EB Social Kitchen and Bar

General information

In January 2014, Benjamin Trisk and his partners had only been in possession of the Exclusive Books business for a month. While on holiday in Plettenberg Bay, Benjamin called Silvio Rech, the extraordinary architect and visionary who has created some of the world’s great houses and many lodges throughout Africa. Silvio was not interested in doing commercial design work. It was stultifying and, frankly, he found it boring.

He was not easily persuaded. Once back from holiday, Trisk visited his studio that he and his equally talented wife, the architect Lesley Carstens share in Westcliff. Silvio does not drink Vodka, Benjamin does. By the time their initial courtship was complete, Silvio happily drank Vodka along with Benjamin and he and his wife were persuaded that they might work on retail design concepts for the Exclusive Books Group.

It has been a collision of styles. Trisk wants design so that he can sell stuff. Silvio and Lesley want design that puts form ahead of function. But both agree that the cookie­‐cutter approach to chain‐store design is outmoded. Trisk wants stores that make books sexy but that carry the essential cultural heart of Exclusive Books from development to development, always seeking to break the shackles and restraints of the chain store mentality. Silvio and Lesley are the ideal partners.

All the elements that are now spread through each rejuvenated store in the Exclusive Books Group are inspired by the remarkable vision of these two architects. Trisk is the buffer. He knows what will work and what won’t, but he also understands enough to know that brave heart might always wins fair lady.

Exclusive Books Hyde Park is an extraordinary space. Every tile, every piece of parquet has been put in place for a reason. The coffee bar is tiled with white Johnson tiles that have been first allowed to dry on the surfaces of the bar and then are broken with a hammer. The cracks are filled in with gold leaf. The Moroccan tiles on the floor and on the walls match nothing. You will find cracked tiles and imperfect pieces sitting alongside a beautifully grouted whole tile. You do not know quite where the bookshop ends and where the marvellous new restaurant begins. The size of the space is daunting in itself, but what is totally overwhelming is the 40m span of glass on the Northern front of the restaurant that looks out over Johannesburg’s glorious urban forest.

The entire purpose behind the Social Kitchen & Bar is to extend to food the same approach Exclusive takes to books: namely, that anyone should be able to find something accessible, that all are treated equally and that there is the same care and attention to detail to the customer and the experience, whatever the budget.

Of paramount importance is the quality of what we produce. This is our intent: all should find our menu accessible, all should feel the same level of comfort and some, for the very first time, may imagine themselves in some louche, benign salon where the conversation sparkles alongside the food. We present to you imagination and we give you conversation.

Food is one of the great comforts of our lives in much the same way that reading and the feel and touch of books permits the mind to traverse continents. We are all entitled to dream. This is where dreams are encouraged.

Russel Armstrong is our Executive Chef, with a pedigree as long as your arm. He has designed the menu to allow the food to speak to us. Simple, delicious. His philosophy meets ours around cooking.

“Cooking is not a matter of just doing work, it’s a conscience, a passion and an understanding”

We are conscious of our Muslim and Jewish customers. The slicer that carves salami or prosciutto is not the one that slices bresaola or carpaccio. We hope that the passion that has driven our brand thus far will be the same engine that engages with you at our bar or tables.

Trisk has traveled widely in pursuit of this vision. The restaurant is not a restaurant and the bookshop is not a bookshop. They are one fluid whole space, the space for conversation, for care, for friendship. With the opening of the new Exclusive Books Hyde Park and its glorious Social Kitchen and Bar, South Africa has a unique and special place. One that many will call home.