The Western Cape’s very own restaurant of the year, Wolfgat is struggling to stay afloat despite being one of the most popular restaurants this year before the lockdown started.
The quaint 20-seater beach eatery in Paternoster, like a number of other famous restaurants, has its future hanging in the balance due to the effects of the South African lockdown.
Chef patron Kobus van der Merwe told TimesLIVE that the coronavirus pandemic had taken its toll on the team, including himself, and that the future of the restaurant was uncertain.
“It’s the uncertainty of what lies ahead that is most difficult to cope with — will we bounce back? Won’t we?” he elaborates. “For now, we’re doing everything we can to try to stay afloat as long as possible.”
Wolfgat faces the challenge of making its unique, seasonal and freshly foraged menu available for takeaway. As Wolfgat’s dishes are usually presented on handmade one-of-a-kind crockery, another challenge faced is how to sustainably package meals for takeaway.
The sustainable restaurant has since produced divided cardboard meal boxes for delivery. This unusual offering features fresh ingredients divided into different sections within a box. The boxes carry the unique raw charm of the restaurant and are styled to reflect the natural landscapes from which most of the ingredients come.
Each box includes instructions on how to prepare a meal with the freshly foraged ingredients inside the box, reheat the dish prepared inside or how to add the finishing touches, depending on what dish you choose.
Sourdough bread and homemade butter; seasonal snacks (such as piekelvis, snoek tartlet, stuffed soutslaai leaves) a black mussel or white mussel soup starter; a main course of Verlorenvlei lamb, mushroom and kelp; a DIY dessert for you to bake at home all feature inside of the Wolfgat home hampers.
Along with each box, patrons receive a personal touch aimed at lifting spirits and adding that little bit of magic to your day, either in the form of a playlist to listen to while dining or cooking or in the form of a painting that graces the lid of the box.