Cape Townians need to watch out! The Belly of the Beast restaurant will soon be opening in the heart of Cape Town CBD. Founded by Neil Swart and Anouchka Horn, owners of Arugula Bistro, this little gem will offer a unique dining experience to its customers.

Swart and Horn have been working exceedingly hard to expand Arugula Bistro beyond what it possibly could become and decided to open a new restaurant with a different dynamic concept in Cape Town. Their vision is a restaurant which can  seat only 20 guests per serving. Their idea is to create a food and wine experience that will include a set menu.

They would like to offer their customers a personal experience as they’ll be serving the food and pouring the wine themselves.

The concept

All the dishes will be made daily using only the best and most fresh local ingredients. They want to offer guests the same feeling they would get dining at home or at a friend’s house. They will not just be serving food, but telling stories and personally interacting with the guests.

Swart and Horn love food and people and want to combine the two. The restaurant will have no menus and the courses will range between five and eight depending on the fresh produce available on the day. The menu is expected to change on a daily basis as the eatery will run on a nose-to-tail principle. Swart and Horn don’t believe in wasting food, hence every part of the animal will be used. They will also use vegetables and herbs from their garden.

The reason for expanding

Arugula Bistro has been established as a family oriented restaurant that does phenomenal pork belly, burgers, fish and chips and more. For the past five years, Swart and Horn have had the best time satisfying their recurring customers, but they are looking for a new opportunity to showcase their finer cooking talents to a broader audience.

Seeing that Swart and Horn are passionate about paring two things that they love, food and wine. This new venture will offer them a permanent platform where they can be creative and experiment with flavours on a daily basis.

Making it happen

In order to bring this vision to life, Swart and Horn have turned to crowdfunding. They launched their crowdfunding campaign on Thundafund.com this month and are looking to raise R300 000 by the end of September. With this money, they will be able to open their unique new restaurant. As Thundafund.com is a rewards-based crowdfunding platform, Swart and Horn have offered some really exciting rewards in exchange for their donations.

Some of the rewards include pre-sold tickets to their new restaurant as well as an unplugged Fokofpolisiekar concert to be held on October 3. The team is aiming to have their doors open in November/December this year. To help Swart and Horn reach their goal visit their Thundafund campaign!