When my dear friend Clouds had a birthday last week but decided to be all “oh I don’t really worry about birthday celebrations”, I just had to intervene.  I mean did she not know that a birthday is the perfect excuse for the girls to get together for a good drink & skinner session?   I was like, right lady, we are celebrating this whether you like it or not…  And not only that, we’re going to do it in style dammit!

Because Clouds is a girl who really loves her bubbly, I figured the relatively new (it’s been open for about 7 months) Gorgeous by Graham Beck bubbly bar on the Steenberg Wine Estate would be the perfect spot.  I had read about it on Eat Out and have been dying to check it out for a while.  So I was really glad that I finally had a solid reason for getting my butt over there.

Now Gorgeous is just soooo beautiful.  You can either sit at the bar or slump back onto a comfy couch in one of the semi-private booths, which is what we opted for.

To drink, you can order either by the glass of per bottle.  They have both non-vintage & vintage bubbles to choose from.  In their non-vintage selection your options are the Graham Beck Brut NV, Brute Rose NV & Bliss NV.  All R40 per glass or R200 for a bottle.  In their vintage selection your options are the Brut Zero 2005, Blanc de Blanc 2008 & Brut Rose 2008.  All of these are slightly pricier at R65 per glass or R325 for a bottle.  Or you can really splash out and opt for their Cuvee Clive ’05 which they refer to as a “Icon tier” Methode Cap Classique.  With this baby you’ll be paying R100 a glass or R500 for a bottle.

Don’t like bubbly and don’t want to feel outta place?  No stress, you can also select from 2 Graham Beck white wines as well as 2 reds.  We were feeling in a bit of a pink drink mood, so we opted for the Brut Rose NV:

Cheers ladies! Leigh, me, the birthday girl, Carmen & Elona.

To avoid getting so tipsy that you have to take a little unfabulous nap on the couch, I suggest trying some canapes as well.  The snacks are made by the Catharina’s restaurant next door and you can shoose between things like Saldanha Bay Oysters, Thai Ostrich Tartare, Sugar Cured Grilled Salmon Trout and Vanilla Panna Cotta, all ranging from around R18 – R30 per portion.

We went for the cheese board (R55) as well as the Watercress & Goats Cheese Risotto Croquettes (R25):

Even the food is beautiful… and very tasty.

Now I don’t normally run around taking pictures of bathrooms.  But the ladies room here was just so stunning I actually had to go back to my seat to get my camera.  This is what I want my bathroom to look like one day:

That’s seriously nice, right?

We were having such a great time, just chillin’ and chatting, we ended up staying until dinner time.  So we decided some more food was in order.  It was then we discovered they do a weekly food & bubbly pairing special and this week’s was spicy seafood soup paired with a glass of Bliss NV for R55:

Firstly I had never tried the Bliss variety MCC before and it was so good I bought a bottle to take home (then you get it at cellar prices, so I only paid R105). And then I don’t normally even eat seafood soup, but after having a little taste of Leigh’s, there was no way I was missing out. It was absolute perfection.

This was such a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  I would say this is not a “ja, maybe go check this out sometime” kinda place, this is a “go now because your soul needs it” kinda place.  Seriously, go now!

En route back to the car we stopped for a while to take in some of the beauty of the Steenberg Estate.  It really feels like you’re far far out of town, in the middle of nowhere, with just vineyards as far as the eye can see, but really you’re only in Tokai and not that far from the bustling city centre.  So it makes this such an easy outing…

Important things to know:

• Gorgeous is open 7 days a week from 11am to 10pm
• They don’t accept bookings.  So you just rock up.
• You can contact them on: 021 713 7177 or info@gorgeousbygrahambeck.co.za

xxx