The square is spotlessly swept, there is a warm breeze and the gentle hum of a city kept at bay, and the salmon bowl is delicious. So too was the Lebanese-style meze platter we feasted on for starters.
Daydreaming because this is the city we keep reading about, the fearsome, on the verge of destruction 'capital of Joburg'. This is not usually a place for salmon, or the zucchini fritti we started with, the tabouleh and the Lebanese meze platter. They have all long swum upstream to the new business districts of Rosebank and Sandton, along with much of the city’s corporate denizens, who have left their once shiny headquarters for more sanitised neighbourhoods.
“People always used to say to me, you know, you should do this for a living. You're a really great cook. You've got a knack, and a real intuition for food and flavour and presentation and all that. So I went to culinary school as a 51-year-old. And I was the only cook over 25 in the class."
“Food is love” is the tagline of Sadie’s Bistro, and you can taste it in every bite. The café is a
warm heart on the city's Main Street Mining Walk, the walkable and well-maintained thoroughfare that leads from the western side of the city to its centre at Gandhi Square.
Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.
Situated on Main Street at what some people may recall as City Perk (or if you have a longer memory Nino’s, with its signature green and white canopy and coffee on a conveyor belt, prior to 2010), the café was bought by former Ogilvy ad man Julian Ribeiro. It was opened at the start of July (2024). For Ribeiro, the maxim and the place is a tribute to and a representation of the authentic story of his beloved grandmother, the gracious host that was Sadie Ribeiro (née Naddaf).
“Food… it’s my culture,” says Ribeiro. “My grandfather was Portuguese. My grandmother was Lebanese. We are proudly South African. But that's our roots. We grew up with my gran, always cooking. People always came to visit: lonely people, family, friends, even priests used to come. They always felt like you could go to Sadie's house any time. And she was always cooking. She had eight kids. And her sister lived down the road. She had seven kids. So there were just cousins everywhere. Uncles, aunts, it was that beautiful. Just happy memories. I call them the 'wonder years'. Then my mom learnt to become an amazing Lebanese chef and cook Italian food, and she did catering. And again, my parents' home was also like that. People just came there and felt at home. We always loved the food and the hospitality and the warmth and the love. And my wife and I did the same.”
It became a thing. “Jules... when are we getting together? Can't we just come to your place? Because your food is so good and you've got a lovely home. So I thought about a B&B where I could cook.”
"Ribeiro is a believer, he is also someone with a deep reverence of heritage, so the idea of having a restaurant along the city's most refined thoroughfare, one that is steeped in mining history and ties itself so intimately to the story of Johannesburg, was something he was set on."
Ribeiro spent 27 years as an advertising executive (he was formerly MD of ad giant Ogilvy). In that time he garnered many accolades for his work, including working on Nando’s signature cheeky campaigns when that kind of attitude could get your advert banned, and it did. “I loved my advertising career. I didn't leave because I was unhappy. I'd worked on every brand I could ever have wished for. I worked at every agency I could ever wish to… I just loved my food more.”
He says he has spent longer being a talented home chef than scaling the heights of South Africa’s ad industry, and decided he needed a change.
“People always used to say to me, you should do this for a living. You're a really great cook. You've got a knack, and a real intuition for food and flavour and presentation and all that. So I went to culinary school as a 51-year-old. And I was the only cook over 25 in the class."
Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.
He enrolled in Capsicum culinary school, and in 2022 graduated as a professional chef. A supremely warm and welcoming host, he shares with excitement that he had the luckiest of opportunities post-chef school, to get a chance to do practical training at one of South Africa's top fine-dining restaurants, the Test Kitchen in Cape Town under Chef Luke Dale-Roberts. For any South African chef, that kind of experience is a badge of honour.
So what's he doing in the city? Ribeiro is a believer, he is also someone with a deep reverence of heritage, so the idea of having a restaurant along the city's most refined thoroughfare, one that is steeped in mining history and ties itself so intimately to the story of Johannesburg, was something he was set on.
Sadie’s with its black and white canopies and counter open to the street beckons. The menu is large, and wide-ranging, and the dish options range from bistro food, comforting classics like breakfast Benedicts, omelettes, tramezzini (some of the dishes hark back to Nino’s, ensuring regulars aren’t thrown by any sudden changes) to signature dishes that include butter chicken curry, Lebanese meze, and even home-made churros. You get to take a trip around the world from Main Street.
This is elevated cuisine, memorable dishes that smack of comfort. This is a daytime spot, but also open for booking as a special venue. Sadie’s Bistro has a wine list along with serving spirits and liqueurs. There’s also pot still brandy, and a range of signature cocktails. And if those don’t strike your fancy, Sadie’s mixologists are keen to create something especially for you.
After lunch, we take a short walk in the square to what used to be the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange building. The share board is frozen in time from December 7, 1978. In some ways, the city has also been frozen in time in this part of town. The architecture is majestic, with trees gracing the open walkways. It’s a breath of fresh air in a busy city, and Sadie’s Bistro seems to give a hint that the city, with the strength of its people, stories and colourful heritage, has the chance at a wholesome new chapter.
For details on when to visit, go to Sadie's Bistro.
Comments