Comfort food comes to Greenside’s Odd Café

Wicked white chocolate cheese cake, a baked bobotie pie, thick and spicy soups, heart warming curries with samp. These are just some of the delicious news twists that Odd Café have brought to the café’s soulful winter menu.

It’s that season just after Autumn and just before Spring when you pull out your woolies, warm blankets and hot water bottles. Although the weather’s a little chillier and somewhat bleaker, Greenside’s Odd Café will be warming people’s hearts and souls with a new winter menu that’s all about indulgent comfort food.

“Winter is a time to bring out the spices, boboties, samp, full rich chocolate and to create foods that do more than nourish but that add enjoyment to life,” says Christina Patricios, founder of Greenside’s Odd Café which has become a runaway success with foodies and fashionistas in Jozi.

“Our new menu includes a baked bobotie that is made from a wonderful old Cape recipe, so it packed with flavour and the most delicious aromatic spices, but of course because it is at Odd Café there is a tasty new twist. The difference is that our bobotie is baked in a pie with a crispy flaky pastry crust that you have to crack open before the wonderful aroma hits you,” says Patricios who adds that the bobotie pie is such a winner it is often sold out.

“There are a couple of thick, hearty soups which include a velvety beetroot borsch and a spicy butternut soup with watercress pesto. We also have a butternut, sweet potato and cherry tomato quiche that’s become a fast favourite,” she says. Patricios says that Odd Café’s success has been driven but sourcing the finest ingredients, creating tastes that linger and delivering on the detail. “It is about getting the small things right, but also about putting a beautiful dish in front of a customer that delivers deliciousness right through to the last bite. People come back here because they dream of our food, love our vibe and feel at home at our restaurant.”

What would winter be without decadent deserts, and Odd Café has added a range of new cakes, tarts and biscuits onto the menu that are truly sinful. “Winter’s a time to enjoy life a little more so we’ve brought out the rich chocolates, the butter, the sugar and fresh vanilla pods to whip up some wonderful sweet treats. People are dying for our white chocolate cheesecake which comes in individual servings and is very rich and velvety. We serve it with a berry coulis that cuts through the richness and refreshes the palate. We find that the tartness of the berry combines beautifully with the smooth, denseness of the white chocolate cheesecake,” says Patricios.

Odd Café’s winter menu will warm customers’ hearts and souls until the first warmth reappears in spring.

Performance Art @ Odd Cafe

“Physical Theatre…the performer must have the ability to be both sculptor and sculpture.  In short, our actor-creator must be an artist, and an artist creates.  While reflecting on everyday experiences our artist confronts universal themes.  Life.  Death. War.  Peace. Love. Lust. Poverty. Hunger. Injustice. Environmental issues.  In short, all of life’s transitions’ and social conflicts that reveal our innermost desires, fears and ideas about human condition and the world in which we live.”  – MARK BAUMAN

Celebrate the lunar eclipse at Odd Cafe when music, movement and expression collide. We’ll have 15 performance artists at the cafe on Wednesday 15 June (the day before Youth Day) from 18h00 to 21h00. Join us for an evening of fun, wonder and the most surreal view of the moon you’ll see in the longest time. Our wonderful winter menu will be on offer with baked bobotie (a delicious favourite); chicken curry with samp; flavourful soups and the most delicious winter sweet treats.

Can’t wait to see you all there!

Odd Café calls back the seventies

Glam rock, punk, disco fever and Motown will be brought back to life at Odd Café’s seventies party on Saturday 14 May 2011 from 18h00 to late.

It was a decade defined by the hippies, a hang over of the sixties, of “Saturday Night Fever”, Donna Summer, Boney M, Abba, and Elvis Presley’s “Burning Love”. It was also the decade the world lost Presley and Bing Crosby, but which saw the birth of fiber optics, microwaves and VCRs. Pocket calculators, video games and super computers were the next big thing.

Of course the decade is the seventies, or the ten years that author Tom Wolfe dubbed “the ‘Me’ decade”. It was a time when feminism became more pronounced and women entered the work force in Western countries in greater numbers, while environmentalism started moving from the fringes to the global centre stage.

Bellbottoms were big, as were espadrilles, halter necks, hot pants, love beads, patches and leather jackets with fringes. “The Brady Bunch” was a hit on television alongside “Charlie’s Angels”, “The Love Boat”, and “Three’s Company”.

“Star Wars” and that other cult called “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” were born. The science-fiction epic would become one of the biggest cinematic franchises in history, while Rocky Horror bombed on debut but became a cult classic.

Odd Café in Greenside will be celebrating the nostalgia of the seventies with a “Burn Baby Burn” party that will be held on Saturday 14 May 2011 from 18h00 to late at the café which is situated at 116 Greenway Street, Greenside in Johannesburg.

“It’s the beginning of winter, so what better way to warm up people’s spirits with a decadent seventies party filled with the sounds of Donna Summer, Barry White, the Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, The Clash, and yes.. believe it or not, Dolly Parton,” says Christina Patricios owner of Odd Café.

Patricios says the event will give people the opportunity to dress up in glam rock, or seventies punk. “There’s such a huge range of fashion choices because the seventies gave us minis, maxis and micro minis. Flared trousers and bell bottoms were huge, and not to mention pants suits. Then there’s the fact that nobody worth their salt was without platform shoes in the seventies.”

“The seventies were of course a golden age of music,” says Patricios. “This decade gave us the best of Motown, and music as diverse as John Denver, Barry Manilow, Aerosmith, The Eagles and the legendary Fleetwood Mac. Rock ‘n Roll was at its zenith with the likes of The Kinks, The Knack, MeatLoaf, Pink Floyd’s massive breakthrough. Bands like The Rolling Stones,Styx, Slade, Super Tramp and The Who were also in full stride.”

“Disco became massive thanks to John Travolta and ‘Saturday Night Fever’ which was a massive phenomenon. So we’ll be pulling our disco ball and telling everyone to put on their seventies mood ring and come on down to Greenside where we’ll be serving comfort food and gourmet munchies. We’ll also be handing out prizes for the best dressed, whether it be punk, hippie, a pimped out seventies look, Elvis look a likes or glam rock costumes. Basically we just want everyone to have a bit of nostalgic fun.”

70’s revival @ Odd Cafe

* Ready . Get out your seventies gear

* Set .Put on your platforms

* Go . Party at Odd Café

DATE : Saturday 14 May 2011

TIME: 18H00 to LATE

GO TO: Odd Café, 116 Greenway Street, Greenside, JHB 

RSVP on Facebook.

Come celebrate the 70’s at Odd Café’s disco inferno party which will be filled with decadence, paisley, afros, tequila, gourmet munchies, and the sound of nostalgia. Prizes for the best dressed!

Find Odd Café on Facebook.

Find Odd Café on Twitter.

Web: www.oddcafe.co.za

Phone: +27 11 486 3631

Email: Christina [at] oddcafe.co.za

“Pop Goes Your Culture”

Photographs by Derek Smith (Please credit Derek Smith for the use of all or any photos):

“Pop Goes Your Culture” – All art by Chad Farah
Dates:  On exhibition until Thursday 30 April 2011 at Odd CaféTime:  09h00 to 20h00 daily or until the café closes.Address:  Shop1, 116 Greenway Street, Greenside JohannesburgPhone:  011 486 3631

Pop Culture Art show on till end April 2011

From the Beatles to John Lennon, Lady Gaga to Elvis Pressley, Madonna and the Looney Tunes, celebrity and popular culture is becoming an integral part of society and life. Up and coming artist Chad Farah’s visual expression of how humanity lauds cultural icons is premiering at Odd Café in Greenside, Johannesburg and will be on show to the public until the end of April 2011.
“Who can say their life hasn’t been touched in some or other way by a celebrity or icon?” says Farah, who is 22 years old and holding down a day job while trying to establish himself as an artist. “What I have explored in my show is the construction of popular culture and the types of images that are so pervasive in our lives, media and consciousness.”

Farah says people won’t come to the show and find deep hidden meanings in his art. “What you see is very much what you get, and the art speaks more to the depth of this celebrity culture and how it doesn’t have significant or deeper meaning.”

The emerging artist’s style has been described as fresh, contemporary and modern. Farah uses oils and water colours and has pioneered what he feels is a distinctive style for his work. “All my art contains a drip effect which is deliberate and planned. This first showing also pioneers a new medium that I believe is a breakthrough and which I haven’t seen used in local art before. All I can say is that people can look forward to seeing something that is edgy, new and unconventional.”

Christina Patricios, owner of Odd Café says that she relishes taking a risk in launching Farah’s work. “Johannesburg needs to celebrate its young artists and to offer them venues to take their craft to the city.” Patricios says that Odd Café was all about championing local art.

“I believe we need to take chances on unknown entities in order to create a vibrant Jozi art scene and to broaden the city’s palate and appreciation for art. There are so many talented young people who don’t get the opportunity to show the world who they are and to express themselves through their craft to a wider audience. At Odd Café we want to change that and to make a space where emerging artists feel supported, and nurtured and promoted. That they have a place that gives them an opportunity to take their art to the city.”

Odd Café is creating a name for itself by showcasing a wide array of local art. The gourmet café, come art house, come meeting place for city people has already had a graffiti exhibition and showcased a Superstroke art exhibition.

“Odd Café is all about the unexpected. When it comes to food we do comfort with a surprise or a little twist and the same goes with the art that we exhibit. We believe that complacency and mediocrity kill experience and we’re all about creating a feast of news and bold experiences that make people hungry for life.”

“Pop goes your culture” By Chad Farah
Dates: On exhibition until Thursday 30 April 2011 at Odd Café
Time: 09h00 to 20h00 daily or until the café closes.
Address: Shop1, 116 Greenway Street, Greenside Johannesburg
Phone: 011 486 3631

ART SHOW :: “Pop Goes Your Culture!”

Marilyn Monroe. Jesus Christ. The Beatles. Lady Ga Ga. Elvis Presley. Looney Tunes. Madonna. John Lennon.

Who can say that their life hasn’t been touched in some way or another by one or more of these icons? Now there’s an opportunity to look at life’s legends anew at an innovative art show to be held at Odd Café on 12 March 2011 when the eclectic Greenside café launches emerging artist Chad Farah in what will be his first show.

Farah’s style is fresh, contemporary and modern and he uses oils and water colours to create bold statements with a distinctive style. “All my art work contains a drip effect which is deliberate and planned. I will also be showcasing a new medium that I believe will be a breakthrough and which I haven’t seen used before. Look out for something edgy and unconventional.”

Christina Patricios, owner of Odd Café, invites you to join her for the launch of Chad Farah’s first art show at Odd Café for “Pop goes our culture” a vibrant art show that will mirror the idols of modern culture.

Date: Saturday 12 March 2011

Time: 09h00 to 22h00 or until the café closes.

Address: Shop1, 116 Greenway Street, Greenside Johannesburg

Phone: 011 486 3631

Entertainment will include live music, a fire dancer and mobile vendor with cigars and other exotic items.

To celebrate Chad Farah’s debut as an artist Odd Café will be serving street food including fresh oysters and chili vodka shooters, sardines wrapped in vine leaves grilled on the open fire, braaimielies grilled on the fire with spicy paprika and butter basting, as well as chicken and lamb sousaties on French baguette. There will also be a bazaar table with sweets – koeksusters, trifle and mini milk tarts.

Odd Café declares love on Valentines Day

Valentine’s Day may be banned in the Russian city of Belgorod, but back home in South Africa a passionate celebration is definitely on the cards at Odd Café. Fast becoming a favourite for Jo’burgers who embrace café culture, Odd Café’s delicious food, eclectic décor and vibrant art shows is making people fall in love with Greenside all over again.

Odd Café has declared February the month of love and are inviting the passionate people of Jozi to bring in their declarations of love which will be displayed in the restaurant. The best love letter for the month of February will winner a romantic dinner for two at Odd Café.

“In the email and Twitter generation we’d like people to pick up a pen and paper and take the time to write a letter to someone they love,” says Christina Patricios, the owner of Odd Café. “After all if it wasn’t for the English author, philosopher and poet Geoffrey Chaucer we wouldn’t even be celebrating this special day of love.”

Anyone who’s ever studied English at school or University will know that the father of literature is famous for his work The Canterbury Tales. What few people know is that Chaucer is the person to thank for turning the commemoration of a Christian martyr called Valentine into a day when people can celebrate their love for each other with letters, gifts and anonymous notes.

“We want to celebrate the poetic and romantic beginnings of Valentines Day by getting people to call on cupid as a muse and to declare their love for people who mean much,” says Patricios. To participate in the declaration of love all people have to do is to bring their love letter to Odd Café at Shop 1, 116 Greenway Street in Greenside, Johannesburg.

Odd Café will put on a Valentine’s Feast on Saturday the 12th of February 2011 just ahead of Valentine’s Day which this year falls on a Monday. “What a disappointment that Valentine’s Day is on a Monday this year, which means that it is back to work for everyone on cupid’s special day. But we’re having a bumper Saturday with music, street art and our very own cupid who will wander through the main street in Greenside with tasty morsels and surprising treats.”

New additions to Odd Café’s absolutely mouth-watering menu include:

– Home made gnocchi (which contrary to popular belief isn’t pronounced ga-knock-ki but noh-kee). The softest potato dumplings will be served with a choice of different sauces. These sauces are the classic pesto, gorgonzola and pear, and lemon and sage.

– Carpaccio – the thinnest slices of the best beef fillet drizzled with the finest olive oil and topped with parmesan cheese, greens, and cracked black pepper.

The day wouldn’t be complete without the gourmet burgers that locals are head over heals about. “Our gourmet burgers are the best in town, in fact we’re so fiercely jealous of our reputation for serving the most delicious hamburgers that we’re willing to eat our words if anyone finds a better hamburger in Greenside.”

So come on down to Odd Café this Saturday and put that to the test and while you’re at it bring a love letter to pin to the wall so everyone in Greenside will know who you adore.

Odd Café reinvents interior design

Playful use of culture, adaptive re-use, recycling and the championing of local art creates an intriguing and definitive look for Odd Café that gets people talking and puts Greenside’s newest eatery come art house come café on the map.

Walk in

Old meets new and is reborn at Odd Café in Greenside where green, recycled and adaptive reuse were the watchwords of the art restaurant’s décor. “Adaptive reuse puts a refreshing new tone on today’s design,” says Christina Patricios, founder of Odd Café that is situated in Greenside Johannesburg. “From Newtown to Braamfontein what we are seeing is that instead of bashing old buildings down, they are being reused, refreshed and adapted for modern use. Adaptive reuse is all about respecting and working with the old, but changing it in ways so that it is right for modern living.”

Odd Café is fast becoming a favourite on South Africa’s cultural and foodie map because of its imaginative décor and because the Greenside café promotes emerging local art forms and artists. It’s also finding favour because it appeals to environmentally conscious consumers. “At Odd Café we were very careful about not just taking the easy route and getting in new shop fittings and furniture. I’ve always been fond of earthy things, wood, old things and combining old and new. In the café we use old milk pails, old tea cups and I find it is important to bring these elements into an environment where they will be used instead of sitting on shelves, collecting dust.”

Another area of reinvention for Patricios was the quirky use of decoupage on Odd Café’s tables. “Decoupage has a very old fashioned connotation, but instead of using the classic style we got fun comics and used this in our decoupage which lends a funky, humorous and quirky look into the café.” Another talking point at Odd Café is a big, red telephone booth waiting for Clarke Kent types to re-imagine themselves. “The telephone booth speaks to our brand and is reminiscent of Lady Gaga and her ability for reinvention. It’s whacky and out there and that speaks to who we are as a brand,” says Patricios.

Lighten up

A split level café walking down the stairs there’s a balustrade that screams Bez Valley chic. “What we did for the balustrade was to trawl Bez Valley until we found these garden gates that dated back to the sixties that we absolutely loved. It brings good old Jozi culture right into the heart of our café.”

Odd Café’s shelving has been created with old industrial pallets that have been erected with chains, and the café’s bulk heads were all reclaimed wood that had been gotten from scrap yards and repurposed. “Even the parquet flooring was second hand and came from an old shop. We just found it, collected it and then repurposed it so that it could live again.”

An eatery come art house that promises to show people how to live a delicious life, Odd Café is all about tasting new flavours while remembering soul food that makes you feel good. “Its about coming into a place and feeling yourself again, about savouring the flavours and smells of home but at the same time discovering gorgeous new art, design and music. We wanted Odd Café to be a place where people could bring old friends and discover new ones and experience all the deliciousness that life has to offer.”

Other décor features at Odd Café is a bench made out of recycled paper that can be moulded into six different styles, and chairs that are over fifty years old and have been freshened up with bold new colours. The outside of the café is studded with coloured potted herbs that are used for cooking and garnishing, and which lend colour the pavement.

Chill @ Odd Cafe

Then when you move inside there’s graffiti and a wall that has an inventive language chiselled into it. This is what Odd Café calls ‘Odda Tala’ or the odd language that is spoken in the café. “People love this and they say that it inspires them and motivates them because together with the décor it sparks new ideas. People see it very much as a place with a creative buzz.”

Greenside’s massive graffiti

Close up of graffiti detail

People moving through Greenside can’t help but noticed a massive piece of graffiti situated just above Shop 1 on 116 Greenway Street in that suburb famous for its side walk cafes, gourmet eating spots and creative retailers. The piece of street art which is causing people to stop and stare includes the messages “be yourself”; “life’s delicious” and “be different.” The graffiti stretches over a building and is some three stories tall.

 

“The age old question when it comes to graffiti goes something like is it vandalism or is it art?” asks Christina Patricios, founder of Odd Café. “This debate has raged in societies since graffiti became a permanent feature of our world and part of our popular culture. At Odd Café we believe that most graffiti is art. Obviously some defacing of public spaces isn’t wanted, but intentional street art that seeks to inspire, inform, entertain or make a social statement is completely different. That’s art that enriches us all.”

Patricios alludes to the likes of graffiti greats such as Banksy. “A huge amount of people revere Banksy’s work which has become famous because of the political and social statements he makes with his work, but what few people know is that he was born in Bristol and was part of the underground scene. His work was inspired by the British government’s approach to graffiti. In the nineties the UK government very much saw graffiti as vandalism, and mainstream society didn’t have an appreciation for street art.”

Odd Cafe's graffiti investment

Banksy started out as a free hand street artist but then graduated to doing stencil work, very much in the style pioneered by Frenchman Blek le Rat. Today Banksy’s art is sold by the likes of Christie’s of New York with pieces like “Fuck the police” fetching $229,000; “In the Event of a Divorce Cut Here” fetching $146,500 and the very well known “Love is in the air” realizing $46,850.

Odd Café is contributing to the growth and recognition of this art form locally and has invested in the three story high mural done by respected and emerging local graffiti artists. “We love design and art forms that intersect with popular culture and invested a considerable amount of money in creating a mural that covers the building Odd Café is housed in. We believe this will inject local culture into Greenside and could help people become more appreciative of graffiti as an art form,” says Patricios. “Just as Newtown is being beautified by street art we wanted to bring colour, debate and visual entertainment to Greenside.”

The three story high artwork was created by Mars and the DS Crew and took about four days to complete using some 100 cans of spray paint. “The brief was wide open which we appreciated because we find work that is wedded to branding or business overly confining and this can clash with the street art mandate, so it was important to us that we had huge freedom when doing this work,” says Mars.

Mars working on his art

“The building now sports cartoon characters, real characters and graffiti lettering which we mixed and mashed up to make it funky in keeping with Odd Café. We used purples, yellows, greens, flesh tones. When we were finished we had emptied about 100 cans of spray paint.”

Mars entered the world of graffiti when he was thirteen after seeing pictures of graffiti in an American hip hop culture magazine. “I practiced drawing some of the pictures on paper and before long my friend and I were out there painting pictures under bridges. I think I started a lot earlier than most people do,” says Mars.

What has driven Mars to mature as a graffiti artist is building a reputation. “You choose a name and try to make that name as big as you can. In the beginning that’s what it is all about. But as you mature you begin to compete with yourself and it’s all about becoming a better artist and pushing yourself further in terms of creating a legacy.”

The building featuring Greenside’s largest work of graffiti can be seen at 116 Greenway Street in Greenside Johannesburg, which is also home to Odd Café.