The World of Hospitality Issue 29 2018 | Page 70

70 THE WORLD OF HOSPITALITY COCO SAFAR Belle Epoque Design In The World’s first Botanical Café Restaurant You may have the dream of being in Coco Chanel’s apartment Paris but you can live that dream while down in Cape Town, in Coco Safar café, where Coco is from Coco Chanel, all things, elegant, sophisticated and all so posh. Safar means safari, from the Swahili word safari. Down to Cape Town, South Africa is a café that has been developed to provide the consumer with luxury multi-sensory experience, from the packaging, to the coffee development, smells, tastes, all provoking the five senses of the consumer walking in to the environment. Welcome to Coco Safar. The interior designs are all about escapism into other another world. This is a multisensory lifestyle. You will feel as if you are about to become a star, on a vintage train stage, feeling retro chic, cinematic as the feeling is timeless. Inside Coco Safar, feels like you are about to take a train journey, in a belle époque moment, environment, while indulging your senses in the Chocolate patisseries beautified with an orange blossom ganache or you can pop the Chocolate Bonbons in white, milk and dark flavoured and hand painted in different colours. These are eaten while drinking on a Stellenbosch green Rooibos capsule or Napoli coffee or you can have the flavour named Lisbon, or whatever suits your palate. Coco Safar houses the world’s first Botanical Coffee and Rooibos Brewery, the top coffee roastery in Africa, and is a top quality patisserie and chocolate supplier, bought to take away or enjoyed sitting down. The consumer will be enthralled by the Capsule Emporium, an Espresso Bar, a Couture Patisserie, and a Luxury Café. The Capsule Emporium boasts an industrial- style mezzanine library displaying the eye-catching capsule collections, retrievable by ladders and secured by floor-to-ceiling oxidised-steel columns. Saddle-stitched linen panels bring an element of timeless elegance and hand-made finesse to the space. Nearly everything was exclusively designed and made in Cape Town inclusive of hand-stitched leather seating, solid oak counters and hand- blown light fittings. “We have botanical mixology which is where we brew with plant based materials. The Rooibos tea is brewed for 76 hours or 6 days, like beer but no alcohol. Our tonics are infused with Rooibos and we serve it on tap like beer. You can sit by the bar and watch the brewery doing the brews. It is a rare experience,” said Wilhelm Liebenberg, Co-founder of Coco Safar added Liebenberg. “Luxury is an experience. “Everything here is handmade, from the furniture to the coffee, to the pastries, we do it here. Like Coco Chanel, we are elegant and provide that elegance through our café.” WEBSITE: www.cocosafar.com To add to the feel of travel is the naming of the capsules which include Manhattan, Napoli, Kaapstad, Havana, Stellenbosch, Saint Tropez and upcoming names will include Marrakesh, Jakarta, Lisbon, as their clients come from these cities among many other cities. Through the capsules the consumers take a journey of drinking from a capsule that has the name of a global city. To spread their luxury café brand presence, Coco Safar will open in New York in 36 months followed by Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai or Hong Kong, Buenos, Aires and London. Coco Safar has also created the first air-tight, compostable (Nespresso® compatible) coffee and Rooibos bio-capsules in Africa. These capsules decompose after 160 days and must be dissolved in the ground. This is a crucial aspect for luxury consumers who are conscious about sustainability and protection of the environment. You really don’t need to get onto a plane to Paris or Havana or Lisbon, you are fine at Coco Safar, it has all the Coco Chanel, Eiffel Tower, London, Havana or New York that you will ever need. Just sip on the coffee or tea and feel the luxury.