Cape Town your cocktail scene is getting a shake-up this Spring with the opening of a brand-new home for pioneering cocktail kitchen Cause | Effect.
The brainchild of award-winning mixologist Kurt Schlechter, Cause | Effect, now known as Cause | Effect Cocktail Kitchen & Cape Brandy Bar, has created a stir in the Mother City since opening in late-2017, winning ‘Cocktail Bar of the Year’ at the prestigious Bartending Accolades & Recognition Awards 2019. Now in new larger premises in the bustling V&A Waterfront, Cause | Effect is set to bring its memorable menu of Cape-inspired cocktail experiences to a wider audience.
“Our previous space was always just a stepping stone to something bigger, so this is CAUSE|EFFECT version 2.0,” chuckles Schlechter. “We’re bigger and badder. We’ve added some cool new features that will assist us to do what we’re great at, which is telling stories through our cocktails.”
Those stories are inspired by Cape Town, channelling the mountain, oceans, fynbos and vineyards into an energetic menu of inventive cocktail creations.
It’s behind the hefty oak bar counter where the magic happens. Here a solera system of barrels ages Old Fashioneds and Boulevardiers, while apothecary style jars of herbs, spices and ingredients create a mixologist’s playground of flavours.
“We make all our own bitters, our own tinctures. We make our own vermouth, our own kombucha. We make all our own cordials. We make everything from scratch,” says Schlechter.
Schlechter finds particular inspiration in the floral cornucopia of the Cape, a passion immediately evident in the etching of Leonotis leonurus – a.k.a wild dagga – on the glass doors, and the bundles of fynbos strung up above the bar.
“We’re obsessed with fynbos and what it can bring to the world of cocktails,” says Schlechter, who uses Leonotis Leonurus (lion’s tail) as a bittering agent, and infuses Spekboom (Portulacaria Afra) into vermouth.
Perhaps most memorable is the Nitro Martini, where customers select their own fynbos blend from the bundles strung above the bar. These are frozen in liquid nitrogen and infused into a Cape-inspired martini of vodka and Caperitif. All of the fynbos used at Cause | Effect is also sustainably farmed on the southern Cape coastline and in the Breedekloof valley.
Alongside the drinks menu will be a selection of platters and small plates created to complement the cocktails. Think prawn toasts and sliders, generous platters of cheese, Coppa and Parma ham.
Truly curious cocktail fans will also want to book a seat in the innovative Schweppes Bartender’s Lab. Seating just six guests at a time, the Lab will see a dedicated bartender create a selection of genre-busting bespoke cocktails, each paired with small plates.
A: The Rocket Shed, 280 Dock Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town.
Times: Open from Monday to Sunday from 10h00 to 24h00.
T: 021 422 0266
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