Photo: David Harrison
As the old adage goes it takes a foreigner to show one the beauty of your own town. Although I have lived in Cape Town most of my life, I was unaware that visitors could climb right up into the lantern room of the Mouille Point lighthouse.
A landmark heritage building in red and white candy stripes that has saved and guided countless ships from as far back as 1824, everyone I know calls it the Mouille Point lighthouse. In fact, it is the Green Point lighthouse. Its misnomer stood a hundred meters further away before it was destroyed. The etymology of Mouille is contested too. Old Dutch has ‘moeilje’ for breakwater. The origin seems likely to be from the French military, the verb mouiller employed when casting anchor or from the past participial for “wetted”. Other sources claim the name comes from the tribes known as the Hottentots and Strandlopers who called the land Kai Haa Mullai.
Whatever the origins, almost up and until the millennium, the Mouille Point residential strip was considered second-rate. Residents complained about the regular pea-soup mists and the foghorn (upgraded in 1986) that blared at all hours of night. Not that long ago, even student friends could afford to rent ramshackle flats here. Then the big property developers moved in, buying up the last city seafront lots, knocking down many of the old blocks and building luxury apartments, more than half of which seem to stand empty all year except for a few summer months.
In the 1960s and 70s, the Doll’s House drive-in roadhouse served hamburgers and hotdogs to people in their cars. Patrons had to compete with brazen flocks of scavenging seagulls.
There are today a number of smarter eateries taking in the view besides that old survivor Theo’s Grill, which opened in the 1980s. You’ll find deli cafés such as Café Neo, the Sundance Gourmet Coffee Company and the Newport Deli; boutique restaurants like Café Splendida; large, watering holes and hangouts trying to be trendy, including Pepenero Italian seafood restaurant, Wafu and Wakame.
Now an enterprising Berliner, Andrej Brandt, has set up a mobile pizzeria, Prima on wheels, at the lighthouse. It was he who first made me aware of the small museum inside.
¬¬Out of his Volkswagen LT35 panel van, which incredibly has a built-in wood-fired pizza oven, Andrej and his team of baristas, Malwandi Notyena, Thando Mini and Thando (Tito) Luakhe Peter, serve pizzas, excellent coffees, espressos and cappuccinos, freshly squeezed juices and some fine desserts.
His pizza dough is made only with stone-ground Eureka flour. Options include tuna with onions; salami and green pepper and margaritas for vegetarians. His Parma ham and rucola pizza is a winner, as is the Norwegian salmon (fresh on top, not grilled) with capers, mayonnaise, a dot of raspberry jam and a little red onion.
Ever since he started up in June, when most of his clients were the scores of police deployed for the FIFA World Cup, locals have taken to the hardworking and talkative Brandt with enthusiasm. On a summery day, the public spread themselves out on the lawns, chatting, reading and relaxing to the sound of the sea.
A photographer by profession, Brandt worked in the film industry for many years. He first came to South Africa in 1996 and loved the country. “Once here, you never get away anymore”, he says.
His wife is director of Boss Models Cape Town. They hand-built a guesthouse in Yzerfontein, the Light House, a fetching American-style clapperboard beach home.
Brandt’s food stall is a big hit with the many dog-walkers on the esplanade. With typical Berliner verve, he provides bowls of water for thirsty mutts, and even makes his own special organic dog food. It is so good, humans can eat it too, he says. Some locals have become quite agitated when Brandt skips a day or two in inclement weather.
But not everybody is pleased with this civilized state of affairs. Brandt, who rents his premises from the lighthouse, says Councillor JP Smith, he of the vice squad and Chair of the Safety and Security Portfolio Committee of the city, turned up with a dozen police to evict Brandt, claiming there is a zoning issue. Brandt says, laughing, that Smith backed up these claims with maps printed from Google Earth on which he had drawn borders. He was unsuccessful.
Here’s hoping that long may people and their pooches be allowed to enjoy a cup of coffee and a bowl of water or a slice of pizza when out for their promenade.
Prima on wheels. Green Point lighthouse. Tel: 083 299 0500.
The Green Point Lighthouse Museum. 100 Beach Road. Entrance costs R16.