Celebrating the Jam’s 20th in 2019, where everyone dressed as Greg…except Greg
I remember the first time I went to Banana Jam Café. It was 2011 and we were broke – a freelance writer and a Master’s student saving for a wedding. We used to walk straight past the bright yellow façade of the Kenilworth-based Caribbean restaurant to drink pints of Castle Lager for R12.50 in Hobnobs, the sports pub next door. Then one day we spotted a sign outside Banana Jam advertising free craft beer tastings.
We had recently moved to Cape Town and craft beer here was brand new. There were fewer than 30 breweries around the country, most of them out-of-the-way brewpubs that didn’t distribute. Somehow we seemed to have stumbled upon the only restaurant in the country championing craft beer.
Banana Jam’s owner, Greg Casey, had taken fallen in love with craft beer on a trip up the West Coast of the USA the year before, and decided he wanted to bring it into the restaurant that he started in 1999 with his partner in business and life, Shannon McGovern. Of course, there wasn’t much available then, but he did manage to get the second tap JB ever installed in Cape Town. (Ten points if you can guess where the first one was… Here’s a clue: it’s pink and found near the Labia…)
My second home
Over the years, that single craft tap became eight, then 16 and now the Jam has 30 taps, most of which pour beers from the in-house brewery Afro Caribbean. In a country where most taps are owned by breweries rather than bar owners, Banana Jam became one of the first to invest in their own lines, offering a carefully curated range of local and international beers and of course attracting a slowly increasing number of beer enthusiasts.
It’s difficult to put into a single post the importance that Banana Jam has played in South Africa’s craft beer scene. They were the first to offer a carefully thought-out beer menu; the first to celebrate things like IPA Day and International Beer Day. It’s a restaurant run by an avid beer lover, where the lines and glassware are (almost) always spotless and the beer selection is impeccable. It is the de facto home of the Southyeasters Homebrewers Club, and the first place I take visiting beer lovers from other countries.
It is even more difficult for me to put into words my personal relationship with the Jam. It was the first place I ventured to a as neurotic new mom, clutching the pram handle as though it was the safety bar on a rollercoaster. It was the place I chose to celebrate my 40th birthday – and several before and since. It’s the place I first met many of my closest Capetonian friends. It’s the first place we ever took our now eleven-year-old son, and the place he always chooses when he’s given the chance to pick any restaurant he wants. Of course, he’s not keen on beer yet, but he loves the food, the milkshakes and the fact that the staff all dote on him. He slurps on virgin daiquiris, wolfs down vast amounts of honey rum wings and Cuban flatbread, and joins in the banter as the table fills up.
Beer for me, milkshake for him. Our Mummy/Son date night venue, always
A milestone celebration
The Jam is the heart of Cape Town’s craft beer community; the sort of place you can pop in for a beer by yourself and have to rearrange the restaurant and move tables three times to accommodate the expanding number of familiar faces who likewise popped in to see what’s new on tap.
Of course, it wasn’t always a beer place. When the restaurant launched two-and-a-half decades ago, it was the cocktails that put it on the map, with the legendary happy hour proving so popular people would stand in the car park to drink their cocktails because there wasn’t enough space inside. But these days it’s just as popular with IPA-hunters as it is with those wanting a frozen piña colada.
Over the years I’ve celebrated many milestones here – the Pastafarian “noodlage” of my son (like a pirate themed Christening for followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster), the launch of my second book, Beer Safari, the very first homebrew batch I ever made, and more birthdays than I can remember (possibly due to the aforementioned IPAs).
This Sunday (24 November) I’ll be there celebrating a truly impressive milestone not of mine, but of the Jam’s: 25 years in business. We’ve all read the stats on the number of restaurants that close in the first year or two. To make it to 25 is a real testament to Greg and Shannon and their epic team and I for one will be raising a glass or four to the whole crew this Sunday. I hope to see you all there to celebrate with them.
Oh, and it was the Mount Nelson. The first place to get Jack Black on tap was the Mount Nelson…pink and close to the Labia. My favourite Capetonian joke.
A version of this article first appeared on the Flagship February website.
