The Pot Luck Club – sister restaurant to this year’s Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant of the Year, The Test Kitchen – is set to reopen this February in a brand new location.

Formerly situated next door to its award-winning sibling, The Pot Luck Club has now given up its space to allow The Test Kitchen to expand. The new venue is not far: it’s just moved upwards, to a glass and steel space on top of the grain silos at Woodstock’s The Old Biscuit Mill.

A glass lift will take guests up five storeys to panoramic views out over Cape Town, Lion’s Head, Signal Hill, Table Mountain and the gritty industrial train tracks. “It’s even better at night,” says Simon Widdison, formerly The Test Kitchen's manager, who will manage the new space. “You get the yellow lights of the docks, and Table Mountain all lit up.”

Décor will be industrial-chic as befits the Woodstock location, with a mix of wood and stone flooring, glass and steel girders, and a variety of seating options: booth-style couches lit with old-fashioned lampshades, bar seating and a mix of wood and metal tables.

The food will remain tapas-style and the new menu will incorporate many of the dishes from the old menu, with some additions. Currently, the restaurant is manning a pop-up at the Old Biscuit Mill’s market, the Neighbourgoods Market, on Saturdays, to trial some of the new dishes.

“We’ve got a list at the moment of about 100 dishes,” says Luke. “The hard part is going to be whittling it down.” Wesley Randles, from Luke’s existing team, will take over the reigns as head chef.

As for the design, architects Greg Scott helped Luke with the bare bones and layout of the new restaurant, while Luke’s wife, Sandalene, has custom-built a chair for the new space, and will be designing the uniforms. Artists Egon Tanya and Peter Eastman will be creating custom artwork for the space, while Bronze Age will be manufacturing a manhole cover with The Pot Luck’s pig logo for the reception area, where guests step out of the lift. Luke himself chose the finishes. “It’s good to get everyone involved,” says Luke. “You get more of a personal touch.”

The restaurant is penciled in to open sometime in February, and the team is already taking bookings. We recommend you make yours soon, if you want to get in sometime before December!

By Katharine Jacobs

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