Currently the Chairman of the South African Sommeliers Association (SASA) and owner of Burrata restaurant, Neil has also graced the judging panel for the Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Awards alongside fellow international sommeliers.
Neil came from a humble beginning as a waiter to then rising among the ranks to work alongside master sommeliers. After graduating from high school in Johannesburg, Grant took a gap year to travel around Europe. He made his way by working in an array of restaurants and discovered that he had a talent for reading guests and interacting with them. He found time to work while spending time studying business and commerce. Grant then took his talents overseas where he spent 7 years in the United States, specifically California.
While working in California, Grant asked a friend of his, who worked in the wine industry, to keep his eyes and ears open for any available jobs. He found himself working for a wine retailer with the opportunity of work with two master sommeliers. “This was a dream, here I was learning, tasting and interacting with many of the best winemakers from all over the world. It was here that I started to work and study with the Court of Master Sommeliers”.
Grant has a sort of poetic love of wine, and being a sommelier has allowed him to truly flourish both abroad and in South Africa. “For me it is the fact that I will never know everything there is to know about wines because it is ever changing. I look at a bottle and the label, and it is the excitement of wondering what the wine is going to taste like. You can form an idea after years in the industry, but the wine will always end up surprising you one day or another”.
Neil returned to South Africa in 2006 after earning his certification as a sommelier in 2005 and working with the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, which was voted the Best Wine Merchant in the USA by Food and Wine magazine. Neil’s desire to help promote the growth and recognition of sommeliers in South Africa was a vital aspect in his decision to return.
Once back in South Africa, Grant helped build up Rust en Vrede with Chef David Higgs. Not only did Grant deal with the wine list, he also oversaw the design and day to day running of the restaurant with David. Within three short years, Rust en Vrede was one of South Africa’s top restaurants winning a myriad of accolades. During Grant’s tenure, the restaurant was voted in the Top Ten restaurants in South Africa for three years running. The restaurant was named in the San Pellegrino Top 100 Restaurants in the World in 2008 and 2009, won the coveted Eat Out Service Award in both 2009 and 2010 and was named Best Restaurant of 2010.
Grant left Rust en Vrede in 2011 and after being introduced to Barry Engelbrecht, his current business partner, the vision for Burrata was brought about. The vision that they conjured was one of a New York meat packing district style of place “without all the bells and whistles of fine dining”. Grant wanted to offer top quality food without the stiffness of a typical fine dining establishment. Burrata opened its doors in March 2012 at the Old Biscuit Mill in Cape Town.
These ideas came to fruition through the fantastic menu that includes elements and foods that are fresh and new to the South African market. The Napolitane Pizza is a perfect example, a new style of pizza for Capetonians. Another key feature is the open pizza oven, which was imported from a 3rd generation pizza oven making family in Naples, and the windows into the kitchen which allow diners to see inside and to see how their dishes are created.
While it may seem like a restaurant focused on pizza, that is only the beginning. Burrata boasts an amazing team headed up by Head Chef Annemaire Steenkamp who spent 5 years at Le Quartier Francais. She brings amazing flavour to the Burrata dishes and has embraced the vision and spirit of the restaurant in her cooking. The service staff is also exceptional; great service is one of the main focuses of the restaurant. Grant has said that “people come to enjoy a night out and they pay for such a service. They should get what they pay for”. One thing is certain, at Burrata you definitely get what you pay for.
Due to Grants certification as a sommelier, guests can expect the wine list to be exceptional. It is an ever changing list which adapts to the ingredients used in the dishes offered by the restaurant. Neil works closely with Annemarie on this front in order to understand her food and flavour profiles allowing him to build a wine list around those flavours.
For those looking to venture into the restaurant industry, Grant has offered up a morsel of advice. He says, “The most important thing for me is to make guests feel they are welcome and that they can feel relaxed. You need to know the restaurant industry, if you do know the industry, I would go for it. If you open a restaurant stay true to what you believe, if you open a deli, then run the best deli you can, if you open a high end restaurant again make sure you do not compromise”.
The future looks bright for Neil Grant and Burrata. It seems that there is no limit to the knowledge and motivation to provide top quality service and dishes to those in South Africa. Grant puts his outlook into perspective saying that he takes all his ventures, “one step at a time, but there is no limit”.