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Styl­ish con­ver­sa­tion space

Play­wright Nicholas Spag­no­letti and soft­ware engi­neer Edward van Kuik have cre­ated this ele­gant estab­lish­ment to pro­vide Cape Town with a unique new con­ver­sa­tion space.

Filled with old-world charm and with its func­tion­ing rotary dial tele­phone sys­tem and revolv­ing sofa Alexan­der Bar & Café is engi­neered for play­ful inter­ac­tion and con­ver­sa­tion. Warm indi­rect light­ing is pro­vided by dimmed table lamps. With the impec­ca­bly selected jazz & world music and a fairly priced range of local wines, malt whiskies, mar­tini cock­tails and light meals Alexan­der Bar is build­ing a loyal base of Cape Town reg­u­lars and becom­ing a happy chance dis­cov­ery for visitors.

Out­side, the raised stoep with its ornate blue chairs is a sur­pris­ingly serene place from which to observe the bus­tle of Strand Street. Inside, the décor with its tex­tured choco­late brown walls, Per­sian car­pets and eccen­tric uphol­stery is deli­ciously nos­tal­gic for a past that never was. Dot­ted around are attrac­tive old phones which actu­ally work. The tele­phone sys­tem gives per­mis­sion for peo­ple at dif­fer­ent tables to engage with each other. The revolv­ing sofa keeps things inter­est­ing by deliv­er­ing fresh faces into a con­ver­sa­tion. The mes­sages left on the type­writer range from hilar­i­ously puerile to lyri­cally poetic. The clas­sic bar has decent over­hang with cor­ners to camp around. These are all ele­ments that com­bine to cre­ate a space that has warmth, humour and comfort.

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Mon — Sat: 11am til 1am. Closed Sundays.

Alexan­der Bar & Café is the ideal place to meet up with friends or strangers. Come on a work­ing day for lunch and Bean There Fair­trade cof­fee. Or come for after-work cock­tails and snacks. Or for pre-dinner drinks (per­haps before walk­ing some­where very nearby like Fork, Keenwä, Savoy Cab­bage or Roberto’s Sig­na­ture Restau­rant). Or for a light meal. Or after catch­ing a show at one of the nearby the­atres like The Fugard or Artscape or The Inti­mate.

Kitchen open til midnight

Our kitchen serves clas­sic sand­wiches and sal­ads with a gourmet twist as well as cheese,  char­cu­terie & canape boards. Try The Reueben (beef, pick­led onion, sauer­kraut topped with grated cheese), The Great Gatsby (bratwurst with pick­les, pre­serves and whole­grain mus­tard), the Gravad­lax (smoked salmon cured in a gin-based brine) or the Wal­dorf or Seared Beef Noo­dle sal­ads. See our menu for more details.