Quality Living Styles - Travel

The Avenue Cafe

When we lived in Cape Town, we often patronised, The Avenue Cafe, at 67 Newlands Ave., Newlands, Cape Town. This cafe was a short distance from my sons' schools.

It was a good resource for tasty treats for the boys, after a long school day and after school activities, before driving back home.

The store was laden with cakes, cookies, fruit, candy, chocolates and a variety of rolls, breads, snacks, and staples like bread, milk and groceries.

Our favorites were the Vegetarian Samoosas that were large, with a filling of soy mince. The soy mince was cooked with a generous amount of onions and was so delicious. Whenever the boys saw these oily packets, their eyes lit up as they knew what the treats were. I imitate this style, by adding extra onions when I cook soy mince.

Apart from this well stocked cafe, the store owners, Mushtaq and Abbass Bhaktar, were always polite, friendly and very well dressed, real gentlemen. They were very generous as well and regularly donated cash and supplies from their store for school and work fundraisers. There was never a need to appeal to them. Upon hearing the request, they readily offered to help.

After an absence of 16 years, we visited the store again in January 2012. The gentlemen were as friendly as ever, nothing seemed to have changed. The Bhatkar brothers did not seem to have aged and they remembered us. It was good to catch up with news about each other. We again enjoyed the vegetable samoosas and South African sodas, like Cream Soda and Raspberry.

The brothers kindly permitted us to photograph the store and posed for pictures with me. They also permitted me to publish this story of their store and what the memories it held for my family and me. It was so good to reconnect with this special store again.

Share your travel experiences with me, Nirmala, via email at:
pather@qualitylivingstyles.com
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