It’s not that Cape Town’s Central Business District didn’t have its share of hotels before. There’s the business-friendly Taj, on a prime corner opposite the Company’s Garden, and the quirky Grand Daddy Hotel, where guests can book an Airstream in the rooftop trailer park above the hubbub of Long Street. There’s also no shortage of divey backpackers occupying cake-like Victorian buildings. But the CBD never had the right kind of hotel: a plush, design-centric hideaway that channels the city’s creative energy, and places discerning travelers squarely within striking distance of the neighborhood’s vibey cafés, galleries, and bars, growing stronger by the week.
Thanks to the April opening of the Gorgeous George, with 32 rooms spanning two adjacent buildings on the pedestrian St. George’s Mall in the heart of the CBD, travelers no longer need to Uber back to hotels in Camps Bay or the Waterfront after a night on the town. There’s no mistaking where you are from the second you check in at the lobby, anchored as it is by 1,800 blue-and-white tiles hand-painted by Lucie de Moyencourt to form a map of the area. The local touches follow you up to your industrial-luxe room, where a vanity and desk by ace South African furniture designer Gregor Jenkins and a bar trolley by cult brand Dokter and Misses await.
The jewel of Gorgeous George’s crown is, well, its crown: Gigi, a glamorous rooftop restaurant that promises to be even more popular with locals than with guests. There are cozy couches shadowed by bookshelves where you’ll find freelancers firing away furiously at their laptops, discreet corners where the who’s-who sneak away to gossip and daybeds where they emerge when they want to be seen, and a slip of a pool that’s better suited to preening than plunging. No matter where you settle, you’re surrounded by Cape Town’s beguilingly motley skyline of Victorian, Edwardian, Cape Dutch, and Art Deco buildings—and the buzziest restaurants and bars are just a few steps away in any direction. Here are five recent CBD additions worth leaving Gigi for.
Between Us
Twins Jesse and Jamie Friedeberg were trailblazers in the revival of the CBD when they opened Skinny Legs, a chic, art-filled café on Loop Street in 2011. They’re back with Between Us, an airy spot on Bree Street with exposed brick walls that hint at the Victorian building’s roots. Diners gather for lazy brunches and working lunches of fluffy scones, pancakes, frittatas, salads, and pasta; when the weather cooperates, they jostle for tables on a narrow patio with a view of Table Mountain.
Fyn
For years, chef Peter Tempelhoff was at the helm of one of South Africa’s finest restaurants, the Greenhouse, an elegant dining room at a Cape Dutch-style luxury hotel in the tony suburb of Constantia. His new outing couldn’t be more different. On the fifth floor of a new building downtown, Fyn’s ultra-modern, ultra-minimal interiors—the two-story dining room is strung with hundreds of wooden beads courtesy Tristan du Plessis, who was also behind the design of the Gorgeous George—set the stage for an inventive African-Japanese menu. Try the Malay-spiced guineafowl yakitori and rice-smoked duck breast with fermented pear and liver crémeux, all served kaiseki-style.
Athletic Club and Social
All three stories of the maze-like Athletic Club and Social on Buitengracht Street give a glimpse into an old-world gentleman’s club. The beautifully restored century-old building is a trove of vintage tennis racquets and sports trophies, Art Deco mirrors, plush sofas you’ll lose yourself in, and painstakingly sourced black-and-white photographs of sports vignettes. In a past life, this longtime watering hole is where athletes of all backgrounds and races converged—even during apartheid.
The Commissary
Luke Dale-Roberts, the leading luminary of Cape Town’s fine-dining scene, went the laid-back route when he added the Commissary to his growing culinary empire. The unassuming Shortmarket Street hangout is easy to miss. Follow a dark staircase tagged with graffiti by street artist Skullboy to a small dining room with a long bar and a handful of communal tables, where you’ll graze on shareable bites like pani puri ceviche, Korean fried chicken wings, and coconut and peanut sambal prawns.
Whatiftheworld
As if you needed further confirmation that the CBD is a major hub for Cape Town’s thriving art scene: Whatiftheworld, one of the city’s top galleries, relocated from the creative district of Woodstock to Buiten Street last year. Make your way up a ramp—a vestige of the space’s former life as a garage—to view exhibits by a roster of A-list local talent like Athi-Patra Ruga, Thania Petersen, and Lungiswa Gqunta (you’ll recognize their names from the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa).
