A custom bike shop in Greenside has opened a restaurant whose bold young chef is turning out gobsmacking, innovative cuisine. Marie-Lais Emond takes a closer look at Rim & Rubber.

The interior at Rim & Rubber. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

If you’ve ever visited Turin, Italy, you’ll know about the restaurants where the cars and the cuisine vie for the most appreciative sighs. Two differences: this is Gleneagles Road, Greenside, and it’s motorbikes, not cars, on the menu.

The new restaurant at Rim & Rubber has a breakfast chef, a pastry chef, the main chef (more about Donovan Christian in a moment) and a wine-and-beer sommelier equivalent. The machines pose in the restaurant like characters – “bikes converted into new spirits,” says owner Leanne Champion.

Food at Rim & Rubber. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Leanne and her partner Craig Bosman have been in love with customised bikes for more than a decade; they also love to travel and taste the region’s food as they go. The couple originally had a coffee shop in the restaurant location, but felt they could do something more. It was while in Dullstroom, talking food with a knowledgeable young man, that they realised they’d found their chef.

The kitchen staff at Rim & Rubber. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Donovan Christian was born in Ireland and longed to be a chef but worked as a sculler until he could afford to enrol in Bordeaux for his dream. From there he spent some time in Florence. He’s just 23, but is said to treat meat exquisitely.

The coffee counter at Rim & Rubber. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

As for the menu? Lunches might include a trio of pork – pulled, slow-roasted belly and chargrilled loin – with egg noodles, butternut and peanut purée. On the dinner menu, there’s a rib-eye sirloin with potato purée, carrots three ways, chargrilled broccoli carpaccio, candied beetroot, and truffle-oil-and-veal jus. There’s also a dish of scallops with bacon caramel, green-pea gel and pork-crackling crumble.

Motorcycle parts forms part of the decor at Rim & Rubber. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

Dessert might bring tempura banana, almond ice cream, cardamom syrup and candied hazelnuts, or a sweet red-basil panna cotta with tomato sorbet, fried basil, mint dust and balsamic.

Rim & Rubber is also open earlier in the day, serving breads baked on site, but as Leanne explains: “Breakfasts are just homely; not as elegant as our other meals. When chef Donovan steps into the kitchen for the lunches and dinners, the atmosphere changes.”

Drinks at Rim & Rubber. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

As for drinks, the wittily named Handlebar serves Black Horse craft beer from Magaliesburg and wines carefully chosen to accompany Donovan’s dishes. The look is clean but glamorous, utilising copper and marble, and the concept is all about authenticity, say Craig and Leanne.

We vote it’s high time you go to Greenside to check it out – and bring back some of that bacon caramel…

The exterior at Rim & Rubber. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.