Third in my series of Sandton Snapshot posts, leading up to the publication of SandtonPlaces. Read posts 1 and 2.
I’m seriously behind in blogging and it’s starting to freak me out – so many stories to tell and not enough time to tell them. I have great stories and photos from Swaziland, the Free State, and even from my Port Elizabeth trip (which was more than three months ago), not to mention tons of Melville stuff. The list keeps getting longer and I’m continually bumping older stories in favor of breaking-news, like the publication of Johannesburg in Your Pocket or my rescue of the Hillbrow kitten.
Anyway, blogging woes aside, I can’t let this week come to an end without a quick Sandton Snapshot. Today’s Sandton Snapshot is the Bean Republic.
Bean Republic, on Corlett Drive in Melrose. It’s not in Sandton exactly, but in the general vicinity.
Joburg has countless great coffee shops. Literally. There are too many great coffee shops to count and more are opening every day. The trendiest ones – Father Coffee, Bean There, Motherland, and Wolves, just to name a few – get tons of good press, all richly deserved. But there are many other fantastic coffee shops that miss out on the trendy coffee hype for one reason or another. Bean Republic is one of them.
Bean Republic perhaps goes unnoticed due to its location, on a seedy section of Corlett Drive just down the road from the uber-hip Illovo Junction (where Wolves is) and around the corner from the upscale Melrose Arch centre. But Bean Republic’s location, although unlikely, isn’t hard to find.
Bean Republic has an anti-establishment vibe, but not in the hipster-wearing-a-Che-Guevara-T-shirt kind of way that you might expect. Bean Republic is the real deal. The shop’s owner, Edwin Nlovu, answers to the nickname “the General”. He wouldn’t say exactly why, but I get the feeling that the General has some stories to tell.
Bean Republic has serious coffee, tasty food and smoothies, and hassle-free wifi. There is also a meeting room downstairs.
The General. Incidentally, he used to work at Wolves.
I visited Bean Republic intending to stop in for a quick cup of coffee, and wound up staying all afternoon. It’s just that kind of place. Check it out.
Bean Republic is at 81 Corlett Drive in Melrose, just off the M1 highway.
How have I never blogged about 44 Stanley Avenue, the coolest shopping and dining complex in Joburg, which is only five minutes from my house?
I guess it’s wrong to say I’ve never blogged about 44 Stanley; I’ve mentioned it countless times over the years (see here and here) when writing about specific restaurants or shops that are there. But I’ve never written a dedicated post about 44 Stanley as a destination and it’s about time I did – especially now, with the holidays upon us.
I’ve been dreadfully uninspired lately, struggling to think of anything I want to blog about despite having a long list of great ideas (many of which you, my readers, provided in September). I’m finding it hard to feel positive about life at the moment. But on Saturday Thorsten and I got the chance to visit Indwe Park, an indigenous garden and sculpture park in Braamfontein, and I knew I had my topic for today.
Given this week’s political nuclear bomb blast, it feels like a weird time to publish a light-hearted post about my recent (pre-election) jaunt through the United States. But I’m hoping you’ve have had enough of the U.S. election horror show – I know I have – and are ready (at least temporarily) for some wholesome American travel adventures. If so, please read on about my four-day visit to Maine, the northeastern-most state in the lower 48, with my sister, Susanna.
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It makes me smile, when I see it.