All Roads Lead to… Hotel Thule Terrace

We walk out onto the Hotel Thule Terrace hungover, hungry and in no mood for time-wasting waiters. Countless 30th birthday shots of Jägermeister and tequila have us battling babalas like never before and upon the word of all the dazzling drunks who came before us, we decide to slay our demons with hair of the dog, some tapas and a view.

Though the old adage says one should eat the hair of the dog that bit them, we settle on the sunny deck overlooking Eros and decide to cure our hangovers with caipirinhas – Brazil’s cocktail claim to fame made with cachaça, sugar and lime.

Thankfully, the cocktails are short in the coming. A friendly waiter takes in our dark glasses and general air of regret and makes it his life’s work to be practically invisible, pleasant and prompt with our alcohol as we sink into the white chairs that overlook the city we can just about see through an unsightly plastic barrier guarding against the wind.

My American friend says that, from up where we are, Eros kind of looks like Los Angeles. It’s something about the greenery, the hills and the bright white houses filled with people with plenty. I’ve never been to LA but it still makes me feel bougie which, as a newly minted 30-year-old, is exactly what I’m after.

Unsurprisingly, my freshly found sophistication lasts just until I’m snorting caipirihina out of my nose laughing at my friend Jay’s imitation of local cabbies who return his requests to go to assorted spots in the city with a classic “oooh, uh-uh!”

As his American accent makes mad work of curt cabbie inflection, caipirinha escapes nostrils from all angles …which is a pity because the Terrace makes them moreish, mean and with limes as fresh as you like.

Our party of five orders three more and we sip them under a lukewarm sun in between bites from our snack basket which we all agree is the best thing we ever did for ourselves.

Generous with cuts of cheese, droewors, garlic olives and crostini sticks in the one and chicken wings, samoosas, crumbed mushrooms, sausages and chips in the other, the five of us dig in to scrumptious satisfaction.

It’s some of the best food, service and scene we’ve had in a long time and I wonder why I suffer the haughty waiters and the grotesque excuses for gourmet grub elsewhere. By the time the waiter has cashed us up, Hotel Thule’s Terrace is one of my new favourite seats in the city.

It’s winter and the light fades quickly but everything that matters and makes a difference in an establishment is warm, friendly and lovely to look at. If my experience is anything to go by, I’d say restaurateurs can learn a lot from the place and frequent diners frustrated by the prevailing pathetic in the local restaurant industry would do well to spend their hard earned money here.

As for us? We’re back in top form at the top of the world. And as we walk past a pond heaving with fish, we become as forgetful as they’re famed to be, tuck previous hangovers at the back of our brain and head out into the evening…seeking the rum before regret.

Hotel Thule is situated at 1 Gorges Street in Eros. Call 371950 for more.

– @marth__vader or martha@namibian.com.na

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