Other Centres - Salisbury nostalgia by Llewellyn Hughes
Salisbury – A trip down Zimbabwe’s
Gourmet Lane 1979 – 2018
Written by: Llewellyn Hughes
During the late 70’s our Country was involved
in an independent struggle and most of the males were involved in some
form of military service. I noticed that the norm was that once we had
finished a tour of duty most of us initially got drunk with the same
mates we had spent a long time together with and then take our
girlfriend / wife and families out for a meal. The four most popular
restaurants in 1978 were run by an Italian (Da Guido) a Greek
(Akropilis), a Portuguese (Pinos) and an Irishman (the Hunting Lodge).
None of which were involved in the struggle. Along with a friend of
mine, Dave Haslehurst, we embarked on opening a restaurant which was
owned by locals. We bought the Cossack Steakhouse in Fife Avenue and
opened up the Clovagalix Restaurant in February 1979. The name
Clovagalix was derived from the Asterix comics which was a play on the
words A CLOVE OF GARLIC.
The first restaurant in the then named
Salisbury was opened up in Manica Road and was called POCKETS GRILL –
this restaurant subsequently moved to Stanley Avenue next to the
departmental store Haddon and Sly. Manica Road was quite a dangerous
place to own a restaurant. Over the years the PINK PANTHER had a petrol
bomb thrown in it, Mr Kee of the BAMBOO INN was found hanging in his
cold room and THE KANGAROO TEA ROOM at 82 Manica Road suffered from a
bomb been placed in the Zanu-PF headquarters. The MANDARIN Chinese
Restaurant being on the Mezzanine floor survived all the action. If I
use Manica Road as my starting point and go up towards the then Jameson
Avenue the first restaurant one would come to had chairs placed on the
pavement with patrons almost sitting in the car park. This was the WISE
DONKEY (this of course has become the norm in coffee shops around the
world). You then came to H M BARBOURS which had a wonderful restaurant
on the 3rd floor, where in my day my Granny used to take us there for a
treat – scones and hot cross buns being our favourite tea. This was in
the early 60’s and this restaurant was the first business establishment
to initiate eco-cash; if you remember we used to put the money in an air
capsule and send it to the accounts department. In todays language air
becoming eco. Across the road from BARBOURS was another departmental
store called SANDERS which housed the BIRDCAGE. I remember me and my
mates going there to watch the ladies model their clothes. Names I seem
to remember were Ashley Crichton, Sue Friend and Lynn Hulley. Further
up First Street a WIMPY was situated and other restaurants were the
LOUNGE the RHODIAN and NATIES GRILL which was owned by Burt Nathan. At
the end of First Street was the BOMBAY DUCK which was owned by Tug
Wilson. He later sold to Tom Swift whose granddaughter Chantal Boshi now
owns the SPICE TRADER with her husband Hamish.
There were various steak houses around the
city centre the ones I remember being the ARIZONA, the RENDEZVOUS,
GEORGIAN GRILL and SIZZLERS. There were also several ethnic restaurants
in the area LA PIZZERIA was owned by Sherrol who later moved into the
Park. DA GUIDOS which was famous for its pasta and T-bone and a free
orange for dessert – one never ever received a bill with patrons paying
the owner as they exited the restaurant. Perusal of the account the
following day always resulted in a few extra beers etc being added to
cover ones dishonesty. Next to the state lotteries hall was situated
DEMI’S RESTAURANT and across Moffatt Street was an arcade where the
GREEK TAVERNA, COVERED WAGON and the popular HOMEGROWN restaurant each
had a turn plying their trade. Janice Roberts of the HOMEGROWN to this
day is still in the restaurant trade. Further into the ‘cows guts’ as
it was called, was the COPACABANNA Portuguese restaurant specialising
obviously in peri-peri chicken and prawns. The owner of this
establishment got divorced and his wife and daughter became the first
owners of COIMBRA restaurant then CASCAIS and now the daughter is the
owner of the popular PAULA’S restaurant in Greendale. On Kingsway were
the ever popular SANDROS and EROS TAVERNA. Behind the Holiday Inn was
the TAVERN ATHENA owned by Mano Babliokis who now owns a restaurant in
Bahrain.
We have all at some time visited the Linquenda
Arcade, in the basement was the CIVIL SERVICE CLUB then CLUB TOMORROW
and then ARCHIPELAGO and on the first floor was the MOKADOR TEA ROOM.
There were several restaurants in the Avenues. CLOVAGALIX of which I
have already mentioned. This restaurant became famous for its Wednesday
night sing-a-long type entertainment. Entertainers included the likes
of Tim & Pat Sherry, Frazer Mackay, Paul Edwards, Robbie Kroeger, Bud
Cockcroft and the long standing, ever popular Graham Hall amongst
others. Also in Fife Avenue was the CARVERY restaurant and OLD DUBLIN
bar which was initially owned by Brian Horgan and then Brian Da Quino.
This venue had a terrible incident in the early 1980’s when a deranged
solider positioned himself at the top of the stairs on Christmas Day and
shot passers-by sadly killing two people. ALEXANDERS (Bill & Irene
Beckitt), COIMBRA (Tony Simoes), VILLA PERI / POINTE, SPAGOS / MAMMA MIA
/ FAT MAMMAS (Nick & Annette Kalamatis) were all popular outlets.
COIMBRA still exists and still remains as popular as ever.
Suburban restaurants were DELHI PALACE (Bob &
Nikki) THE SITAR (Kieran) BEEFEATER (John Lashbrook) THE CELLAR, NICKS /
HIGH CHAPPERAL, AKROPOLIS (Spiro Vlismis, Ian Robertson, Terry
Rossiter), LE FRANCAIS (Rodger Seegmuller), TAVERN BACCHUS (Joan Botha),
ADRIENNE’s (Barret Family), CASA MIA, THE LIGHTHOUSE, ALO ALO (Adrienne
and Lesley), APHRODITE (Jimmy), KEG & SABLE (Ian Miller) BISTRO, The
HOWFF (Peter Morrison & Jerome Van Niekerk), LEONARDOS (Daniel Marini)
and EL CASTILLIAN to name but a few. Mention must be made of WOMBLES
restaurant – it began at Borrowdale Tea Cosy in Foley Court and became
known as a place where the elderly police reservists on their night
watch would pop in for an Irish coffee or two. They became known as The
Wombles. It then moved to behind the Village into a suburban house
which was subsequently knocked down and initially turned into the
bowling alley and now the Spar. Wombles moved to Ballantyne Park where
it became MILLERS GRILL and now is CORKIES pub & restaurant. Borrowdale
Tea Cosy became Café Med until 2010 when Millers Café was built and now
houses Garfunkel’s Grill. DV8 in Groombridge also deserves a mention it
was initiated by the manager of DEMI’s restaurant which as mentioned
before was near the State Lotteries building, he wanted Northern suburb
residents to ‘deviate’ to Groombridge instead.
Over the years there were many fine
restaurants that were located in hotels around the city. MEIKLES HOTEL
still houses the longest standing restaurant which is LA FONTAINE which
began in 1958. In December of this year it celebrates its 60th
anniversary and the hotel will commemorate this with a re-incarnation of
the 1958 menu. I urge all to try attend this wonderful occasion.
The Ambassador (BIRD & BOTTLE), the Courtney
(LE SCARGOT), Windsor (The COLONY and LINCOLN ROOM), Monomatapa (12 000
HORSEMAN and BALI HAI), Jameson (TIFFANY’S). Other hotels were the
Oasis, Beverly Rocks, George, Kamfimsa Park, Highlands Park, Parklane,
RedFox, Kentucky and the Quorn also deserve a mention.
There were of course late night joints the
GREMLIN, BLUE GARDINIA, YELLOW ORCHID and MADEIRA / MAPLE LEAF and ROSE
BOWL. We used to have fun at The Gremlin with the sign in the carpark
which read Flick your lights for service. A nominated scoundrel would
run out and join the L and I together and we would drive away roaring
with laughter.
Before finishing one has to mention
restaurants in other cities :
Bulawayo (GRENADA, SELBOURNE, PEIKING, HOTEL VICTORIA, MAISON NIC and LA
GONDOLA)
Mutare (MANICA HOTEL, THE TERRACE and THE LITTLE SWALLOW)
Rusape (BELFOUR HOTEL)
Victoria Falls (VIC FALLS HOTEL, ELEPHANT HILLS and others)
Kariba (CUTTY SARK, LAKE VIEW INN, CARIBBEA BAY, KARIBA BREEZES)
During my 40 years in the trade I have had
several partners. As mentioned Dave Haslehurst and also Patrick Murphy,
Danie & Irma Reitz, David Lake & Roy Wentzel, Kevin O’Brien, Sue Ziehl,
Ant Berans & Peta Evans, Ian Miller and presently Rob Davenport and his
Garfunkel’s Team.
I have survived 4 Presidents, 3 fires, 2
marriages and 1 plastic chip fryer!
Finally I would like to acknowledge my fellow
restaurateurs Attilio Viggoretti, Sherrol Hickey, Keith Boshi, Mrs & Mrs
Kilinkoss, Daniel Marini, The Bray Family, Tim Wilson and Amanda Wessels
to name but a few.
As it is Father’s Day or perhaps Grandfathers
Day I leave you with a bit of advice, if your children want to go into
my trade I suggest you say to them “if you want to see your face – look
in the mirror. But if you want to see your arse buy a restaurant!”
Llewellyn Hughes
P.S. a special thanks to John Dawson and Stan
Higgins who helped me compile this trip down gourmet lane.
A little bit about Llew :
Whilst Llew’s great reputation as a restaurateur goes back to 1978, he’s
also a celebratory raconteur, earning him the nickname “BBC” (Borrowdale
Broadcasting Corporation) he guarantees that there is ‘an element of
truth’ in all his stories. Besides his encyclopaedic knowledge of
cricket, he was previously the owner of Clovagalix Restaurant, in the
Fife Avenue shopping centre and contributed to the National GDP by
keeping several generations of firemen gainfully employed!