Luke Dale-Roberts opens new eatery at The Roundhouse in Camps Bay

According to Cole, this might develop into a tasting menu based on the successes of the à la carte offerings.

“I love salsify, it’s the most unassuming of vegetables, with its ugly and rather unfortunate looking exterior, but it is absolutely amazing to work with, full of taste surprises and so versatile,” says head chef and operating partner Cole.

“I think it’s important to honour the legacy of The Roundhouse and to do it justice with seriously good quality food and service,” says Cole who adds that Salsify at The Roundhouse will be offering fine dining without the snobbery. “We want to really push boundaries of flavour and technique but we’re not trying to be a Test Kitchen, we will develop our own signature and style as we go,” he adds.

General Manager Markus Fiedler, Chef Ryan Cole and Chef Luke Dale Roberts

Back to the root

In reference to the restaurant’s name, a focus on ‘root to leaf’ dining is one of the elements of dishes that are being developed for the menu, there will also be a strong focus on fish. ”My father was a career fisherman and my brother is one too, it’s in my DNA,” says Cole, and a waste-not-want-not nose-to-tail approach will feature too. “Cape Town has such amazing produce and we’ll definitely be making the most of what our suppliers can source – I’m especially excited about the micro-seasons we experience in the Cape and the produce that’s only available for a few weeks at a time, I can’t wait to start sharing our discoveries with our guests,” he continues.

Cole has worked alongside Dale-Roberts at The Test Kitchen as head chef for the past three years and when the opportunity for a new eatery at the historic The Roundhouse arose, there was no question as to who would be heading things up. “Ryan is a quick-minded natural talent, he’s one of the best technical chefs I’ve ever worked with and I trust him implicitly,” says Dale-Roberts, who will play an integral role in the new endeavour but who is equally determined to give 29-year-old Cole autonomy in flexing his culinary muscles. “It’s part of the process of growing as a chef, I’m ready to let key members of the team take the reins in different places, I’m excited and they’re excited,” he says and adds that while he will, of course, be involved in key decisions, he is determined not to impose his opinion too much. “I want the team here to grow into the space, to develop their own culinary handwriting and to make it something completely different to The Test Kitchen or Pot Luck Club,” he continues.

New and old design elements

Salsify at The Roundhouse will occupy the upper level of this historically significant building – and will be dressed by Dale-Roberts’s wife and design partner Sandalene in a way that both honours and challenges its historic past. On entering Salsify at The Roundhouse, guests will immediately be drawn in by avant-garde graffiti produced by international street artist and ‘instigator’ Louis de Villiers AKA Skull Boy, a South African artist now based in New York.

This and a focal 1.3m bronze sculpture by local sculptor Otto du Plessis, named Salsify, will no doubt be cause for conversation over pre-dinner drinks.

“Salsify is the guardian and muse of the space – she is half game bird, half woman”, explains Sandalene who worked closely with both De Villiers and Du Plessis to create these unique and arresting talking points. “We want our restaurants to be a sensory experience from start to finish and it all starts with the visual feast from the moment you enter that space,” she says.

Contemporary cues aside, Sandalene has been careful to honour the history of this historic building which dates back to 1786 when it was first built as a round guard house, then later used as a hunting lodge for Sir Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape from 1814 until 1826. Some say it was also a favourite place for Somerset’s liaisons with one Dr James Barry, who on his death it was discovered was actually a woman. Over time, The Roundhouse was used as a home, a hotel complete with two ballrooms, tea room and restaurant and it’s incarnation as a smart, dining talking point is one that Capetonian foodies and fans of the other eateries in the Dale-Roberts’s empire, The Pot Luck Club and The Shortmarket Club, will no doubt celebrate.

“Because it’s a significant historical building, we couldn’t and didn’t want to change its bones, we chose to amplify its history with really modern touches juxtaposed with nods to the past and plenty of surprises too,” says Sandalene. ”The Roundhouse has always been something of an anomaly, its shape is unusual, it had a pretty chequered past and there’s a romance to it that fuels people’s fascination with it, a restaurant that pushes boundaries just makes sense for it,” adds Dale-Roberts.

Salsify at The Roundhouse will be open from Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner. Please note that reservations are online only via Salsify at The Roundhouse’s website: www.salsify.co.za. Bookings are open one month in advance from 8.30am (South African time).

Salsify at The Roundhouse is situated at Round House Road, Camps Bay. For more information call 021 010 6444 or visit the website www.salsify.co.za.