May 29, 2006
By Lucille Davie
The famous Color Bar in Milpark is no more. But from its ashes has risen Roka, offering hip entertainment, a large selection of cocktails and a location – at 44 Stanley Avenue – that has come to be associated with the latest in trendy lifestyles and living.
Roka is a new venture by the owners of the Melville cocktail bar, Six. What they call a "multi-concept venue", it has a full menu and the "best cocktails in town", plus live entertainment most nights.
The owners – Shakir Jadoo, Dassie Moodley, Ebrahim Asmal and Pree Bodasing – were bobbing among the crowd at the launch on Tuesday night, 23 May, making sure everybody was amply plied with drinks and snacks.
"We are all very hands-on to ensure the personal touch," Moodley says. "We want to give people something different, so Roka is a cosmopolitan and energetic venue for people to hang out and be entertained. However, we have also focused on our menu and offer stylish and delicious food."
Roka offers 70 cocktails – classics like Mai Tai, Manhattan, Martini and Margarita, alongside Basil Grande, 6 Was 9 and Jelly Bean. Customers can tuck into two for the price of one every day until 7pm.
The target market, says Asmal, is the 25-plus age group, unlike the student market the Color Bar largely catered for. He says what drew him and his partners to Milpark is being part of the "Melville-Newtown nexus, which offers a creative, off-the-beat and don't-make-us-conform" attitude.
There is no entrance fee except on Friday nights, when you'll be asked to part with R20. In return you'll get 1980s music to dance to. Other nights will offer a nice variety: on Tuesday it is Drum 'n Bass; on Wednesday it is the five-member band Voice, playing its own brand of "straight-ahead jazz"; and on Thursday Uju takes the stage with its "refined hip-hop", lifting the music to a "new level of sophistication", led by poet and spiritual leader Ntuthu Ndlovu. At the weekend, Fridays and Saturdays are the turn of resident DJs Old School and Deep House.
Asmal admits that they're on a learning curve with the music.
Regarding grub, he says they have largely kept the popular Color Bar menu, with a few additions like samoosas, nachos, haloumi burgers, a T-bone steak with pap and chakalaka, and a South Indian chicken curry and grilled prawns. The Color Bar kitchen staff remain.
On the choice of the name, Asmal says there were several reasons behind it. "Bar" was too definitive, as the partners don't see the new venture as only a bar. "Color Bar" had negative, possible racist connotations for black customers. And "Roka" has two meanings: in Japanese it means the crest of the wave and in Sanskrit it means the party before the wedding.
Roka is in 44 Stanley Avenue, Milpark. It is open on Mondays to Saturdays from midday till late, and on Sundays from 10am to 8pm.
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