Luxurious all-day café Coco Safar has consistently pushed the boundaries of culinary innovation. Their coffee has been lauded by international platforms, with Forbes and Bloomberg rating it among the world’s best, while Food & Wine USA recognised their croissants as being on par with those from top bakeries in Paris, Tokyo, and Melbourne.
Co-founder and owner Wilhelm Liebenberg, a South African-born Canadian, first launched his coffee-café venture in 2006 in Montreal with his partner Caroline Sirois, a French-Canadian. Inspired by their mutual love of coffee and croissants (incidentally, they met in a café in Munich), and their shared passion for travel, the idea was to open a ‘luxury café like no other’.
“We travelled extensively out of curiosity and our desire to learn more, and were profoundly influenced by Paris and New York, which also have a strong French food culture, as does Montreal – the ‘Paris of North America’,” says Willhelm.
In 2016, Wilhelm and Caroline launched their pilot shop in Cavendish Square in Cape Town before moving to Sea Point, one of Cape Town’s most popular neighbourhoods, in 2018. The flagship is now situated in Piazza St. John on Sea Point Main Road, and features a pâtisserie bar with delicate confections, a chocolate lab crafting handmade bonbons, and a coffee lab equipped with a bespoke Idrocompresso Spirit lever machine built exclusively for Coco Safar by famed espresso machine brand, Kees van der Westen.
It also has the world’s first 100-percent natural, alcohol-free botanical brewery on site, which produces a range of signature beverages, including sparkling red Rooibos, green Rooibos, coffee-citrus, and Rooibos-infused botanical tonics for a health-conscious alternative. And now Wilhelm and Caroline are adding more experiential layers to Coco Safar.
Food, film, and nostalgia
“Ciné-Bouillon is our evening dining experience where we celebrate our love of cinema and French brasserie food inspired by the time-honoured Parisian bouillon,” explains Wilhelm. The elevated brasserie comfort food and authentic vibes are evocative of the quintessential Parisian dining halls of the Belle Époque period, where traditional fare and bouillon (a restoring broth and soup) were served in bouillons (restaurants). The integration of a cinematic experience with a drop-down screen is a concept Wilhelm and Caroline have been toying with for years. “Funnily enough, we played around with the idea of introducing cinema when we launched Coco Safar 25 years ago. We were inspired by the Foreign Cinema restaurant in San Francisco, which brought together food and film. It’s still going today.”
The circle back to the screen is also a personal passion for Wilhelm who’s always been keen on cinema, having wrote, directed, and produced his first feature film in 2000. “It’s a space where movie enthusiasts and food lovers can indulge in both passions simultaneously,” he says.
The casual Ciné Bouillon menu is hugely popular with patrons. “If you just feel like a glass of wine and French onion soup, you don’t have to commit to a huge meal. I’d rather people drop by on a regular basis for a quality experience – it’s all about accessible luxury,” notes Wilhelm, who is conscious about keeping their price point in check. In addition to the regular daily menu and Ciné-Bouillon, another new culinary experience – Le Grand Brunch – is available, which he describes as “a five-course couture brunch with sweet and savoury options”.
“But you’re only as good as your last croissant,” laughs Willhelm, admitting that he and Caroline are in advanced stages of taking the concept to Paris and New York. “If everything goes well, we’re slated to open our first store in Paris in spring or summer and are pushing to have a flagship in New York by the end of the year.”
“For me, the approach is always to give people a culinary experience beyond just food,” says Wilhelm. “If you cannot do something exceptional, there’s no purpose, right?”
Coco Safar Sea Point is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily from 7am until 10pm.
In addition to the all-day menu, the Ciné-Bouillon dinner is available daily from 6pm. Walk-ins are welcome. Le Grand Brunch is available daily from 11:30 am and bookings are essential, with a minimum three-day notice. For reservations call 021 000 5408. cocosafar.com
