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Home / Trendy coffee shops add flavour to Swakop’s culture
Trendy coffee shops add flavour to Swakop’s culture
2018-05-18Staff Report 2 Donna Collins Added to the ambience of Namibia’s popular seaside holiday resort, are the many laid back trendy coffee shops, which have sprung up over the years, offering visitors satisfying rendezvous to sit back and enjoy. Quaintly decorated interiors, cute courtyards and the aroma of rich filtered coffee blends, coupled with mouth watering treats, have all added to the café culture of Swakopmund. Dozens coffee shops and bistro restaurants spread across town, each bringing a unique experience to locals and visitors alike. They all provide a creatively styled ambience, a light menu which they call their own, friendly service and individually designed decor. While all delightful in one way or the other, there are some that really stand, one being the trend-setting Village Café, which opened its doors 13 years ago. Now must- go-to social meeting place in town. With its funky “kambashu meets Brazil” decor, cosy corners opening up onto colourfully decorated courtyards, complete with an old converted Kombi as a private seating area, the Village Café prides itself of its ‘home’ style menu. Bulging muffins, wraps and their ‘infamous’ breakfast called the Terminator, a Goliath-sized helping of what would be called a double decker sandwich, layered with all sorts of mouth watering fillings on thick chunks of home baked bread. Another mention is the Two Beards & A Saint Gourmet Coffee Bar tucked away in the modern industrial part of town, which takes your coffee addiction to a whole new level, offering dozens of assorted and spruced up versions of a cup of coffee. Upstairs it houses three large coffee roasting machines imported from Turkey and Israel, where they churn out coffee selections for their own business, as well as a network of over 60 lodges, hotels, and coffee shops around the country. Rows of huge hessian bags bursting with choices of coffee beans from 21 different countries, stand waiting to be brewed and packaged, in what is the only coffee roasters of its kind in the country. Meanwhile, a visit to the Platz Am Meer shopping centre, has a notably generous food court, which includes the recently opened modern News Café, Mug and Bean, plus the Aviary Coffee Shop, which was crowned winner of the 2017 FNB Restaurant Week awards in the Café/Bistro (large) category. Around the corner from the old Hansa Hotel building entrance, where waving palm trees meet Bo Jo’s side walk cafe, you will always find people enjoying this well established spot. Whether it’s the birds chirping around the tables, the spin on ‘health first with every meal’ such as a spinach quiche and salad, this is a popular place to go to. Just across the street is the Old Post Coffee Shop, which combines old colonial heritage with an African spin on things, situated in the historic 1907 former municipal building. Here you can sit outside and overlook the president’s gardens, whilst being served ‘braai’, or on a good day Mopane Worms. Not to be missed from the growing list of coffee shops, is the re-vamped Café Treff, which took the name from the 50 year-old Café Treff Punkt. The original Café Treff, held onto its timeless traditional German atmosphere with the Hansa Bakery feeding its display counters daily for decades. Another great spot for the whole family must be the Monkey Puzzle Cafe, which is nestled on the far side of a botanical nursery surrounded by plants and shrubs. With its imaginative Alice in Wonderland themed decor as well as a play area for children, this has become an enjoyable retreat to wind down and escape reality. 2018-05-18Staff Report 2
