Storm in a teacup brewing

After 35 years of serving visitors to Cape Town's Company's Garden, the city council has announced that it wants a new leaseholder for the popular Tearoom Restaurant.

But the current owner, Manuel Rodrigues, is fuming, claiming that he has paid his rent in full to the end of the year and knows nothing about the plan .

The city council announced that on June 28 it will advertise the lease for the site on which the restaurant is located.

But, Rodrigues, 70, who has owned the restaurant since its opening in 1978, said: "I do not know anything about this. I have never given them [the city council] any problems."

He said it was unfair that the city council had not alerted him to its new plans for the restaurant.

"I will have to see my attorney. They should have contacted us first," he said.

Rodrigues said the restaurant was his only source of income andits closure would rob his staff of 15 of their livelihoods.

"We are improving all the time but we are not very expensive. We make good food that is not too fancy," said Rodrigues.

Cape Town deputy mayor Ian Neilson said the leasing and redevelopment of the restaurant by public tender "creates a unique and exciting opportunity to revive the Queen Victoria Street edge of the public garden" and "to offer the public a greater variety and improved quality of food and beverage, as well as recreational opportunities".

Neilson said Rodrigues was aware of the plan by the city council but had been "stalling".

"He is aware that we are putting out this restaurant [lease] to tender," said Neilson.

He said the city council wanted to replace the Tearoom Restaurant with something of "reasonable quality" but the city would not be "too prescriptive" about what replaced the restaurant.

But a statement by the city quotes Neilson as saying: "During the initial five-year lease period, the successful tenderer will be expected to establish a world-class and family-friendly restaurant showcasing Cape cuisine, while at the same time managing and operating the restaurant at generally accepted local and international industry standards."