Visitors and guests often remark that The Belfry Kitchen's menu and groceries prices are comically low...
With fresh, full cream milk selling at R8.00 per liter, menu items ranging between R10.00 - 46.00 and a 3-course Sunday lunch at a mere R95.00 (campus & Twee Riviere) and R125.00 (visitors), clearly there is something afoot here. Notable also, is that menu prices have only increased ONCE since the campus cafeteria first opened in February 2011 - yet are not subsidized in any way. Instead, the Belfry routinely meets all its own expenditures, dispenses no less than two thousand free meals and beverages every month, pays rent and salaries, carries its food production costs, maintains its guest house facilities and all the normal overheads and expenditures that any similar establishment would...
So, how is this possible? Read more...
The South African Institute for Heritage Science's 15 hectare campus is located in the tiny village of Twee Riviere, Langkloof - part of the Southern Cape coastal region of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. Twee Riviere, which recently celebrated its 250th year, is one of several communities which had taken root during the mid-1700's across the length of this 150km long, fruit-growing valley.
Casual visitors to Twee Riviere are often quite unprepared for the discovery of an academic campus in the heart of the village! For the guest who turns up at the Belfry merely in search of coffee or a good meal, the canteen's formal context can therefore be a bit of an enigma. But we do not at all mind answering the by-now familiar questions: ("Why Twee Riviere?", "What is taught on campus?" "How many students do you have?" ) Short answers: "It's the perfect spot don't you think?", "Conservation Science" and "5 - 10 postgraduate students, annually"
The current operations of the campus only ensued with the Institute's founding in 1994, though history runs deeper of course. If you'd like to know a bit more, you'll find it here...
So, is The Belfry Kitchen truly open to the public? (Short answer: yes...) But let's see:
There is an undeniable and deliberately public element to the campus cafeteria - one which (for a canteen at least) lends it a welcoming outward view. This outward view has a short focal range though and is largely locally minded: As in "Twee Riviere"...
Accordingly, no attempt is made by the cafeteria to entice the tourist or to draw visitors - not even from closely neighbouring towns. Is the traveler welcome then? More...
The campus grounds offer spacious, two- and three bedroomed cottages, in addition to a seven bedroom manor house (suited to larger groups and longer stays).
Though most guests visit the grounds with the campus cafeteria in mind, the accommodations do also permit self-catering.
Click here for rates and bookings, or to view the policies for visitors to the grounds.
