Designer dining: Decor to match the dinner at Café del Sol.
The only thing that’s odd about Café del Sol is the name of the restaurant, a moniker that doesn’t quite allude to the refinement inherent in the enticing elements of this eatery.
If you, like me, have never heard of Joburg’s original Café del Sol’s, belonging to the same owners, the name might evoke scenes of a late-night diner one would find at the bottom of an American movie motel. But everything in this Parkhurst restaurant (called Café del Sol TRE to honour the Italian matriarch who founded the restaurants with her two children) makes for a perfect dining experience.
Its interior is meticulously fabricated 1920s Art Deco with marble flooring, stylish seating, crockery so admirable that it’s a talking point among guests, down to a salmon-coloured seashell-shaped bathroom sink and, as if it’s a wink to diners’ proclivities for detail, a mustard velvet tassel on the bathroom keys.
Once seated, whether on the restaurant floor or at the exquisite bar, a generous cocktail menu appears, with 20 vintage cocktails with names such as Blood and Sand, the Bee’s Knees and classics that include the Sidecar and the Old Fashioned, ever so deliciously mixed. My friends and I couldn’t help but try a different cocktail with each round and, with each, the presentation and taste had us singing multiple “mmmmmms’’ with accompanying nods.
To my right was an army of men in the kitchen, carefully assembling raviolis. To my left, my friend’s prawn pasta had arrived quicker than expected. I ordered a tomato salad and was surprised to find a generous garden of many other vegetables in it. The service, delivered by aproned waiters, whose attention we had from the second we walked in to the fourth hour, was the cherry on top of an icy Johannesburg evening.
For the full experience, I recommend you make a booking in advance because the place went from relatively empty when we arrived on Friday night to packed in less than an hour. It’s a stand-out treat in the strip of eateries with more of a good vibe than great food.