I got invited to review Ritual Café in Linden. I was looking forward to it. I love Linden, I love eating out, and I’d been meaning to try Ritual forever anyway. Great excuse for a date night with nice-guy-Kevin.
Before I went to Ritual I already knew it was a neighborhood bistro with an unpretentious menu (written on a big chalkboard above the kitchen), featuring lots of vegetarian options and also plenty of meat.
I went in expecting to enjoy my dinner at Ritual, and I did. The restaurant has such a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and the food is simple and innovative at the same time. Nice-guy-Kevin and I had a great night and we can’t wait to go back.
But during the dinner, I realized Ritual’s story is about more than food. The decorative plates on the walls provided a hint.
In additional to being a restauranteur, Ritual owner Julia Kunstler is also a ceramicist and has a pottery studio in Bertrams, near the Joburg CBD.
I love good restaurants, I love art studios in gritty Jozi suburbs, and I love the idea of writing about both in the same blog post. So I decided to pay a visit to Julia K Ceramics.
Julia’s studio is in a beautiful old industrial building on Frere Road in Bertrams (not far from the much more well-known arts hub, Victoria Yards). Julia actually owns the building, which has a great view of the Joburg skyline, and used to live on the top floor. Today the building is occupied by several small, commercial businesses (dressmakers, photographers, etc.) and Julia K Ceramics on the ground floor.
Julia and her staff make ceramics for big commercial companies, like game lodges and wineries, but also for smaller clients and retail shops. Similar to the food at Ritual, Julia’s ceramics are simple and pretty and innovative all at once.
Good food and ceramic bunnies: the perfect blogging recipe. Check out Ritual for a hearty South African meal and Julia K Ceramics for for pretty, hand-crafted pottery.
Ritual Café is at 32 7th Street, Linden. Find its opening hours on Facebook. Ritual doesn’t have a liquor license but customers are welcome to BYOB. (Tonic, Joburg’s best gin bar, is a couple of doors down.)
Julia K Ceramics is at 33 Frere Road, Bertrams.
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.