It’s after an hour-and-a-half drive after landing at unhurried George Airport that we set our sights on the ocean waters of Still Bay, the southern coastal town off the Western Cape.
The scenery of Still Bay is a sensory-rich, unspoiled destination that travellers are increasingly seeking out.
Welcoming gin aficionados and other tourists who swell into the town is local chef and owner of Dave’s Kitchen, 41-year-old David Kairuz.
“I wouldn’t like to just blow myself up and say that people come to Still Bay just for Dave’s Kitchen, but lots of people come for the Inverroche gin experience. Then, they eat at Dave’s that night, and they leave the next day,” Kairuz says.
Still Bay is also home to the local luxury craft gin founded by Lorna Scott over a decade ago. The brand has since been acquired by international spirits giant Pernod Ricard as its first wholly owned African brand in its premium portfolio.
Kairuz’s restaurants are in the town’s shopping complex and at sublime Oudewerfskloof Olive Farm, which is currently undergoing renovations. It is set to re-open later in the year with a brand-new kitchen and dining area that has a full view of the Still Bay sunsets.
The Alberton-born chef sharpened his culinary skills in the UK and the Isle of Man, between Ireland and Great Britain. His cooking expeditions began when he was in high school.
“Even though I would cook at home, I never dared to join the hospitality classes offered at school. It was not a class that a rugby player would go to. I was in the first team rugby at the time, and my mother always suggested that I become a chef,” he says.
“After school, I travelled and worked in the UK and the Isle of Man, where I held several odd kitchen jobs, then I went to America, where I met my wife, Mariella, where we were both working on a ski resort.”
Kairuz relocated back to SA and pursued a culinary qualification at the Prue Leith Culinary Institute, and later followed his then-retired mother to Still Bay. Opening his restaurant in 2018, his mother has not cooked since he arrived in the town.
“It was a fair trade,” he says. “She is the reason for coming to Still Bay, and she doesn’t like cooking at all. So, if her son came to town and opened a restaurant, she never had to cook again.
“Also, she backed me up and helped me choose the spot and with the initial payment for the whole thing. Chefs aren’t the richest people in the world; you do it for passion and not for the money.
“It’s been eight years, and my mom phones and she comes to fetch food. It’s no problem because the deal is that she fed me for the first 18 years of my life. So the tables have turned.”
On Kairuz’s menu are an assortment of fresh seafood dishes with flavourful rustic, hearty dishes that are a fusion of Lebanese and Persian influences between himself and his wife – just don’t ask for slap chips.
“I love healthy, filling portions that are tasty, which is exactly what was needed. I serve the nice food, in my opinion, I’d say, because I don’t serve seafood with chips with my meals,” he says.
“I can make you lamb chops and mash if you want potatoes, but it’s just not my style. I serve food. Proper food. Every dish, every element of the food, something special has gone into it.”
Fifteen minutes inland from the coast, the Inverroche distillery sits undisturbed among local foliage and indigenous fynbos. The building complex is a symbol of a proudly African success story from a small coastal town.
“Reflecting on our gin journey, it’s almost like taking a rear view of where we started and where we are now. I’m amazed every time that such an abstract idea that I had so many years ago has not only come to fruition, but I’ve seen it blossom into something tangible and real,” says Lorna Scott, Inverroche founder, who built her empire from a kitchen experiment in 2007.
Amongst her other occupations in her past life include being a flight attendant and a politician.
Kairuz says Scott’s service to uplifting the community and endurance serve as an entrepreneurial inspiration to him.
“Lorna invested in her staff, and she’s helped me to do the same. I like that idea and I will do the same here and send them for training. She’s inspiring, especially the fact that she grew the brand for so many years before putting it out, and she had to get the right recipe,” Kairuz says.
- Kumalo was a guest of Proudly South African
