All-day breakfast believers will find an answered prayer in the newly opened Shema Coffee Roasters.
Situated on Bassingthwaighte Street in Klein Windhoek, the bright, minimalist new eatery teases its “bakery, brunch and banging brews”.
At around 14h00 on a Tuesday afternoon, the wooden deck hosts a sweet couple, some young professionals, this journalist and a tourist cheerfully charging their phone in one of Shema’s abundant plug points astride its wealth of solo seats.
The music is upbeat but unobtrusive. The airy interior is wood, exposed light bulbs and creeping plants with a welcoming feeling bolstered by Shema’s friendly owners Linique Theron and Andre van der Berg.
The duo named their business after the Shema, a central prayer in the Jewish religious tradition which speaks to their Christian faith.
The bakes, which include the crispiest chocolate croissants, cookies, quiche, rusks and cakes, as well as the all-day breakfast, which is your fancy of French toast with berries and crème fraîche, peanut butter and banana flap jack stacks, Mediterranean eggs and the simply fresh and delicious Breakfast Royal, are courtesy of Theron, who is the baker and the breakfast fiend.
“I’m a breakfast lover. I would completely have bacon and eggs for dinner. One hundred percent. I get so annoyed when I go and eat somewhere, it’s twelve o’clock and they say breakfast finished at eleven o’clock. I’m like: Why?” laments Theron.
“On the flipside, some people walk in and say: ‘Oh, you only have breakfast.’ But you can have it anytime!”
Technically, Shema doesn’t only do breakfast.
They make their ciabatta, sourdough and bagels in-house and have a tasty selection of open sandwiches. The eatery’s coffee is also a draw and Shema boasts a somewhat futuristic intelligent roaster as well as coffee brewed via AeroPress, Chemex or with the V60.
“The AeroPress is probably my favourite way of manual brewing,” says Van der Berg. “At the moment, our evening blend is a very chocolatey caramel blend and at the end I try to bring in something floral as well that leaves a good mouth feel.”
From the bare aesthetics to its specialised menu, Shema’s idea is to keep it simple while focusing on doing brunch and brews well.
And so far so good.
Their coffee can be had cortado, Americano, espresso or flat white.
The vibe is modern, urban and welcoming of the work-from-home crowd keen to get out of the house and, with Gondwana just around the corner, it’s not unusual for bursts of tourists to saunter in before or after heading across the country.
“In university, when we had to speak about serious things, my church leaders would say: ‘Let’s go have a coffee.’ A lot of what happened during my life was communicated over a cup of coffee,” says Van der Berg, considering his passion for coffee and coffee shops.
“It’s always been nice for me to see someone sit and enjoy a coffee or to see two people engaging over a lekker cup.”
Trading since the beginning of July and renovated from the former FNB building by the owners with a lot of help from their friends, Shema is now open weekdays from 06h30 to 16h00 and Saturdays from 08h00 to 13h00.
– [email protected]; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com