Pretoria - Books are sexy, and beautifully crafted cuisine has always been sexy.
Add some fine wine to that and you have the new-look Exclusive Books at Hyde Park, now also the Social Kitchen & Bar.
If you’re a veteran Joburg bookworm, you might have already wandered into Exclusive Books and stopped for a moment, thinking: Am I in the right place? So comprehensive is its transformation that it is almost disorientated, as its double the size, with natural light streaming in where there was once just a walled-off car park.
Now its a cavernous, elegant space with vast vistas of the suburbs beyond Hyde Park, housing books for Africa and a sea of tables and chairs flanked by a long bar serving delicious tapas dishes and drinks to order. You could conceivably spend the whole day here, paging through books at the reading tables or on a couch, then settle down for a sundowner and a meal.
It’s the realisation of a big leap of faith, and an even bigger chunk of investment by owner Benjamin Trisk, the developer whose consortium bought Exclusive Books at the end of 2013 from The Times Media group.
The Rosebank Exclusive Books was revamped first, to include a coffee shop serving its own blends and some light meals.
“I’ve always loved books. I love intellectualism and curiosity. And do you know books are back?
Waterstones have confirmed that sales of the Kindle e-book is dying. So when I bought Exclusive Books, I had in mind a destination that would make books sexy again, a place where people could have a conversation over the best food with excellent wine and great views. I believe it’s a first in the world, and I’m looking to take the concept to cities in Europe”, says Trisk.
For this and other Exclusive Books rejuvenation, Trisk teamed up with architects Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens, who are behind many top-end lodges and hotels throughout Africa.
The result is the cultural heart of Exclusive Books has been retained, but no longer does it look anything like a chain store, and it has been endowed with thoughtful aesthetic detail.
The coffee bar is tiled with white Johnson tiles that have been allowed to dry on the surfaces of the bar and then broken with a hammer.
The cracks are filled in with gold leaf. The inspiration for this treatment comes from an Argentinian restaurant in Paris, Anahi.
Moroccan tiles adorn the floor and walls, some of them intentionally cracked and imperfect, but the effect works. I wanted less regularity, something that spoke more of imperfection and bohemian style. It speaks to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi - the imperfection of things,explains Trisk.
Books flow into the restaurant. You don’t quite know where the bookshop ends and the Social Kitchen & Bar begins. This is also intentional, as Trisk believes meals should be convivial experiences where conversation flows and ideas - homed in the thousands of books around you - abound. Food is one of the great comforts of our lives in much the same way that reading is, he says.
Of course the view, through a 40m span of glass on the northern front overlooking Joburg’s urban forest, is what steals the show in this space, and you’re left wondering how the Hyde Park’s original developers could have overlooked this aspect.
Aside from the book nuts, the Social Kitchen & Bar will no doubt gather a foodie following, because the menu is a smorgasbord of small, tantalising dishes created by internationally accomplished Australian chef Russell Armstrong, who has worked in three Michelin restaurants.
He learnt his trade at the Connaught in London under the great Michel Bourdin, working alongside the Roux brothers, and at Les Frères Troisgros in Roanne, France (close to Lyon).
I invited Armstrong to South Africa, and he came in June. He walked the car park as it was then. By the time he left, he was already sold on the vision and the view, says Trisk.
The broad idea is not only to lure people back to books, but to entice those who have never stepped into a bookshop before by creating a modern, friendly destination that sells great food as well.
Whether we sell more books, time will tell. It’s an experiment adventure, smiles Trisk.
Other Exclusive Book stores are currently being revamped, including Woodlands in Pretoria and Clearwater near Roodepoort.
First it was Exclusive Books in Rosebank, and now the Hyde Park flagship store has been transformed to include a restaurant and bar.
Pretoria News