Squeak! A cheese club

14 Jul, 2015

Find some culture in Bree Street.

Cheese retail, cheese restaurant and cheesy bliss for the committed kaaskop. Painted in a sunny cheddar yellow, The Culture Club Cheese is one of the Street’s hottest finds right now. The menu will have culture-lovers melting with delight and bubbling with indecision. Even the drinks present some irresistible choices. My coconut chai latte was a smooth and exotic decision while by all accounts the coffee meets even Bree Streets’ high standards. Some of the breakfast highlights make life difficult. Pancakes with whipped yoghurt, organic honey, banana and an option of free range bacon or Avocado on toast with eggs done your way and in-house Cow River labneh. Consider too the Banting Breakfast, free-range gluten free Toulouse sausage and streaky bacon from Cape Mountain in the Cederberg, plum tomatoes, mushrooms, 2 extremely free-range poached eggs with banting bread or for the fallen, Real Bread, Sourdough or multiseed.

My all day toastie is now my all time favourite. Perfectly melty, not too strong Myst Hill Cheddar with apple butter and caramelised onions between two slices of soft yet crispy toast. The master stroke though was the addition of chopped walnuts. Just enough to deliver a satisfying nutty crunch every second or so bite. More cheesy conundrums when faced with the lunch menu. Imagine the Camembert Mac ’n Cheese. Pungent, rich, gooey, Camembert de Normandie in the mix. Or the raclette with melted Alpine cheese, new baby potatoes, brandy apple, pickles and cured meat. Some dishes get so many likes, they may end up with their own Facebook pages.

And then there is the shopping. Three glass-doored fridges display an array so tempting and so very pleasingly and interestingly local (from the border of the Addo Elephant park to Ficksburg). As we nibbled on delightful slivers of culture, Djokovic was busy demolishing Gasquet in the Wimbledon Semi-Finals. Luke the owner, cheese monger and maker remarked upon the famous tennis player’s belief in the power of a glass of donkey milk. And that a donkey milk cheese may even grace the shelves one day. As if we need more reasons to scamper on down to Bree Street.

The Bacon Bar may be right next door but the The Culture Cheese Club will remain my trough of choice.

Find them at
215 Bree Street
021 422 3515
www.culturecheeseclub.co.za
Open from Tuesday to Saturday for breakfast, lunch and shopping.