Yeoville Dinner Club

One Table. Many Stories.

Two women at a dinner table with various dishes of African cuisine, including vegetable stew and rice, with drinks. One woman is serving rice from a bowl, wearing a red patterned dress, and the other woman is wearing a black headscarf and dress.

People reaching for a large tray of round fried foods at a dinner table surrounded by various dishes and drinks.

A Pan-African dining experience bringing people together across borders, cultures, and plates.

A black-and-white photo of three men sitting on a curb with a wall behind them that says "WE WON'T MOVE" in large, bold letters.

The Origin

The Yeoville Dinner Club began in Johannesburg, around a single table where neighbors, strangers, artists, workers, elders, and travelers sat together to eat.

What started as a local gathering revealed something universal — when people share a table, the world softens.

People sitting on a balcony at night, with a view of a busy street lined with shops and cars, some people are taking photos.

A dinner table with various dishes including a large dish of cooked seafood, a bowl of mussels, a plate of fried food, a pitcher of iced tea, and several empty plates and glasses.

A man in a pink shirt and yellow cap smiling while standing at a gathering with seated people. The room has hanging plants, a colorful abstract painting, and large windows.

Smiling man wearing a colorful hat, holding a black cast iron pan on his shoulder, standing outdoors with trees and buildings in the background.

The Chef

Chef Sanza Sandile is the founder of the famed Johannesburg Yeoville Dinner Club, a space for tasting Pan- Afrikan futures while sharing a dinner table. Each night, he opens a carefully curated table in his spot on ever- buzzing Rockey Street that serves as the temporary home for the stories his guests bring to it: Safe, savoury and clever.

Man serving food at a table with bowls of seafood, with brick wall and artwork in background.

Dubbed a gastronomic smuggler and the “El Bulli of Yeovillle”, Sanza Sandile affirms the dignity of encounters by his unique twist to otherwise well-known African dishes, such as vegan Egusi or Okra-stews. His mixology of flavours, tastes and stories speak to his early career as a radio DJ and selector at YFM and other radio stations of crucial importance in the sonic history of South Africa.

A man wearing a pink shirt, white apron, and yellow hat is cooking or preparing food in a kitchen. He is stirring a frying pan on the stove.

A chef in a pink shirt and yellow cap, smiling while preparing food in a kitchen, with sliced peaches or similar fruit on a tray in front.

His home, inspiration and utopia is Yeoville, the famed Johannesburg suburb called the “most diverse hood in Africa” in a recent feature in the Economist (2019). It is here in Yeoville that he gathers ideas for dishes based on stories of migration and belonging, and taps into the wealth of knowledge of the local, abundant food market and its protagonists. All comes together at the table of the Yeoville Dinner Club, which is both an archive of routes and stories, soon to be turned into a book.