Speaking to the OFM Business Hour, Maradine Whitehorn, the owner and chef of Seisoen, says it is not the end of an era for them as a brand, as they will continue hosting their events, just at different venues.

The restaurant announced over the past weekend that it will be officially closing its doors on 24 February 2023. "A lot of people have asked to do our pasta classes, so that is definitely on the cards; also the sip and paint classes as people loved those - you drink wine, then you paint, then you laugh, then you eat."

Before Seisoen officially closes, they will host a five-course fine dining event featuring everyone's favourites.

As far as the staff at the restaurant is concerned, she says they will remain part of the brand as they will continue working together on projects in the future.

"Since opening the restaurant, something beautiful has happened. Some of my staff have developed their own businesses, some are even private chefs," she added. Whitehorn explained that this is the beautiful part about the restaurant, that she played a role in helping staff members become their own brand.

She hasn’t made a decision about what she will do with the equipment from the restaurant; she will keep some and give some to her staff, who have also asked if they can get some. "I will keep some of the stuff that we made when we opened Seisoen, for memory's sake. Some of our clients have also asked for little souvenirs, and we will try our best to do so."

Ever since the news broke that they would be closing the restaurant, she has been getting calls, and for her, this is overwhelming. "When we were operating, we didn’t really notice what type of impact we had on our clients; now we realise that we have actually made family."

Funny fact: Whitehorn wasn’t always interested in having her own restaurant. She was a photographer at a newspaper in Bloemfontein for years, then moved to work at her father’s building material store, and then she one day realised she could cook.

"After realising that, I started cooking for other people, and then people wanted to start paying." She also reflects on how a friend from university once said, "You couldn’t even make mince when we were students; how are you a chef now?" It also surprised her, but she says she realised it came from growing up on a farm, as well as from her mother and having a large vegetable garden.

The move to Reizis Square came after they had been operating at a different location close to Hoërskool Sentraal. "I didn’t know that I had to have retail rights to operate in that specific space because I have never owned a restaurant before." They relocated to Reizis Square in the midst of hard lockdown and people assumed that they had closed and then opened a new restaurant.

She says that there is no particular main reason why they are closing the restaurant, they have learned what works and what doesn’t. The decision for the closure seems to have been influenced by other reasons. “Covid really affected us negatively, but that is a small portion of why we are closing the restaurant,” she explained.

When asked what some of her favourite memories from the restaurant are, she says there are too many to mention.

She does, however, appreciate the customers who agreed to move their birthday dinners and other events before the restaurant closed.

OFM