Paintings, pimms, pancakes pomp

 The Vabatsiri Soroptimists, in what has become a longstanding partnership with the gallery, were serving the Pimms and pancakes with both sweet and savory fillings – and on sale were small unframed works by local artists varying from as little as US$20 for a little oil by a relatively unknown to several hundred for the better known artists.
Pimms is a gin based drink invented by James Pimm in 1840s. A very British drink made from an apparently still secret recipe of spices and fruit juice Pimms conjures up for me a no doubt dated idea of garden parties with people dressed in white linen clinking long ice laden glasses loaded with cucumber and strawberries.
Not too much white linen around but it was fun to wonder around the shady gallery garden with a chance to get some early Christmas presents.
I expected more on the British theme from Butlers – now in prime corner space in Newlands Shopping centre. Decor is verandah colonial with white wicker furniture, embossed pink table cloths and nice flowers – but the food more difficult to classify. 
The lunch menu offers an antipasti buffet selection as a US$10 special. On arrival we were told that included a glass of wine but that offer wasn’t renewed. The service was as puzzling as the menu (full of typos and spelling mistakes) and it was hard to tell who was waiting staff. I was greeted by one person, seated outside and given a menu – and never saw her again. Someone else brought me a drink but when my friend arrived I had to go inside to attract attention.
This laissez-faire service policy prevailed throughout the meal.  Luckily the antipasti is a buffet help yourself.
Antipasti literally translates from the Italian as ‘before the meal’ but increasingly, like the Middle Eastern meze, can be a meal in itself. Antipasti are made up of anything the imagination allows – usually a combination of cured meats, pickles, marinaded vegetables and salad. According to food guru Elizabeth David “It is the unexpected which makes the charm of many of these little dishes……”
The unexpected didn’t prevail here except in a strange pancake stuffed with red cabbage. It was an adequate spread and nicely laid out – beetroot and olive salad, lentils, a cold rice dish, potato salad, cheeses, butternut squash, fat green olives and some not very special salami.
The promised calamari was difficult to identify – and tasted more like canned mussels but as a whole the meal was pleasant and refreshing.
We didn’t try a main course – all US$14 – covering a full range of meats and a variety of styles – from rump steak with Madagascar pepper to Cape Malay chicken curry. The typos made for some strange sounding combinations and I was tempted by ravioli in a Basil Ant Tomato sauce.
We waited a while for a dessert order to be taken and once again had to attract attention, this time from the man languidly manning the buffet. It took a while for him to reveal that pavlova was ‘finished’ so we chose the dou? (duo) of panacotta (US$7) – very prettily presented.
The mango sorbet was lovely but chocolate panacotta not really to my       taste and reminded my friend of boarding school mud pie.
As we were finishing the woman who may or may not have been a waiter overheard us commenting on the typos, gave us a pen and invited editorial corrections!  Will see if the caked of the day and the snitzels have disappeared next time.  Lunch for two US$31.

– g.jeke@yahoo.com