Marco, Mamma and the captain
John and Erica Platter tell of a chance encounter with Bok strongman John Smit at Mamma Luciana’s.
It’s a balmy winter Sunday here on the coast; over the road and the ipahla trees the sea is flat and blue, and Mamma Luciana’s at Glenashley is pumping. Full to bursting with families out for a relaxed lunch, nothing fancy, nothing intimidating, just good, honest trattoria food, with wines to match. So reasonably, ungreedily priced that some diners buy extra bottles to take home.
Says Marco Conte, a restaurateur after our own hearts: “I don’t add value to wines simply by keeping them in a fridge and unscrewing their caps, or uncorking them; I don’t think it’s right to charge my customers inflated prices for doing that. And you know what? I find I’m selling more!”
Ungreedy approach
Of course he is. One of our worst memories of being (very small) wine producers was encountering our label in a restaurant at prices so horrifyingly high we’d never have dreamed of ordering the wine ourselves. If only Marco’s ungreedy approach were the norm, rather than the automatic 100-150% mark-up adopted by many if not most restaurants.
The food prices at Mamma Luciana’s are equally friendly, and on this particular Sunday, you can see there are a lot of parents thinking, with relief, that even their big party of kids isn’t going to break the budget. Until, that is, Marco’s business partner, an investor in this buzzing venture, arrives, sits down at a table with his family, and orders …
Immediately there is a minor riot. Waiting staff are vociferously sought. Kids around the restaurant are shouting at their parents: “We want what John’s having… we want what John’s having….” Yes, it is South African and Sharks rugby captain John Smit, who loves restaurants and pasta, and what has he ordered? Oh no, sighs the older (paying) generation. Oh yes! shriek the kids. Why shouldn’t they all have the off-menu special, plump Natal langoustines on a bed of angelhair pasta, just like their hero? Too expensive? Why are their parents being so mean, mean mean?
Click here for “John Smit skills video”
It’s too late to create a diversion by showing them Pasta Jovani Smiterini on the menu. In any case, they are suspicious. Why has John himself not ordered this dish named after him? It features Mamma’s homemade tagliatelle with a special low-cal sauce containing chicken and mushrooms. Devised, reveals Marco, “because John just has to look at food and he puts on weight!”
The kids are not impressed. And we are completely on their side (and John Smit’s own) in this battle. Chicken and mushrooms vs a local langoustine? No contest! We like to think a whole lot of young gourmets, and supporters of our KZN coast’s fabulous seafood, were born that lunchtime.