Farro

On the 27th of March, the water and municipal services to Farro Restaurant was cut off due to a dispute between the landlord and The City of Cape Town about a Municipal Arrears debt dating back to 2020, 5 years before we were tenants at the building.

It has been nearly 4 weeks that we have been unable to trade, and we are now fundraising to GET OUR DOORS BACK OPEN! 

On the 15th April, we posted the story posted below on Instagram and were absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the community support and response we recieved. Rallying behind us, local businesses have donated gifts to the tune R500 000 to put toward our reopening efforts. We have decided to put these wonderful, wonderful prizes into a LUCKY DIP GIVEAWAY to all of our wonderful supporters, friends and colleauges. For every R500 donated to our cause, the donator will be entered into our FREE GIVEAWAY. Once we have raised the money we need to reopen (At this stage, R360000) we will do a  lucky draw to give away every single wonderful prize!

(Your name will be entered as many times as you donate R500. A donation of R2000 will get your name enetered x4 times!)

Prizes range from Weekends Away in Namibia, Paternoster and Prince Albert to name a few, artworks by prominent Cape Town artists, restaurant experiences at over 20 of Cape Town's BEST RESTAURANTS, jewellery, clothes, ceramics and more wine than you can shake a Gabrielglas at!!! 

We are so greatful for the outpouring of love and support that have been directed our way, and we can't wait to get our doors back open. 

Lots will be announced on Instagram. 

For any questions, please email hello@farrofoodandwine.com

Please remember to win, you need to leave your name and email address for us to contact you! 

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15/04/2026 on Instagram

We don't have water. We have spent the last 20 days internally screaming into the void and now we're going to scream here, because we're frustrated, angry, annoyed and every so often, just wading neck deep in despair. 

We are now on our third week of unexpected closure. Bring out the tiny violins, but this feels so shockingly familiar and truthfully it's hard not to feel kind of broken by it.

It stems from some (horrible) people that racked up a municipal debt in 2020, and then some other (even worse) people who are responsible who have decided that rather than deal with it, they'll just let us circle the drain while they may or may not come to an agreement with the city as to how to resolve it. 

In short: No water, no restaurant. 

Sure, there are water tanks and water deliveries and rejigging the mains. There are nice neighbours who offer pans of water and hosepipes from garden taps. 

But it's not just hauling a couple of buckets of water in. The prepaid electricity meter is attached to the municipal account, meaning until the payment arrangement has been resolved, for every R1 of electricity we put on, only 11c goes to power. The other 89c goes to pay off the debt someone else racked up. 

Last week we found out that this time of unexpected closure doesn't qualify as an ínsuranble event’, and therefore our Insurance won't entertain a Business Interruption claim. Despite our Business being quite clearly interrupted. Again, just screaming into the void here. 

It's terrifying how vulnerable small businesses are. Just a few weeks of no income and you're standing on the precipice of collapse.

Farro, this version of Farro, the very first time we have felt truly happy with it, truly in the place and space where it belongs and felt we are truly giving people the experience we believe in, is just a fledgling. We're not even 6 months old. 

We don't have a big faceless Corp backing us. We (Eloise & Alex, hi!) took every available loan and line of credit to do this. Real people believed in us to do this, opened their hearts, homes and bank accounts, and it feels like it's being ripped away. 

We're trying so, so hard to find a resolution. We are so deeply sorry for every reservation we've had to cancel, every dinner we didn't get to make. We're hemorrhaging whatever cash we had and in truth, just trying so hard not to be defeated by it. 

It's awful to be in this position and all we want is to climb out of this nightmare, dim the lights, pull a foccacia out the oven and pour an order of pre dinner Negronis. 

Let's see what tomorrow brings. For now, our fight continues. 

We hope we see you so soon. 

We'll be needing you <3

Eloise & Alex