THE MELTING POT CAFETERIA

They say good things happen in threes.

This couldn’t be more true of the trio behind the hottest pop-up restaurant in Cape Town last year and its new, more permanent, home in a heritage building on Wale Street. John van Zyl (formerly of Chefs Warehouse and Thali restaurants), Sage Fell and Stefan Roos (ex Terroir and Thali) are the three legs of this success story. John and Stefan are third-generation family friends, having grown up together in Somerset West. Sage joins the story when all three were working at Liam Tomlin’s restaurant Thali.

John was instrumental in Thali’s launch, with Stefan and Sage working in the kitchen and front of house respectively. After taking time off to travel, they found themselves back in Cape Town looking for a new gig. Serendipitously, John was approached by Dennis Williams, the owner of Marrow broth bar in Loop Street, who asked whether he was interested in taking over the small space. John didn’t feel it was the right location for a permanent venture, and instead offered to do a three-month pop-up with Sage and Stefan, with Vee Randinyu helping them in the kitchen. The Melting Pot Cafeteria was born to enthusiastic acclaim from notoriously fickle Capetonians, who queued outside, in winter to snag one of just 12 barstools at the city’s hottest new spot.

With just the four of them in the postage-stamp space, they turned out flavour-packed, streetfood-inspired dishes that had those in the know making it a mandatory part of their weekly routine. Think fried chicken with kimchi emulsion, a calamari boccadillo on the softest, freshest bun, and dhal that was so popular it never came off the menu. When asked about the name of the restaurant, the team admit it came up by chance. “When we were researching names, the concept of a melting pot kept coming up. Influential, melting pot cities like New York, melting pot or ‘fusion’ food, and the name just stuck.