Nelson Mandela lunched here every day as a young lawyer. The owner claims to know Fidel Castro. But Johannesburg’s oldest Indian restaurant is now a shadow of its former self, almost struggling for survival.
Located deep in the heart of the city’s now seedy central business district, Kapitan’s — founded in 1887 by Madanjit Ranchod’s great-grandfather — owes much of its colour to the present 77-year-old owner, a bon vivant and a great raconteur.
It has fallen victim to the fact that the city centre — which the government has been trying to spruce up and make crime-free — has turned into a no-go area for many of the city’s inhabitants and is now seen to be unfashionable.
Ranchod now keeps the restaurant open only for lunch and only for 25 people daily. He cooks himself and claims the fare is unsurpassed.
”I’m growing old and it’s difficult to keep up, so I’m closed in the evening. If there are more than 25 people, you pay double. You also give me a good tip and if you are a rich man, I expect you to buy me a Cuban cigar,” he said.
Mandela lunched at Kapitan’s every day in the 1950s when he was a budding lawyer and his ”office was only two blocks away,” Ranchod said, adding that he used to sometimes hold ”political discussions” at the table.
He returned there twice after his release from prison in February 1990 with Cyril Ramaphosa, then a heavyweight in South Africa’s now-ruling African National Congress party.
”Mandela had his old favourite — mince meat curry and rice.
Ramaphosa had my ginger pickle, he swears by it and says no one can make it like me,” Ranchod said.
The eccentric decor — bullfighting posters, the flags of the world’s countries festooned across the trellis-covered ceiling, photographs of football legend Pele and African bric-a-brac also includes an emotional letter Mandela wrote to Ranchod.
Penned just five months before his release from prison, it was a reaction to Ranchod’s purported decision to close shop.
”I learn with sorrow that your famous Oriental restaurant on Kort Street is closing down,” Mandela wrote.
”During the last 27 years, we have lost so many dear friends and so many noted buildings that I sometimes fear that by the time I return, the world itself will have disappeared.
”There will be many palates and tummies inside and outside the country which will justifiably be outraged by the disastrous news.”
Ranchod, a connoisseur of fine cigars, also used to import Havanas from Cuba, a country dear to his heart.
”I have met Fidel Castro several times,” he says, adding mysteriously: ”In those days these things were possible if you were part of a certain circuit.”
”I love Cuba, my favourite cigar is the Cohiba. Those Cubans really know how to make one.”
Other countries he loves are Brazil, ”I have been there more than a 100 times and my wife is there”; Thailand, ”I go there for the massage, the real Thai massage and not those monkey ones”; and Argentina, ”it’s great for fishing.”
Much of the attraction of Kapitan’s is the fact that it is steeped in history.
The name is a tribute to Ranchod’s great-grandfather, who was ”in charge of the non-white crew on a ship which was taking him from India to Fiji and was called ‘kapitan’ by the crew.”
The kitchen is like a museum. All the tandoori dishes are made in a specially made iron stove ”fabricated by a Hungarian blacksmith in 1914 — the year when the Great War began” and another giant vintage coal stove.
Ranchod is definitely from the old school.
”Food cooked on a coal stove has a different taste from gas. No microwaves in this kitchen.”
The sprightly septuagenarian however rues that ”the Kapitan’s empire will die” with him as none of his 11 offspring are ”interested in the business”.
He also grudgingly concedes that much of his clientele have moved on to hipper Indian joints located in Johannesburg’s posh northern suburbs.
”In the old days we were the only one. Now many people have forgotten Kapitan’s.” – Sapa-AFP