Belly of The Beast Restaurant
Featured on Food24 and Food&Home
Location: 110 Harrington Street, CBD
Crowdfunding has been used to fund many things. From new technology gadgets, to charity projects, to innovative business ideas. Two Capetonian chefs, Anouchka Horn and Neil Swart, saw the potential of this relatively new investment technique and decided to start the first South African crowdfunded restaurant in Cape Town.
The restaurant is based on an exciting new food trend that is picking up pace fast. Another speciality element of the restaurant is that they work on bookings only. And there are only 20 seats available per dinner seating.
A Nose to Tail Dining Extravaganza
The menu changes daily, according to what the chefs can grow or source from sustainable farming suppliers. Nothing goes to waste, the whole animal is used in combination with local seasonal ingredients. Menus range from 5 to 8 courses. All you must do, is show up and feast. It’s a very personal dining experience, you trust the choices of the chefs, without picking and choosing from a menu. Anouchka and Neil believe in a hands-on experience – cooking your food, serving your food, and pouring your wine.
The Restaurant Concept
Belly of the Beast aims to bring back a more intimate dining experience, like meeting at a friend’s house for dinner. Only this time, your friends are professional chefs. They interact with the guests, sharing stories about their passion for sustainable cooking. Their other passion is people, hence creating the intimate dining experience. The nose-to-tail principle means no food goes to waste. Menus are planned around which fresh produce is available from sustainable farmers. And each part of the meat is used to its fullest.
The Faces Behind the Food
Anouchka and Neil met while they were students. They both worked part-time at Terroir Restaurant in Stellenbosch. The two became good friends, sharing similar passions such as work and life philosophies, music – and of course, food.
Their personalities seem to complement each other perfectly, at the same time very similar yet different. The two chefs decided that they would make a good team in the kitchen. Neil specialises in meat. Since childhood he has been hunting and preparing a wide variety of meat. And Anouchka’s speciality lies with pastries, plus she’s a master ice cream maker. She creates ice cream from scratch, each batch with its own special base. Both chefs live and breathe good food. You can taste the passion in the highly creative dishes they produce.
Where Did It All Start
Anouchka and Neil started the Arugula Bistro in 2012, situated in Welgemoed, Belville. It’s a family-orientated restaurant, focusing on offering customers a high-quality dining experience. The bistro offers great wholesome meals such as burgers, or fish and chips. It has established itself as a firm favourite of the community. But the two chefs wanted to expand their dining repertoire and introduce people to a different side of their cooking skills.
After the bistro’s great success and popularity, the dynamic duo decided to expand and to open a highly exceptional restaurant in the city center of the Mother City. At the Belly of the Beast they are moving away from the tried and tested traditional meals, to a more experimental style that changes every day.
Shaking Up the Capetonian Restaurant Scene
The Mother City teems with restaurants. You could visit a different one every night of the week for a year, and still not make a big dent in the culinary scene. And often restaurants pop up overnight like mushrooms, but they die out again just as soon. To make Capetonians sit up and take notice of a new restaurant, isn’t hard. But to impress them and secure your sought-after permanent spot in the culinary scene, that’s a different challenge.
After opening at the end of August 2018, word quickly spread about this innovative restaurant. Now they are booked out most evenings of the week, sometimes even a few weeks in advance. The small bespoke eatery has won the heart of the Cape Town foodies.
With their menu changing every day, every visit to the Belly of the Beast will be a unique experience. And it’s not often that you can potentially book out a whole restaurant for your private function. Plus have two talented chefs attend to your dining needs.
Sustainable Cooking in Action
Belly of the Beast takes organic cooking to the next level. Using the nose-to-tail principle, they make sure that nothing goes to waste at one of their exclusive dinner parties. They create everything on the menu from scratch. The chefs use only fresh produce. So, whatever is ready to be cooked, is served. And the meat they use is meticulously sourced from sustainable farmers.
Another fun element of the restaurant is the on-display kitchen. You can watch Anouchka and Neil create culinary magic right before your eyes! While they are preparing the delectable dishes and selecting the wines to pair them with, they will chat to you a bit more about their passion for sustainable cooking. Find out more about this worldwide movement that is taking the restaurant industry by storm from two experts in the field.
Book Your Seat at The Feast Table Now
This exclusive fine dining restaurant has definitely managed to grab the attention of both local Capetonian foodies and visitors to the city. You must move quickly to snatch up a seat. The 5 to 8 course dinner costs R450 per person. To secure your seat, you need to pay a R150 booking deposit (per person). You can also pay with BitCoin.
Visit www.bellyofthebeast.co.za for more information.