When Danilo and Chiara Turilli – the third generation of a South African-Italian family who have been cooking in this city for decades – were looking for a new home for Lello’s Trattoria, a landlord drove them to Penarth Road in Sea Point, pointed at a row of garages, and said, “Here you go.”
The two siblings had an idea, though. They would take the place but had one condition: they wanted a say in who came with them. The landlord agreed, and the two went about choosing their neighbours.
What followed was less a leasing process than a series of phone calls between people who were already friends.
Andrew Nel, who runs Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants and supplies meat to a host of restaurants in the Cape, was the first call and a catalyst for the rest of the tenants.
He called up Delicious Fish – a father-and-son fishmonger committed to local, sustainable sourcing – and then got on the phone to chef Bertus Basson, who brought his famous burger concept, De Vrije Burger, to the street.
The most interesting detail of the strip is that the terraces all run alongside one another; there are no fences or boundaries marking where one restaurant’s seating ends and the next begins.
“Normally, you have dividers between stores,” says Chiara. “Here it’s mi casa, su casa.” The whole precinct operates almost as a dining hall of sorts, allowing diners to order from the eateries as they fancy and eat at the same table.
“We’re all workaholics. We get on really well. And we’re all obsessed with food,” she says. “At the end of the day, we all help each other.”
Danilo and Chiara are the third generation, and Lello’s is their project. A trattoria named for their grandfather, it began as a deli in De Waterkant before moving to this new space with an expanded food and drinks offering.
There are aperitivo evenings from Monday to Saturday, built around Danilo’s house-made vermouth and Italian-style cocktails. The pasta is bronze-extruded and made on site, while their pizza al taglio (pizza by the cut) is made in the traditional Roman style.
Next door, Frankie Fenner operates as both a butchery and eatery ― retail sits alongside a simple food menu ― think steak and potatoes, along with decadent roast bone marrow. The meat is grass-fed, free-range and fully traceable, sourced from farmers Nel has worked with for years.
Delicious Fish brings the same philosophy, but from the sea: fresh, local and sustainable every step of the way. For those dining in, they have fresh oysters, shucked to order; otherwise, raid their fridges for the freshest seafood on the Atlantic Seaboard.
And at De Vrije, Basson serves up his signature burger: a 180g free-range beef patty served in a house-made buttered bun with all the trimmings, alongside hand-cut “tjips”. For dessert, each burger comes with the option of a complimentary soft serve.
Given the line-up, it’s perhaps no surprise that this once-quiet side street, with its array of outstanding family-run restaurants, has quickly become one of the most happening spots in Sea Point.
