Andrea Burgener is finding it “harder this time round” to run a restaurant. Maybe it is having three Âchildren, or perhaps because she had got out for five years and “forgot what a bloody nightmare it is”.
The Leopard, on the 4th Avenue strip in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, has been open for less than a month.
The strip itself, she says, is also a nightmare sometimes when ÂHarley Davidsons cruise and Maserati Âdrivers ensure that everyone knows they have arrived.
But there was something about the corner shop that appealed to her, and it does feel right. There are large windows, old Marley tiles, ÂSeventies lampshades, odd tables and chairs — a bit like someone’s kitchen — and a brightness to the place that seems to set diners at ease. “I’ve just done what feels right. There’s no concept or theme. I’ve chosen the furniture I like and [in terms of the menu] I think: “What would I want to eat if I went out for lunch?'”
Burgener regards herself as a home cook who is “dumb enough to have a restaurant”. She is trying to make comfort food, but says that if you spend too much time wondering what Âpeople want, you would end up “missing Âeveryone”.
Simple pleasures
The restaurant’s name is taken from Il Gattopardo, a favourite childhood book by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that tells the story of the last of the ÂSicilian aristocracy and has beautiful, Ânostalgic descriptions of food. This is the kind of food she wants to emulate — the “simplest, simplest things”.
Everyone remembers Burgener’s first Ârestaurant 12 years ago, the Super Bon-Bon in ÂRichmond, and that it served Coco Pops and milk. The dish came with “toys” like those you would find inside the cereal box, but larger — a huge blow-up pencil, or slippers.
Some of that playfulness is still in evidence at the Leopard; you will sometimes find spaghetti and Marmite. The Marmite is melted with butter and then tossed with pasta and a sprinkling of parmesan. The recipe comes from food writer Anna Del Conte, who wrote that she had never met a child who did not like it.
But there are other good things on the menu too.
For breakfast — served all day — there is a pistachio-rolled Âlabneh (soft cheese made from yoghurt) with anise-poached pears (R45), or basil mushrooms on toast (R48). I recently enjoyed haloumi with tomato, onion, chilli and ginger relish (R55). The dish had been deconstructed into its individual parts — cherry tomatoes with diminutive batons of ginger, twists of jalapeno and thick slices of soft cheese.
The clams with soft, sweet onion in tomato peri-peri sauce (R65) was less successful. I spent at least a minute chewing a few tough clams, but the onions were truly soft and sweet, their flavour running into the tomato sauce.
There was a similar taking-apart of tastes in the patha plate — madumbi leaves rolled up with a masala paste, steamed and then cut into slices like a Swiss roll — which comes with long strips of cucumber, yoghurt and a good apple atchar. The velvety south Indian Âginger and mint cucumber soup sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds is excellent and should become a standard menu item.
There was a scuffle among a few staff members at the Mail & Guardian about who was going to review the restaurant, with one editor declaring it was the best food he had eaten in Johannesburg but that the service was slow. Word has travelled, so book if you are planning on dining in the evening. It is open two nights a week: Wednesday and Friday.
31 4th Avenue, Parkhurst
Tel: 011 447 6012