot and pecan-studded) baked on the premises. The eggs are free-range and the excellent coffee is Fair Trade Ethiopian, roasted locally. For people who are into meat – and judging by Narina Trogon’s menu, that’s most of the clientele — the chickens are free-range and the beef comes from cows raised in the Midlands, hormone- and antibiotic-free, grazing on indigenous grasses.
Breakfasts include the best eggs Florentine since Burgener sold Deluxe, or the very popular Mediterranean — haloumi cheese, tomato relish, yoghurt, caramelised onion, grilled mushrooms, or even a full English nosh. For lunch there’s currently lamb rogan josh curry, pronounced “delicious” by the curry lover and architect I brought along to case the place; red snapper fish cakes; red pepper, chilli and lime-marinated chicken breast; sirloin with a choice of sauces. The vegetarian option is a potato, onion and feta fritter topped with asparagus and served in a white wine and gorgonzola sauce, which was so good I was sorry when I’d finished it. They offer two different burgers, three sandwiches, including smoked salmon, cream cheese and avocado, quiches and salads. None of it’s very pricey — sandwiches are R40 or R45, the most expensive main dish is R85. Starters are in the R30 range.
The food is served on butcher-block tables with a herb planted in the middle, set in a small clay pot, and the tables are far enough apart to make conversation pleasant. The restaurant is spacious and elegant, with pale green glass doors and a deep red bar. Floor to ceiling glass windows look out on the street, for those who want to keep an eye on their car; there’s a wheelchair lift at the entrance; and at the back is a sun-trap patio with a view like a West Side Story set — towering office blocks with fire escapes snaking up the back. The wine list is neither extensive nor cheap, but it’s gone well beyond the usual suspects. Its choice of wines from small producers has won Narina Trogon this year’s Diners Club Platinum Award — not bad for a restaurant that’s been around for only seven months.
When Zehner announced she was opening a restaurant in Braamfontein, “pretty much everybody thought we were mad”, she says. She’d done no market research, and “I probably didn’t know enough. But we knew there were businesses here and NGOs and students. And we figured people would come.” They have. Booking is a good idea.
Two caveats: the rest rooms are unisex — spacious and elegant, but not the kind of place you’ll be trying on new underwear in privacy. And parking is not good. The restaurant recommends the Arbour Square parking garage on Juta Street, a short block away. Or you can try your luck with street parking, braving the drug dealers and broken meters — because this is still, after all, Braamfontein.
Narina Trogon, 81 De Korte Street, Braamfontein. Tel: 078 121 7133. Open: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 7am to 4pm. Wednesday and Friday, 7am to 10pm. Next year it’ll be open on Saturdays, but it’s booked out for private parties on weekends for the rest of the year