Despite challenging trading conditions, a Cape Town original still delivers homespun cheer, and even increased its footprint. Offering comfort food, bakes and bites, Bread, Milk & Honey must be doing something right.
The quaint, old-fashioned shopfront in Spin Street often caught my eye, while turning out of Adderley towards Plein Street, with historic Church Square opposite. A cheering “Bread Milk & Honey” sign invited customers to step inside, past the wooden façade and bay window. Coffee shop regulars were greeted with flat whites, fresh bakes and tarts, served from a time-worn wooden counter, on black-and-white chequered floors.
That was then. Since June 2021, Bread, Milk & Honey has occupied more spacious premises, further down the same road. The 250 m² bakery and coffee shop is located in the former restaurant site of the former CBD favourite Townhouse Hotel, and is a street-level tenant of Neighbourgood – a living, co-working space developer co-founded by Murray Clark that transformed the Townhouse into a neighbourhood-centric development with short- and long-term stays and co-working rentals.
With the venue's move came modernisation, bigger windows, and an increasingly visible presence for the downtown businesspeople and tourists passing on foot. The familiar coffee shop sign hangs outside and displays of sweet and savoury mini bakes still tempt, alongside wraps and sandwiches to go, plus cups of soup in winter.
There’s nostalgia too – a menu board is above the original wooden and white-tiled counter, on black-and-white chequered floors. It lists breakfast banting stacks to eggs Benedict, salads and various burger options.
Gavin Hammond and Gary Huddlestone are the partners behind Bread, Milk & Honey. They’ve been friends or colleagues for a long time, and both worked in the Winelands in hospitality previously.
“We bought the place about four years ago from Mandy Mitchell. Her parents, the Knipes, started it years ago as a sandwich supply shop for staff at Truworths and Woolworths,” says Hammond. “Mr Knipe built the original counter from floorboards in Speakers' Corner. Now it’s made its way to Corporation Street.”
Bread, Milk & Honey co-owners Gavin Hammond (left) and Gary Huddlestone.
COVID EXPANSION
What made the partners risk the uncertainty of Covid restaurant trading conditions to move into the bigger space? It seems a bold move.
Recalls Hammond: “Murray Clark of Neighbourgood came into the shop one day and said: ‘Hey guys, I’m buying the Townhouse Hotel, do you want to move in?’ Gary and I looked at each other, and jokingly said: ‘Sure!’.”
When Clark returned a month later, in March 2021, and asked for their decision, the partners realised he was serious. So they took the plunge, deciding to risk some big-brand coffee emporium leasing the space if they declined the offer. “Luckily, it has panned out. I’ve had not one regret since then,” says Hammond.
While it hasn’t been the smoothest ride – in September 2020 the 13 staff members were reduced to six through Covid retrenchments – the current 2022 team is back to 10 employees. Hammond and Huddlestone are delighted that six of the original staff members still work at Bread, Milk & Honey, including manageress Nolundi Primrose Cima.
Nolundi Primrose Cima has been the coffee shop's manageress for about 18 years.
CITY CENTRE CLASSICS
Vibrant and efficient, Cima clearly enjoys her people-orientated managerial role. She’s been employed at Bread, Milk & Honey since it opened approximately 18 years ago. “We were in Speakers' Corner, and then we moved to Spin Street. Now here. I’ve always been front of house,” she grins.
She says most weekday customers are from the surrounding offices or the court. “They come more for breakfast or lunch. It depends on what’s happening at Parliament, the court, or at Woolworths, Truworths or Cape Union Mart. Sometimes lunchtime is busier than breakfast. In between, they’re asking mostly for the caramel cheesecake and miniature milk tarts.”
The signature cheesecake is baked, with cream cheese and lovely lemony notes, enclosed in a crumb crust. Carrot cake is popular, too. A variety of biscuits and rusks are sold for take-away, and it’s all made on site.
Remember cheddar melts, bacon melts and tuna melts? You’ll find those retro lunchtime toasties, oozing fillings, on thick slices of home-baked bread. Hot “harvest table” meals are sold by weight, with options along the lines of chicken curry, lasagne, bobotie or stir-fry veg. This comfort food is particularly popular when Parliament is in session.
In fact, Parliamentarians used to be a big part of the coffee shop’s clientele. Primrose says they have dropped off a bit, but with the increased visibility, the coffee shop now has more attorneys, judges and tourists coming in.
HANDS-ON OWNERS
Hammond says there is a misconception, especially with coffee shops, “that you can buy one as a nice little retirement project”. “If you do that and leave it to be run by a management team, you’re not going to make it, unless it’s a franchise business, and then they’re taking a big cut,’ he says.
“As a small, independent owner, nobody is advising you on suppliers or mark-ups or what the trends are in menus or eating habits. Or how many customers you may lose if you hike the price of coffee. There are all sorts of considerations.
“It requires being hands-on. You are part of the business, so you’re seeing the staff member who comes in late for two weeks … and acting on it in a more personal way.”
FUTURE PLANS
What about future plans? The coffee shop is a weekday and Saturday morning operation currently. Hammond and Huddlestone say they’re considering longer opening hours and “more of a loungey menu – burgers and chips and snacky plates” if they can secure a liquor licence.
They’d like to grow their customer base to include more young professionals. But as the clientele of Bread, Milk & Honey is already quite diverse, any changes will be made gradually and in tune with customer needs.
Says Hammond: “We’ve got quite a mix of regulars: from those having business meetings to politicians, workers from the surrounding offices, locals looking for weekend breakfast, divorcees attending court cases … at Bread, Milk & Honey, it all happens.”
Bread Milk & Honey | cnr Mostert & Corporation sts, East City | 021 461 8425
Open Monday to Friday from 6h30 – 16h00; Sat 8h30am – 13h30