LocalPlaces

We can never get enough of sharing the stories and places of Johannesburg on our LocalPlaces tours - and especially so inner-city spaces. Last week Charlie Moyo hosted many international travellers on such tours.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Joburg's modern history is simply astonishing. A city of migrants built overnight when gold was discovered in 1886. And rebuilt up to 7 times since! The city's history can clearly be traced through its various stock exchange buildings, with the JSE having moved 5 times since the 1880s.

Our new series of LocalPlaces Joburg Storytelling Lunches will be hosted in the building that once was the home to the third stock exchange. Here Sadie's Bistro overlooks the tree-lined Hollard & Main Streets - beautiful, pedestrianized city streets.

Be sure to book for our next Sunday Storytelling Lunch on 29 September. Find more info here: https://www.localplaces.co.za/joburg-storytelling-dinners/

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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We are delighted with the support our LocalPlaces Cape Town Storytelling Dinners have received from Capetonians and travelers alike. We had a bumper August and September is fast filling up. Hosted at the bespoke Sibling Kitchen Studio in the Bo-Kaap this is simply a night of delectable food and mesmerizing historic storytelling that must be experienced.

We usually host public storytelling dinners (Part 1: Ancient times to 1902) on Thursday evenings and Part 2: 1902-2024) on Wednesday evenings. BUT THIS SATURDAY 7 September, we have a special extra Part 1 public dinner with a few seats still available.

Join us for sure.

PART 1 – Saturday 7 September: SPECIAL SATURDAY DINNER: AVAILABILITY.

PART 2 – Wednesday 11 September: AVAILABILITY.

PART 1 – Thursday 12 September: 4 SEATS AVAILABLE

PART 2 – Wednesday 18 September: 12 SEATS AVAILABLE.

PART 1 -Thursday 19 September: 6 SEATS AVAILABLE.

PART 2 – Wednesday 25 September: AVAILABILITY.

PART 1 – Thursday 26 September: 11 SEATS AVAILABLE.

PART 2 – Wednesday 2 October: AVAILABILITY.

PART 1 – Thursday 3 October: SOLD OUT.

We can also host private storytelling dinner bookings on all other nights.

Find more info here: https://www.localplaces.co.za/cape-town-storytelling-dinners/

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Did you know that Chapman’s Peak is named after the pilot of a British ship, the Consent, that anchored in Hout Bay in 1607? Yes, a lot happened in the Cape long before 1652! I always imagine that the crew was aiming to turn at Cape Point on their way to the East, but turned too quickly when they saw the Sentinel, confusing it with the Cape of Good Hope. No wonder the ship captain told his pilot, John Chapman, to row to the shore and collect fresh water!

Learn much more about the fascinating, contested, complex and inspiring history of Cape Town and South Africa at a LocalPlaces Storytelling Dinner, hosted at Sibling in the Bo-Kaap.

Public Part 1 Storytelling Dinners on Thursday nights (covering ancient times till 1902).

Public Part 2 Storytelling Dinners on Wednesday nights (covering 1902-2024).

Private group dinners of 10 or more guests can be booked for any other night.

LocalPlaces Johannesburg Storytelling Lunches are back!

We are delighted to announce that LocalPlaces has partnered with Sadie’s Bistro to host Johannesburg storytelling lunches on the last Sunday of each month (as of September). Sadie’s is a beautiful restaurant on the corner of the tree-lined and pedestrianized Hollard & Main streets in historic Marshalltown. An apt location to listen to Charlie Moyo recounting the tumultuous past of the City of Gold.

Charlie traces Johannesburg in its 7-phases of development, looking back to ancient times before delving into the 1886 goldrush and the resultant Victorian mining town. He swiftly moves on to the Edwardian British Colonial Empire City, the Art-Deco New York of Africa and the Modernist-Brutalist Apartheid City. Then the cliff-hanger of the struggle against Apartheid, sanctions and urban decline, but on to democracy and the construction of a fifth, new city in the north. Ending with the attempts since to regenerate the ‘old’ city and how the City of Migrants could become the African city of the future

It is a mesmerizing, surprising and utterly inspiring story. Best enjoyed over a delectable but casual lunch and drinks with friends or family.

Space is limited to a maximum of 30 guests for each lunch. Be sure to book straight away if you want to secure your seats.

Tonight I have a question. In September we are starting Part 2 of our LocalPlaces Cape Town Storytelling Dinners, hosted at the bespoke Sibling kitchen studio in the Bo-Kaap. While Part 1 is also continuing. Part 2 is focusing on recent history, 1902-2024.

This means I am reconsidering the story I am telling. Adding details to my established script. What in your opinion is the most pivital moment in South African history during the 20th and 21st centuries, that relates to Cape Town?

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Legendary LocalPlaces Storytelling Lunches are returning to Johannesburg. Hosted at Sadie's Bistro, overlooking historic Main & Hollard Streets in Marshalltown. An extraordinary indoor/outdoor bistro under the trees, in the city.

Hosted on the last Sunday of every month, as of 29 September. Join us for an extraordinary lunch, combined with captivating storytelling by Charlie Moyo on the 7-Phases of Johannesburg’s history and development.

Find more information here: https://www.localplaces.co.za/joburg-storytelling-dinners/

What a lovely message from a guest who attended our Thursday LocalPlaces Cape Town Storytelling Dinner at Sibling in the Bo-Kaap.

"Gerald just wanted to say on behalf of us three that we had the most fabulous and interesting evening on Thursday. The combination of the food, the venue and of course your very entertaining and fascinating talk was delivered perfectly in balance with fact but also great humour. Congratulations. We also made lovely new friends who we are planning to meet for Part 2 in the coming months. Perhaps Wednesday 16 October?"

One of the best places to stay in Jozi.

Thank you, Siya, for this outstanding review of AtholPlace Hotel & Villa. We're so glad you enjoyed all our luxuries – big and small – during your stay.

We have completed the first month of LocalPlaces storytelling dinners at Sibling in the Bo-Kaap already. What a wonderful privilege to host four dinners so far, meeting incredible people, sharing exceptional South African food and telling the history of Cape Town and South Africa along the way. Thank you to everyone who has joined us so far.

On Friday we hosted an international tour group for a private dinner. They had been travelling through South Africa for three weeks already. They proclaimed Chef Louw Kotze’s food the best they had in their entire time in this country!

It really is a meal to cherish. Starting off with a hearty, creamy roasted tomato and red pepper soup, with coconut cream. Then, to pay homage to the Bo-Kaap, guests devour Cape Malay-style vegetable samoosas and dultjies (chilli bites) sourced from a famous community establishment.

The main course is served homecooked style, in the middle of the table as a delicious feast. Guests, after all, genuinely get to eat in the home of Louw and Lou! The food is casual but exquisite. encompassing slow-cooked Namaqualand lamb, stewed with onions, red wine vinegar, coriander seeds, salt and pepper. The purest, simplest and most delicious meat! As well as a melt-in-the-mouth white bean and chickpea curry, topped with roasted cauliflower. Add to that fragrant white rice, crispy green beans with tomato smoor, and the showstopper, roasted, honey-glazed pumpkin.

However, it is the malva pudding of which guests cannot get enough. The creamiest malva pudding I have ever tasted! As stunning is the raw dark chocolate cake. Goodness, it is a meal that will make you long for Sunday feasts with family and friends. Reassuring comfort food, prepared to the highest culinary standards!

A great bonus of dining at Sibling is that it does not have a liquor license, and guests can therefore bring their own wine along. A perfect excuse to enjoy some of best, premium Cape wines with your meal, without paying a fortune on site!

The storytelling is presented by Gerald Garner, the Cape Town-based raconteur and guide of LocalPlaces. The storytelling is intense and detailed and leave you astonished by the complex, contested, controversial and fascinating history of Cape Town. It will make you understand this city and country so much better.
LocalPlaces Cape Town Storytelling dinners are split into two parts. Part 1 is presented on Thursday nights and covers the history of the city from ancient times till 1902. Part 2 storytelling dinners, focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries (1902-2024) will start on Wednesday nights as of 11 September – and be complemented by a fish-based menu. Private group dinners can be booked on any other night of the week.

Be sure to join a LocalPlaces Cape Town storytelling dinner. A night of absolute enjoyment and astonishment, that will leave you inspired.

Charlie Moyo guided a stellar, customised LocalPlaces full day Joburg tour on Thursday. Art, shopping, Fashion District, Ethiopian food and coffee, and the old stock exchange among others.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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It is a honour and privilege to tell the story of Cape Town and South Africa at LocalPlaces Storytelling Dinners, hosted at the exceptional Sibling kitchen studio in the Bo-Kaap.

Join us for the most delectable food, beautiful space and mesmerizing storytelling.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Sibling, the beautiful, bespoke kitchen studio in the Bo-Kaap, is where we host LocalPlaces Cape Town Sorytelling Dinners.

Public Storytelling Dinners (Part 1) every Thursday evening. Part 2 launching on Wednesday nights in September. Private group bookings welcome for all other nights.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town.
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Our Monday morning guests on a LocalPlaces Understanding Johannesburg walking tour guided by Charlie Moyo. Photographed in front of the shadow boxer sculpture of a young Nelson Mandela in front of the magistrates court and opposite where he opened a law practice with Oliver Tambo in 1952.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Exploring Soweto with Charlie Moyo on Sunday's private, full-day LocalPlaces Understanding Soweto tour. Visiting inpiring spaces and places.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town.
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A full day of exploring Jozi on two LocalPlaces walking tours with Charlie Moyo to make for fantastic experience. Combining the Understanding Johannesburg and East Town is Alive tours.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town.
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It was a honour to host the New York Youth Orchestra - Jazz from Carnegie Hall on a full day LocalPlaces Cape Peninsula tour on Sunday. A highlight was the superb lunch served by the incredible Cape Point Vineyards. Delectable food for 40 guests and friendliest service - all done in less than an hour!

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town.
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Storms shaped this city

“It is surprising how many times storms had determined the course of history in the case of Cape Town,” states Gerald Garner,
LocalPlaces storyteller. Hear his fascinating rendition of the history of Cape Town at LocalPlaces Cape Town Storytelling Dinner, hosted at Sibling, a bespoke kitchen studio in the Bo-Kaap.

For centuries Khoe people lived on the coastal plateau between the mountains and the sea, moving with the seasons to find grazing for their animals. But when the Portuguese explorer, Bartlomeu Diaz set out on his voyage to navigate around the tip of the continent in 1488, and open the sea trade routes to the East, a storm blew him past the Cape. By the time he turned east and then north, he was already past what is today Cape Town, and bumped into the African coast at what today is Mossel Bay. Diaz hence named the southwestern most tip of Africa. the “Cape of Storms”,

It was also a storm that left the Dutch ship, the New Harlem shipwrecked near Bloubergstrand in 1647. The Dutch East India Company had no other choice but to leave 60 people behind, unpacking the goods onto the beach and waiting to be rescued by the next passing fleet of ships. It was their almost year-long stay that sparked the idea of establishing a Dutch fort, vegetable garden and refreshment station in the Cape in 1652. History could have been very different, was it not for that storm!

Another storm in 1858, destroyed an entire fleet of British ships in Table Bay and caused Lloyds of London to decree that they would not insure any British shops anchoring in the bay during winter months. By then the Cape was already under British occupation, but without being able to anchor their ships here, Britain would have no way of controlling the shipping route and little reason to have a colony here. It was then that queen Victoria sent her second son, Alfred to Cape Town to oversee the excavation of a harbour (what today is the Alfred Basin in the V&A Waterfront). Was it not for that storm, Cape Town may not have gotten a harbour at that time - and without that harbour the Scramble for Africa and the rapid expansion of British occupation into the African interior might never have happened so fast!

Hear much more of the fascinating history of Cape Town and South Africa, in its various facets and perspectives, at a LocalPlaces Storytelling Dinner, hosted on Thursday nights at the bespoke Sibling kitchen studio in the Bo-Kaap. Of course there is delectable food too!

Nobody knows Soweto better than we do! The LocalPlaces Understanding Soweto tour is simply the best way in which to explore the astonishing history and contemporary culture of this thriving part of Johannesburg.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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By far our most famous LocalPlaces tour for private group experiences, is the Viewpoints & Watering Holes tour in Johannesburg's inner-city. Simply an epic way to explore the city in the afternoon and evening and learn about its astonishing history and development. Our guests on Wednesday were mesmerized by the spaces, places, people and stories of Johannesburg.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Thursday's LocalPlaces Cape Town Storytelling Dinner at Sibling in the Bo-Kaap was simply epic. Delectable food and mesmerizing storytelling made for a most memorable evening.

Public storytelling dinners every Thursday evening. Fully booked till 22 August, space available from 29 August onwards. Private group bookings welcome for all other evenings.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Cape Town!!! How you have impressed us with your love and enthusiasm! You have overwhelmed us with storytelling dinner bookings.

The first four LocalPlaces Storytelling Dinners at Sibling in August are already sold out. With only limited seats remaining available for Thursdays 22 and 29 August. Book now if you do not want to be left disappointed.

We have also opened bookings for storytelling dinners in September and October. Plus, we can take private group bookings (for 10 or more guests) on any other night of the week, subject to availability.

What a splendid two days we had, walking Cape Town with a wonderful UK guest who lived in SA as a child and student. Tracing steps, learning history and celebrating our shared heritage. Exploring on LocalPlaces Understanding Cape Town and Mesmerizing Midtown walking tours. Perfectly timed between the rain and storms.

Covered the Waterfront, Foreshore, Bo-Kaap, CBD/city itself and District Six.

LocalPlaces - Johannesburg & Cape Town
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Do not miss this show! It will be beyond excellent.

Book TODAY! For the very first time in Africa, hear the brand-new lineup of NYO Jazz, composed of outstanding young musicians ages 16–19 from across the USA. Led by Artistic Director and trumpeter Sean Jones, with special guest vocalist Alicia Olatuja, NYO Jazz have been described as “astonishing—not just...

What a huge privilege it was for Charlie Moyo of LocalPlaces to take the visiting NYO Jazz, Carnegie Hall's National Youth Jazz Orchestra on a tour of Joburg inner-city and Soweto yesterday.

Sharing the incredible stories of the city's people and places, from the Market Theatre to the old Diagonal Street stock exchange, Chancellor House and Main Street to Gandhi Square, all the way past FNB Stadium to Orlando West, Soweto.

Catch the orchestra performing at the Market Theatre this weekend. Tickets available on Webtickets: www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1547136612

LocalPlaces – Johannesburg & Cape Town
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🇹🇭Thailand Named No. 1 in the World and South Africa 🇿🇦 No. 6 as the Best Countries to Visit in a Lifetime in 2024!

The CEOWORLD Magazine website ranked the most visited countries in 2024 based on the opinions of over 295,000 readers, which is also the highest participation in the magazine’s history.
📊

Jozi peeps. There is an exciting festival happening at Red Hill School in Morningside, Check it out. Awesome music, theatre and more.

Home | Redhill Arts Festival 25 – 28 JULY 2024 Days to go Instagram Facebook X-twitter JOBURG'S LEADING ARTS FESTIVAL Get ready for an unforgettable four-day festival as RedFest,

Goodness! I just said no to a potential booking from an organization that asked us to host a full day foodie tour experience in Johannesburg for 40 guests. We submitted our proposal a month and a half ago, only to learn that we were bidding against at least eight other experiences. This was not disclosed when we were approached, and we did a full day's work customizing our experience so that the venues we would visit, could handle the logistics of serving such a large group at once.

The said organization put the eight proposals out to their members to vote for. Eventually ours was chosen. What was bizarre was that the eight different proposals had nothing in common. No central theme, covering everything from rural farming to sports & adventure, food and city exploration, and more.

Today, I was asked to attend a virtual meeting to discuss the foodie tour. Only to hear that they wanted us to use a quarter of our original foodie tour and merge thiis with other experiences and actitivites to make a customized day.

Problem is the other experiences fall completely out of the theme and would water down our tour to an incomprehensible day that would ot relate to LocalPlaces at all. It would not have our identity, would take enormous additional time and effort to organize (while we must stick to our original quote) and simply would make no sense. For this reason, I declined the booking or being involved.

It sounds crazy to give away such business, but I believe in not offering something that does not relate to our core value proposition and identity and that could genuinely harm our reputation.

Such is business.