Restaurant trends in Durban, South Africa

Abstract

As part of the cultural life of the city, restaurants provide sacred spaces in which the pleasures of eating and communicating can be experienced and valued. They also chronicle trends and shifts in cultural tastes, social behaviour and community fears as urban residents respond to the influence of globalization, the experience of cultural interaction, and perceptions of threats to personal safety. The purpose of this paper is to examine these trends in the ‘colonial’ core region of Durban, South Africa. Restaurants were shown to cluster in four districts: the central business district, the beachfront, and two districts in a suburban environment where the residents are predominantly white South Africans. Once the domain of white privilege, the central business district and beachfront are shown to have undergone a transformation towards multiculturalism in recent years. Impelled by images of urban disorder and increasing crime levels associated with this trend, white consumers increasingly have shifted towards locations in the white dominated suburbs that are perceived to be safe, up‐market and culturally homogeneous. Over a recent 15‐month period the central business district and beachfront district showed negative restaurant growth, largely for these same reasons. In contrast, restaurants in the suburban districts showed positive growth due to a synergy between capital investment and the cultural identity and perceptions of urban whites. While restaurant variety is linked to the globalization of food, the range of restaurant types is shown to vary between districts in response to social and economic factors.