Cape Town - The original Madame Zingara restaurant in Loop Street – once one of the Cape’s most popular eateries – is set to be rebuilt as multi-storey Indian-themed restaurant called Shake your Honey, according to Richard Griffin, managing director of the Madame Zingara group.
Griffin said construction of the new restaurant would begin later this year and finish next year.
Madame Zingara, founded in 2001 by Griffin and Anton van Druten, burnt down in September 2006, in a fire caused by an electrical fault.
The new restaurant will be the sixth City Bowl eatery run by the Madam Zingara group, which includes the Bombay Bicycle Club, the Sidewalk Café and Café Paradiso.
The company also runs the Theatre of Dreams, a burlesque dinner show housed in huge moveable tent which travels around the country.
Griffin said Shake your Honey, would bring “the real India to the heart of the Mother City”.
He plans to build a five-storey structure with a theatre, markets, restaurants and shops that “encapsulates the vibrant spirit of India”, but still needs final building approval from the City of Cape Town.
Since the fire in 2006, the premises have been empty, and neighbours say the burnt-out shell has been used as a toilet.
Giovanni Colle, 36, who owns the upscale men’s fashion store Spaghetti Mafia, said the gutted restaurant opposite his store had been a constant eyesore for the past six years.
He said he couldn’t understand why, after seven years, the site had not been cleared. - Cape Times