Garden café · Bakery · Art gallery · Strand, Cape Town
One building and one garden, established in the middle of a concrete jungle. Bread out of the oven at the door. A wooden deck that wraps the whole way around and walks you down into the green. Bronze and paint in a quiet room. A shelf of books you are welcome to take outside.
It is one building and one garden, and it is best described the way you actually meet it — in order, from the door.
01As you come in
Pão, rusks, doughnuts and vetkoek, baked here every morning. Our speciality is Pão — Mozambique's daily bread, crisp crust, soft inside — and as far as we know we are the only bakery in South Africa making it.
The bakery is also the café: Merkava filter coffee at R20, a proper cup. Take it with you, or carry it out into the garden and stay.
See the menu →
02Around the building
A wooden deck wraps the whole way around the building and walks you down into the garden. There is shade on one side and sun on the other, most of the day.
03The middle of it
An established garden in the middle of a concrete jungle. It took years and it is still going.
There is no seating plan and nobody will show you to a table. Sit wherever you feel calm.
04Out of the garden
From the garden you step into the gallery — figurative bronze by artist G and paintings by Lori Schappe-Youens. The room is quiet and it is meant to be. Nobody will sell you anything.
The full bronze collection →
05Along the wall
A shelf of books stands along the wall. Take one down. Read it in the library corner or carry it out to the garden. Put it back when you go.
Every one of them starts from the same place: why be kind. That is at whybekind.org, in plain words.
Why be kind? →
The culture
Don’t be cruel. Be kind.
That is the whole house rule, and it is not a slogan on a wall. It follows from the one thing you can know for certain — one record exists — and the whole of why is at whybekind.org, in plain words, for anyone who asks.
Nobody in the garden has to ask. Here it only means this: the person at the next table is the same awareness you are. Sit accordingly.
Start there. Everything at this address is an extension of that — the bread, the garden, the gallery, the way you are met at the counter.
No booking, no dress code, no minimum spend. The gate is open on the hours below.
| Garden | Bakery & café | |
|---|---|---|
| Mon–Fri | 10:00–17:00 | 10:00–17:00 |
| Sat–Sun | Closed | Closed |
The ovens are on from early. When the morning's Pão is gone, it is gone. Dogs welcome in the garden.
Turn in off Mynhardt Street at the bend, go along the front of the building, and round the back on the left. Look for the big mural of G and his dog Levinas on the outside wall. Just Cannabis is back there too.
The art gallery and Just Cannabis share the address. Dogs welcome.
Directions in Maps →