Eleventh in an occasional series about my favorite coffee shops in Joburg.
Vice, a coffee shop next to CNR Café in Craighall Park, has become a semi-regular coffee hangout for me lately. I’ve held off on blogging about it because it’s a tricky place to describe.
Vice is sort of Mexican. Or…Mexican-Aztec-ish, in an eclectic, South African kind of way.
Vice serves single-origin Mexican coffee – an uncommon bean in high-end South African coffee roasteries. It’s very good though. I only just learned this now (thanks, Google), but Mexico is one of the largest coffee-producing countries in the world.
There are some vaguely Mexican dishes (i.e., foods wrapped in tortillas) on the Vice menu. But also there are bagels, grilled cheese sandwiches, and Vietnamese pho. Vice has a whole menu of “elixirs” – smoothies, juices, health shots, and nut milk drinks – for health-conscious folk.
The best thing I’ve eaten at Vice so far is the “spicy potato and scrambled eggs tortilla”, which sounds Mexican but actually has a South Asian/Cape Malay flavor. The wrap comes with a side of coconut chutney dipping sauce, which is spicy and sweet and creamy all at once. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture.
I started out by saying Vice is hard to explain and I think this disjointed post is proof of that.
I don’t understand you, Vice. I don’t know who you really are. But I like you and I want to get to know you better. I’ll be back again soon.
Vice is at 11 Rothesay Avenue, Craighall Park.
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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