Sunsets, mermaids and ‘Durbanism’ crest the Umhlanga wave

If you were to count them, I’d wager that the number of eateries at Umhlanga — inside the malls, along the streets, strips and terraces, butting the beachfront promenade, at the hotels, time-shares and in the office blocks and complexes, on the ridge and in the village — would add up to not having to eat more than once at any of them in a given year. Thinking of the relentless growth, development and extensions going on, maybe make that two years.

So why is it that the last four times I’ve gone to Umhlanga to meet my retired food writer friend, Anne Stevens, for lunch, we’ve gone to the same place? While Anne chooses to no longer write about restaurants, she has anything but retired from keeping on top of who’s doing what in the food zoo in her home town, which for many years has been Umhlanga.

“Isn’t there something new, small, independent, great food, good vibe?” I asked a couple of weeks ago, same as the previous time we were meeting. But as before, no luck. Or good luck, looking at it glass half-full.

Because once again, it was Sunsets & Mermaids. To select from the menu of fabled Durban chef, a long-time favourite of many, Brendon Newport, who seems to have a knack for coming up with compelling concepts and innovative dishes, while at the same time forging collaborating with just the right out-the-box creative partners. What emanates being unerringly suited to the times, the neighbourhood, the prevailing milieu.

Remember Bean Bag Bohemia? The location in Greyville from back in the day has been under renovation seemingly forever. Right next door to Zai Restaurant (Argentinian grill-house, cocktails) in lower Morningside, which — serendipitously? —  attracts the crowds and jams the street just like Bean Bag used to do.

Bean Bag is long gone. But if you were in Durbs between 1995 and 2007, the memory most likely lives on. I was living in California but still, it is indelibly stamped from late-night drop-ins during trips back. A quickie Google and a lot jumps up online. A few words about Bean Bag from a 2007 story by veteran KZN investigative journalist, Fred Kockott: “…a legendary hub for the city’s creative talents, an institution of sorts. Its meals, music and manifesto — “being uninhibited, unbuttoned, creative and free” — (have made it) a regular drawcard for visitors and locals alike.”

Also, from back then, these words from Carol Brown, art curator and a former director of the Durban Art Gallery: “Durban’s Bean Bag Bohemia café, bar and art gallery has become one of the city’s iconic venues, bringing artists, poets, musicians, models and wannabes to their doors. Chef Brendan Newport has turned eating into an art form with creative and exciting food.”

On to the present. A week after my lunch with Anne, I head back to talk with Newport about his newest — might I say off-the-wall? — gem in Umhlanga’s little village strip. It is a summer heatwave day. A redemptive sea breeze funnels between the Beverly Hills, with its relaxed ocean-viewing veranda, and the Oyster Box, where one takes visitors to Durban to see the hotel’s over-the-top style and awesome art collection.

While walking from my car it strikes me that Umhlanga, what Wikipedia calls a residential, commercial and resort town, probably has something for everyone. If less for those of us who don’t like to pretend we’re in Dubai, what with the high-rise skyscraping towers and new Oceans Mall featuring Gucci, Armani, Versace and the like.

Or those in the minority, it would seem, who avoid the “English pub” vibe of The (hugely popular) George. And those of us who value the existence of, but aren’t drawn to, the wall-to-wall, low-rise village stretch of chain restaurants with outdoor seating across from Sunsets & Mermaids. And yes, for expediency I will shorten this to S&M. So bind me and flog me.

The summer menu

From the summer menu, Newport has seared sesame-crusted AAA-grade tuna waiting. It is a dish with a history, developed by one of Newport’s long-time culinary collaborators, Marcelle Roberts. The pair, who consulted as a two-person dream team during Covid, graduated at the same time from the late Christina Martin’s famed and acclaimed eponymous Durban culinary school. Roberts had the tuna dish on the menu at Café 1999, for years one of Durban’s top independent restaurants before Covid shuttered it. (Café Monroe is in the spot now, making Durbanites happy.)

Thinking about it, when Anne and I meet at S&M, it is for the food. The quality of it. The creativity. The flavour. To eat things one hasn’t tried before and wouldn’t make at home, or why bother going out? It goes without saying that first and foremost we are there to get together. To hang out. To catch up. It is choosing a place that is conducive. Otherwise one may as well Zoom or WhatsApp.

In a sense it seems odd that we keep getting pulled back to an upscale tiki-bar, which wakes up at sunset and comes truly alive as the evening wears on.

Newport grew up surfing at South Beach. He talks a lot about “Durbanism”, which he interprets as urban enlightenment and interconnection. “It represents artisanal, communal creativity and entrepreneurship.” The interconnectedness of Durban and Umhlanga, too. Surf Riders Café, now Chef Sam Small-Shaw’s great spot at Addington Beach, was one of his post-Bean Bag ventures. Go there. Ask about Chef Sam’s raved-about speciality menu. Try her Durban-style orange crab curry or her whole roasted wood-fired fish, with or without prawns. Know the prep-time is one hour and 20 minutes so be prepared for the (worthwhile) wait.

“I had glorious, magnificent, over-the-top ideas when we opened Surf Riders,” Newport laughs, warming up to memories. Through a friend who was importing, he “ordered 15 Maine lobsters”. (Mammoth, huge clawed, from North America’s Atlantic coast.) “When they arrived, to cover costs, we realised we would have to sell them at R3,500 each. So had to upsell, yes. But also, back then (around 2010), we were drawing people from Ballito and Umhlanga. Getting a lot of support.”

Given that Anne and I are both Durbs women who love the beach, maybe part of the S&M attraction is the framed photos that line the walls depicting Durban beachfront’s surf identity. The history of the city’s surf culture. Images from the fifties to the mid eighties, many of which were previously at a (now closed) surf museum at North Beach.

Newport tells me a board on the wall near the mermaid bar, signed by iconic Durban surfboard shaper Spider Murphy, was Durban-born 1977 world surfing champ Shaun Tomson’s “pipeline” board ridden in the 2008 documentary, Bustin’ Down The Door, featuring Tomson, narrated by Edward Norton.

The documentary chronicles the inception of professional surfing in the early 1970s. Here is a link to the movie’s