Report from the Field: September 2009

Location: Cape Town
Date: September 7, 2009

Doing: Coming up with a plan
This September I hope to making a serious plan. We spent most of last month searching for a space, and almost thought we’d found one—it had a lot of character, and an unbelievable rent. But at the last minute we backed out, as we realized that the grungy and unpleasant neighbourhood wouldn’t make the most of our potential. We realized that we might be able to just get by in that space, but we wouldn’t be able to achieve our goals of actually building up something spectacular. So we need to start working out our exact goals, and come up with a solid plan to get us there. Hopefully we’ll find the right place soon—tomorrow we’re going to look at another spot with a much better location and vibe, and of course, a much higher rental price to match.

Eating: Asian All Stars
In hopeful anticipation of us actually finding a rental space for a Piesang Café, we’re working on developing a menu. With the limited space at the market, we were somewhat inhibited in the range of what we could sell. But with a café, we’d be able to offer a wider range of dishes. So we’ve been busy in the kitchen, perfecting some of our favourite foods from Southeast Asia. We’ve almost got a decent binh my worked out, Bordeaux has perfected a fantastic khao soi, and I’ve almost got the skills down to make a thin, lacy banh xeo. Now if only we could find a decent space with a good rent…