Last night I joined a group of volunteers and attended a spectacular performance of Madame Zingara 10 Years of Dreams – an evening of fun and delight! Ten years ago Madame Zingara first opened her doors as a restaurant in Cape Town. The bohemian atmosphere captured the hearts of Capetonians and visitors and the restaurant was a great success. It provided a warm and welcoming dining experience combined with a decadent gypsy spirit. Tragically, late in 2006, the entire restaurant was lost in a fire.
The Zingara family was unable to rebuild the restaurant but they conceived the idea for the Theatre of Dreams – a traveling dinner cirque extravaganza in a mirror tent. The dinner cirque enjoyed full houses in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. Madame Zingara became famous and earned many awards for transforming South Africa’s concept of dining out.
With the financial crash of 2009, Madame Zingara’s business took a hit. The restaurant had difficulty recovering from its decline. With help from businessman and restaurateur Richard Griffin, Madame Zingara proved resilient and once again her production recovered to share more love and magic with the people of South Africa. After a sensational season in Johannesburg and Durban, Madame Zingara is back in the Mother City with her blend of decadent dining and breathtaking entertainment.
Based in Cape Town the Zingara Group restored several landmark restaurants in the city. The Sidewalk Café, Café Mozart, Café Paradiso, and The Bombay Bicycle Club are all part of the Zingara family of restaurants. Madame Zingara donates part of the profits to support various charity organizations that help orphans and children at risk.
“Madame Zingara’s Theatre of Dreams, the Grande Dame of burlesque, is a unique dinner cirque spectacular which enchants, captivates, and inspires all who pass through her stained glass doors and enter her magical world. Housed in one of the last remaining Mirror Tents in the world, Victoria is a magnificent twenty-five metre (26 yard) velvet big top made in Belgium that has toured the globe for the last eighty years. The tent seats 420 and her ornate mirrored columns, rich velvet drapes, and beveled booths transport those who enter back to a by-gone era where cirque and magic ruled the world. The on-site kitchen facilities ignore no aspect of hospitality. From the superbly trained glitter-dusted floor-fairies to the singing and incredible acrobatics, those who enter Madame Zingara’s world begin to understand there are no boundaries to the night and everything is possible.”
Understandably, this captivating event is extremely popular in Cape Town and sells out quickly. I will smile about it for some time! If you want to better understand what Madame Zingara is all about – you must travel to South Africa and see for yourself – there is no other way!
