The Lollipop …………..August 2012

Rhino Mother and Child

Greetings and salutations my fine feathered friends 🙂

I am sitting in my kitchen cum dining room freezing my toes off to bring this newsletter to you nice and early. There is sooooooooooo much happening between now and the first 10 days of August that I want to get this information to you as early as possible so that you don’t miss out on a single thing!
This post is jam packed with events happening at Indulgence in the next two to three weeks and once you read about them you really won’t want to miss out, that much I promise you!
We had to unfortunately cancel our Minerals talk with Justin Glanvill last week but we will be rescheduling it as soon as possible. Maybe towards the end of August.
We at Lollipops Catered the Finale of the etv show Step Up or Step Out on Sunday night, it was a fabulous showy event and Endemol and etv really did themselves proud. The catering was awesome as well 🙂

The winners of Step Up or Step Out Thembisa Revolution

Step Up or Step Out catering for etv

This post is also the full and unabridged version of the monthly newsletter. It is getting too long to send to people at large so at least here I can post everything including pictures and the “fuller” story.
You may also have noticed that I have started putting in the Facebook links to events as well so that you can link directly to the event as posted on FB, if you are on FB that is. I hope that this will make life easier for you and provide you with a more enjoyable reading experience!
I will also be posting the Social Dinner Menus for Thursday nights in this full blog version of the newsletter for all the Thursdays in the month (if I can get my act together) as I feel that I am spamming you by sending the menu via email through every week.

Without much further ado I give you the next few weeks at a glance:
Calendar for the next 4 weeks or so:
July 26 Dinner at Indulgence, Christmas in July themed dinner
Aug 2 Dinner at Indulgence
Aug 3 Bloody Book Week event with Mark Gimenez and Andrew Brown
Aug 5 Bloody Book Week event with Jeffery Deaver and John Connolly
Aug 9 Penis…..Oops, I meant rhino talk
Aug 9 There is no dinner tonight!
Aug 16 Dinner at Indulgence
Aug 23 Dinner at Indulgence
Aug 30 Dinner at Indulgence

Dinner by candlelight at Indulgence

Dinner at Indulgence

Our Thursday night dinners are going really nicely so far. Given that it is winter I am impressed with the number of you who are braving the cold to come out. It is warm and snug on the patio with the Gladwrap embracing the outside walls (I mean this literally, the shop is plastic wrapped) and the three heaters on, all this under the red glow from the lights and the candles on the tables. Very romantic and seriously, the patio is a wonderful place to spend an evening. This past week we had an incredible young jazz band, the Peter Auret Trio come and play for us and it truly was magical.

This Thursday’s menu is Christmas in July themed with:
Phyllo Seafood parcels to start (vegetarian option available as always)
A choice of gammon or stuffed rolled turkey with roast tatties, Brussels sprouts & candied carrots!
For vegetarians we have stuffed red peppers
Christmas malva pudding with brandy custard
Best of all this is only R100 per person. Bring along some crackers and pressie for the people at your table and make it a very festive occasion!
Remember to book your table.
Christmas in July dinner http://www.facebook.com/events/316537485107776/

The Official Bloody Book Week promo image!

AuthorTalks or in this case BLOODY BOOK WEEK events

Indulgence Café is one of the hosts for some of Radio 702’s Jenny Crwys-Williams and Sunday Times, Bloody Book Week events. I gave them two dates, I asked for some really fab authors who hail from overseas and hey presto I was really lucky to be given the choices I requested!
There is a printing error on the events brochure for the first event and it should actually read Mark Gimenez not Trevor Corbett.

Author Mark Gimenez who will be at Indulgence on the 3rd of August at 2pm

Some of the books written by Mark Gimenez

Author Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown’s latest book, Solace

The First Bloody Book Week event:

So on the 3rd of August, a Friday afternoon, awesome way to start the week end early we are hosting Mark Gimenez and Andrew Brown both of whom are incredibly well known writers. 2-4pm, R90 includes sweet and savoury snacks on the tables as well as tea and coffee, books will be available for sale. Leave work early if you can, I will write a letter to the boss for you but whatever you do, don’t miss this once in a lifetime event to meet these incredible authors. For Bookings with payment upfront please email me or call me for details. lollipops@telkomsa.net

Bloody Book Week 1st event http://www.facebook.com/events/340609099354742/

Jeffrey Deaver’ latest book, XO

Author John Connolly

One of John Connelly’s past books, The Whisperers 2

The Second Bloody Book Week event

The second event is brunch at Indulgence on Sunday the 5th of August but before you get to eat you have to subject yourselves to the torturous, horrid, terrible voices and stories of John Connolly and Jeffery Deaver. I have to say that again. John Connolly and Jeffery Deaver! Do I need to say more? Book your place, this event is already filling up. BOOKINGS ONLY. Brunch will be served at the tables when the authors have finished talking and are busy signing books. The cost of the event is R180 and books will be available for sale. Please email me or call me to book, payment upfront please. lollipops@telkomsa.net

Bloody Book Week 2nd event http://www.facebook.com/events/151515324985160/

Rhinos going head to head

Now about those Unicorns….oops, I meant rhinos

South Africa’s very own Unicorn is under attack. Our Rhinos are being poached to the point of extinction for their incredible horns. Help us contribute, in some small way, towards the conservation efforts that are being made by some very heroic organizations and people just like you and me. How can you do this? Come and spend Women’s Day with us. We are hosting an event that is open to everyone, except poachers at 10am on the 9th of August to raise awareness and hopefully to raise some money that we can contribute to the conservation of these incredibly majestic, almost prehistoric looking animals. This is a big event for us, we would like to make some small impact and do some good in any way we can.
We will have Vanessa Bezuidenhout from the Endangered Wildlife Trust as a guest speaker. Hopefully someone from the Lawrence Anthony Foundation will be here as well to chat about his book, The Last Rhino, a wildlife vet and possibly a surprise guest speaker as well. There will be incredible ceramic pots from ceramic artist Anne Rimbault, paintings, drawings and other rhino bits and pieces for sale. A huge chunk of the proceeds of these sales will go to the EWT so please dig deep and bring those credit cards to the party and go shopping! We will bring lunch to your table as well for the princely sum of R80 for two courses! The Lawrence Anthony book will also be on sale on the day.
Bookings pretty please. The event starts at 10am and ends around lunch time and is a public holiday so you can sit and chill with us……………..

Rhino talk http://www.facebook.com/events/295648373866382/

Rhino at Etosha by Paul Brehen

And that my friends is the next few weeks at Indulgence Cafe. Please lend your support to our rhinos, come and enjoy our authors and above all else enjoy everything that you do!

I have tried to keep this as short and sweet as possible but there is just so much happening that you needed to hear all about it. Have an awesome month, stay warm, stay toasty and be wild!

Have a look at our Facebook pages:
http://www.facebook.com/theIndulgenceCafe
http://www.facebook.com/LollipopsCatering
http://www.facebook.com/lollipopscakes

The menus for the rest of the month will follow shortly, watch this space!
Love ‘n Lollipops
Mandi
Indulgence Cafe & Lollipops Catering

The Lollipop July 2012

Some of the Lollipops Catering staff with Dali Tambo at the People of the South promo shoot 30 June 2012

Greetings and salutations my fellow Americans…………..oops, wrong newsletter!

Howzit Everyone

Is it cold enough for you yet? Just think, the longest night has passed, means summer is on the way back. Okay we still have to get through cold, cold July and windy August but summer is just around the corner and then it is a downhill run to the end of the year (or am I getting a little ahead of myself here)
The June AuthorTalk with Sarah Graham was fabulous and very entertaining, what a lovely book bitten. is. And our Fetish and Kink Market absolutely rocked this month. Around 120 people came through the doors during the 3 hour event which went of fabulously. I had my doubts about the weather because the start of the day was gloomy and very wet but by lunchtime the sky had cleared, the sun was out and the day was magnificent! If you missed it in June then make sure you are here for 27 October! Our bonus AuthorTalk with ex Bok coach Peter De Villiers really was smash hit. Who would have thought that Peter was quite so engaging, quiet so charming and really funny actually. It was a real treat to meet him!
Big, big month happening at Indulgence this July so I am just going to plunge right in (speaking of plunging remember we have some fabulous plunger coffees for you to try out, R28 for a plunger full of robust delicious Colombian, Indian or African coffee!)

The July Calendar first:
5th Dinner at Indulgence (The first with some give away gifts on the night)
12th Dinner at Indulgence
14th AuthorTalk with a French twist
19th Dinner at Indulgence
21st Rocks and minerals talk with Justin Glanvill
26th Dinner at Indulgence

Home comforts and fabulous food

Dinner at Indulgence:

Your favourite coffee shop is opening on Thursday nights for dinner. Dinner is a three course set menu with a set starter and desert and 3 choices for the main course. The cost per head for this first evening is R100 per person. We know it is chilly so we are going to warm that patio up with heaters, a barrel fire and blankets if you need them. Your cars will be safe our car guard will be outside braving the elements. What more could you ask besides fabulous food? If this initiative proves popular then we shall start opening on more and more evenings! So help us make this happen please! As we are not licensed at this point in time please BRING YOUR OWN or BYO 🙂
The Thursday night menu will change from week to week so watch this space for a new weekly email with the menu on. There is a FB event posted if you would like to have a look :
http://www.facebook.com/events/429645730400592/

Booking is essential!
After some in depth thought, a huge challenge, in my case this is how dinner is going to happen………………..just to reiterate ……………
There will be one starter, choice of three mains and one dessert and the cost………….R100 per head! Dinner is from 6pm, no service after 8.30pm………….hope you are all still going to come.
The menu is as follows:
Leek and potato soup
Red Thai chicken curry with jasmine rice/beef and baby onion casserole/Potato and chickpea curry with rice
Dessert is warm chocolate brownie and cream

The latest offering from Amanda Coetzee, her second book Redemption Song

AuthorTalk:
This month’s author is a foreigner, she comes all the way from England via Rustenburg and is coming through specially to chat to us about her book that is only launching in July, so this one really is hot off the press. This is Amanda Coetzee’s second book, her first is called Bad Blood. Her second book, Redemption Song, a crime thriller, is the one she is coming to tell us alllllllllll about. This is a special AuthorTalk for a couple of reasons, one being the book only launches in July, the other being that it is the French holiday Bastille Day. I know that means absolutely nothing to any of us but it is just one more reason to eat fabulous French style food. So the lunch specials for the 14th of July will be the mussels in cream, wine and garlic with home baked brown bread, deep fried Camembert with berry coulis and a toasted bagel, French onion soup with a cheese crouton and a hearty seafood stew!
Redemption Song:
She thought she would stop breathing. Looking back, she wished she had …Dark, enigmatic hero Harry O’Connor, aka Badger, is on long leave from the London Metropolitan Police Force, living once more among the Traveller community he grew up with as he heals physically and mentally from the strains of his last case. When social worker Emily Meadows calls with news of a mother and daughter trapped in the clutches of a brutal Albanian warlord named Jak Kraja, Badger sets off on a mission to free them. When Badger tries to escape with his charges, things start to go horribly wrong. As Kraja’s net tightens, Badger turns to former police colleagues and the mysterious Albanian Traveller community for help. Badger must pit every ounce of his skills, wit and strength against a wily enemy and his henchmen as a thrilling race for survival unfolds.
About the author:
When she isn’t writing crime thrillers, Amanda Coetzee works as a deputy headmistress. She grew up in Bedford, England, and now lives in Rustenburg with her husband and son. Redemption Song is Amanda’s second novel after her acclaimed debut crime thriller Bad Blood.

This is a regular AuthorTalk so pretty please remember to bring along some books, at least one to swap and one to donate. Please bring along books that are actually worth having. By which I mean in good condition and not just good for recycling. It is all well and good to bring along books that you no longer want but they do need to be books that someone else may want to read and it doesn’t help if they are falling apart. (My soap box moment!) The author will start at 2pm promptly.

Justin Glanvill and the late fabulous Finn who Amiga terrorized at Emmarentia Park relentlessly. Poor guy didn’t know what had hit him with this older woman!

Mineral Talk:
On the 21st of July Justin Glanvill, a very well respected local geologist will be coming along to talk to us about rocks! Not the ones in your spouse’s head but those you find lying on the ground, in the ground and cascading down the side of a mountain. Justin is going to talk about the local rocks, minerals and crystals of South Africa. He is bringing along some samples and you are welcome to raise the “fracking” topic with him as well. I have asked him to bring me a handful of diamonds and rubies with a (s)pot of gold but so far my pleas are falling on deaf ears! Please join us for this free talk on Saturday 21st July at 2pm. Bring along a few of your rocks that you would like identified or you find interesting and would like to show the rest of us. Adult show and tell, no take your mind out the gutter now! 2pm and the regular menu is available! That is Justin in the pic with his boy Finn, who sadly is no longer with us. He was huge friends with Amiga and she used to terrorize the poor youngster all the time!

What’s Coming up?
That pretty much wraps up June at Indulgence Cafe but before I go I have to tell you a bit about events in August because before you blink it will be here and I won’t have dangled the carrot yet! I have no doubt that you are in some shape or form aware of who Jenny Crwys-Williams is, what I am not sure about is if you have heard of the events she organizes called The Bloody Book week. What happens is that Jenny brings together a whole bunch of writers both fiction and non-fiction to talk crime writing. Most are local writers and journalists but some hail from over the seas. Well this year, your very own Indulgence Cafe had been chosen to host a couple of the events to in the first week end of August we have Trevor Corbett, Andrew Brown, Michael Connelly and Jeffrey Deaver coming………….you read that right, I promise! So watch this space and keep an eye out for the advertising for The Bloody Book week which is just starting to happen and make sure you have booked your spot for at least one of the two events we are hosting!
Also happening in August is our Rhino talk and that is shaping up very nicely with a couple of guest speakers, some ceramics, some art and very possibly someone from the Lawrence Anthony Foundation to talk about him, his work and his last book, The Last Rhinos. Very exciting stuff happening around here

Feel free to follow us on twitter @indulgence_cafe
or follow Amiga on twitter @amigafriedman

We have a couple of pages on FB that you are really very welcome to go and like. There are always pictures, jokes and interesting tidbits being posted to them
find them at:
facebook.com/theindulgencecafe
facebook.com/lollipopscatering
facebook.com/lollipopscakes

Thanks so much for spending the past 20 minutes with me! Please make sure you introduce yourself because we cannot wait to feed you
Happy week end and stay warm!
Love ‘n Lollipops
Mandi

A few pics from the past month: Fetish Market Pictures are courtesy of Adele Horn Pet Photography

Picture care of Adele Horn of Adele Horn Pet Photography http://www.adelehorn.co.za

Picture care of Adele Horn of Adele Horn Pet Photography http://www.adelehorn.co.za

Picture care of Adele Horn of Adele Horn Pet Photography http://www.adelehorn.co.za

Picture care of Adele Horn of Adele Horn Pet Photography http://www.adelehorn.co.za

Picture care of Adele Horn of Adele Horn Pet Photography http://www.adelehorn.co.za

Hellllooooooooooo Kitty Cupcakes

Mountain climbers do it differently

Ex Springbok coach Peter De Villiers chatted to us about his career and his book, Politically Incorrect

Sarah Graham chatting to us about her blog and her fabulous cookbook, bitten.