If you were to count them, I’d wager that the number of eateries at Umhlanga — inside the malls, along the streets, strips and terraces, butting the beachfront promenade, at the hotels, time-shares and in the office blocks and complexes, on the ridge and in the village — would add up to not having to eat more than once at any of them in a given year. Thinking of the relentless growth, development and extensions going on, maybe make that two years.
So why is it that the last four times I’ve gone to Umhlanga to meet my retired food writer friend, Anne Stevens, for lunch, we’ve gone to the same place? While Anne chooses to no longer write about restaurants, she has anything but retired from keeping on top of who’s doing what in the food zoo in her home town, which for many years has been Umhlanga.
Fabled chef Brendan Newport’s intriguing new collaboration, Sunsets & Mermaids, blends East Coast cooking, Italian flair and Durban’s surf culture in a high-end tiki-bar, which wakes up at sunset. And talking Umhlanga, it wouldn’t do to leave out The Chefs Table.
Newport seems to have a knack for coming up with compelling concepts and innovative dishes, while at the same time forging collaborating with just the right out-the-box creative partners. What emanates being unerringly suited to the times, the neighbourhood, the prevailing milieu. Remember Bean Bag Bohemia? Read the full article on Brendan Newport and Sunsets and Mermaids in The Daily Maverick here.
