Marble gets settled in Cape Town

The high-end glamorous restaurants of the Marble Hospitality Group through Marble, Saint and Zioux serves about 2,000 people a day “comfortably”, says head chef and co-owner David Higgs, “some days more, some less”. On weekends it’s about 5,000 to 6,000 people a day (excluding events). They’ve cracked the code when it comes to Joburg with their big-format bold dining experience; now it’s time to try the Mother City. 

Let’s not forget The Pantry, which in Joburg’s Rosebank has redefined forecourt pop-ins and where once there was barely a car to be seen at the garage (located under Marble), it’s now abuzz 24/7 often with luxury vehicles, largely premium four-by-fours. A hybrid of superette deli, takeaway and retail where fancy foods and wine and basics coexist alongside artisanal bread and poke bowls. It opened a second in Bedfordview a few months ago.

Marble Cape Town is also about open-plan kitchen, prime cuts of meat and cooking on an open flame. The name again is an ode to the delicate strands of fat running through a well-aged piece of steak and is also evidenced in the premium polished stone, which features in the Joburg and now Cape Town dining spots.

It took longer than planned to come to fruition as rebuilding in a heritage site proved more challenging than expected, but the space on top of the Union Castle building (which was effectively once a post office) now caters for 220 seated diners through 800m2 of space and features a wine cellar, wraparound patio and bar that is positioned to soak up sundowners.

Gary Kyriacou heads the team on the business side, while his wife, Irene, sets the scene, as she has across the group, with striking bold and glamorous décor (as usual with Redecco) — to reflect natural elements with floor-to-ceiling glass facades providing 360° views. Dino Constantinou is director of operations while Higgs is the head food creator.

Cape Town is more competitive on the food front with an abundance of top-rated restaurants, though not generally of the scale associated with Marble.

There are similarities in both restaurants with the big fires for cooking and though there was an expectation that the Cape Town venture would be more focused on seafood, it remains a largely meat haven. Higgs says over the first few days they were selling 80% meat. “The bottom line is that meat is where it’s at and that’s what we do, that’s what we’re good at. We don’t want to change the format just because we’re moving. Otherwise, we’d have changed the format to something else”

Higgs is from Namibia and spent years in Cape Town, but in essence he’s a Joburg boy, and loves the energy, can-do attitude of Joburg and the diversity and vibe.

“What we’ve gone with, the style of food that South Africans love — we haven’t been silly with our pricing, it’s not that kind of place”.

Higgs came from a fine dining background where he received accolades and awards, but ditched that for “approachable” premium dining. At the launch of Marble Cape Town Higgs talked of how he started his career about 50m away, at the V&A at Quay Four, Bertie’s Landing and Quaffers across the road.

He took Rust en Vrede to the 61st spot on the S. Pellegrino Top 100 list of the best restaurants in the world, worked at Saxon 500 which did really well, but as he tells it, the problem was that half the people in the restaurant while sitting there, were ordering steaks from Qunu downstairs. The fine dining experience was long, “a tad laborious” and people were downing tequilas and throwing corks around. It might not have been the case in Cape Town where top-end restaurants get a large “fill” from tourists, but when Kyriacou approached him with the new concept, they went big.

The chatter at the launch was that Marble will be very popular in high season, but questions abound as to what will keep it pumping during the winter months when visitors are few and locals often stay in. Higgs, though, says Marble will be a great place to sit in the colder months with fires - it will be warm and cosy and he expects it to do very well.

With four new five-star hotels planned in the next three years at the V&A, that will no doubt also help to bring in visitors.

It’s not the only venture under consideration. The Marble team had been planning on opening in Dubai (they even had a site but the lease fell through) and had been looking at the waterfront for about seven years, but wanted the right space.

There is an extensive wine and cocktail list, and one can expect starters that include snoek pate with magwinya (like a vetkoek), and lamb and beef tartare with picked waterblommetjies. Mains feature Marble’s woodfired Chalmar ribeye, alongside new creations like mussel paella and line fish with burnt leeks and roasted fish bone sauce. Desserts range from cheese, biscuits and pickles curated by well-known Cape Town chef and writer Karen Dudley to key lime pie and a whimsical Cape Town granadilla ice lolly.

The location features work inspired by local landscapes and heritage, including works by GRID, Krisjan Rossouw and Michael Beckurts alongside Mash T’s crystal bead installation. Other standout design elements include a stainless-steel ceiling installation mimicking water reflections and hand-stitched upholstery by Casamento, blending tradition with modernity.

The launch party was packed to the brim with more than 400 people. There were some canapés and tastes going round but for the most part it was a lot of socialising and drinking, and apart from good food that is what Marble has come to represent.