San Deck bar in Sandton, Johannesburg. PHOTO | JACKSON BIKO
It was about four degrees cold. Two big fire roared at different places on the roof top of Sandton San Hotel in Johannesburg’s well-heeled Sandton area.
I had early taken the Gautrain from Marlboro, and as lights of Jozi chased the lights of dusk of the city, gotten off at Sandton and stood outside the train station with a dead cell phone, not useful to call an Uber. I tried to explain to the meter taxi chap that I was going to San Deck, but he didn’t know where it was.
The cold bit my ears, nose and cheeks because someone said winter was over so I didn’t carry a scarf. I was miserable. Eventually a cab guy took a chance on me and offered to take me. He complained about how bad business was all the way to the bar, how Uber and all these new app-savvy cabs had killed taxis. I was only making conversation to keep warm.
So when I got to the rooftop and saw my two friends with noses almost running, seated near the fire, I wanted to jump in the fire. The San Deck, is swanky. It’s popular with the monied in Johannesburg; people who go there to see the sunset and drink bubblies and fine wine.
The music is South African house, at least when I was there on a Monday it was. It’s thudding and beautiful. Aloof South Africans and, of course, tourists and business people staying at the hotel sit around fiddling with their phones, looking privileged and happy to be alive in this moment in time.
Beautiful as it is, we had to move inside or risk turning into talking ice-cubes. Inside, it had a round bar, an expansive lounge area and a fine small fine dinning set-up. Jimmy Choo and Prada shops, now closed, still lit up seductively across the floor. We sat at the bar, my friends both ordered Brut and I opted for a double Glenlivet 12-year-old. Pricing of drinks is surprisingly fair. One double took me back only Sh1,200. I later ordered a beef burger and when it came it was so big I was embarrassed of eating it alone. So I ate it alone.
Service isn’t what we are used to in Kenya. You have to summon the waiter all the time. Nonetheless, the night was fantastic. Nothing could spoil it, not even a monstrous burger.
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