THE RESTAURANT
This rising star is giving Melville back its mojo — and has Sue de Groot uttering unprintable adjectives
When the Westcliff Hotel was sold and its staff retrenched, executive chef Klaus Beckmann and pastry chef Lindy Pretorius joined forces and finances, gathered some of their former colleagues and set sail for Melville.
Once a magnet for middle-class bohemians, the suburb seemed to be losing its mojo a while back, with more aspirant parking guards than arty executives on its pavements. But there is life in 7th Street yet, and La Luna of Melville has given it a reviving jolt to the heart.
Pretorius said she almost cried when Beckmann signed a lease for the dishevelled site that once contained a restaurant called Mezza Luna, but as they began restoring the place, she saw its potential. They did everything themselves, from paint to upholstery to remodelling the kitchen, and turned what had been a boarded-up rats’ nest into the clean, welcoming space it is now.
“We didn’t make any announcements, we just opened,” says Pretorius. “The first day, more than 40 people came. The next day there were only two. It was terrifying. To deal with the anxiety, I peeled hundreds of lemons and made limoncello obsessively. Klaus broke porcelain and made mosaics.”
But feed them well and they will come. Eight months later, you can’t get a dinner table at La Luna without booking. Lunchtime is quieter, but that will probably change, because it is one of the most pleasant places to spend an afternoon, lulled by the sun through plate glass and warmed by the rich flavours of Italy.
I heard about it from a food-loving friend who’d eaten there two nights in a row. He sent me a text message which contained the words “un” and “believable”, separated by another, stronger word. The next day, I dragged two colleagues out for what was meant to be a working lunch. No work was done. The food is way too good to allow any distractions to intrude.
Everything is made from scratch in the compact kitchen: fresh pasta, bottled preserves and all manner of other deliciousness. The menu is mostly Mediterranean with a touch of Teutonic — Beckmann’s influence is evident in pork steaks with mustard-pickled gherkins on the side. Across the road will be the ambitious couple’s second venue, Brauhaus of Melville (where Horatio’s once was), which they plan to open next month and will serve handmade sausages, pretzels and craft beer.
But back to La Luna, where plates were passed over for a taste and had to be wrestled back again. The pork was tender and caramelised, with tangy juices and a geometrical slice of polenta. Sweet potato ravioli was delicately spiced with cinnamon, the sweetness balanced by a creamy sauce. The Casoncelli alla Bergamasca was near-transparent pasta parcels stuffed with minced beef fillet, floating in a heavenly stock enriched with butter, sage and crispy cubes of bacon.
Portion size was ideal and service was superb. You could be in the fine-dining wing of a famous hotel, except this is much less stuffy and far more fun.
Desserts, as you’d expect from a top pastry chef, are also un-that-word-believable. Pretorius has a playful hand with puddings, filling brandy-snap pastry cases with lemon-ricotta curd or infusing cream with bay leaves to make panna cotta that tastes like summer on Capri.
La Luna has certainly brightened winter in Melville. Long may it shine.