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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Dusty Road Township Experience in Victoria Falls is the best restaurant in the country.
With just one year of effective service, the eatery was voted the best restaurant offering true African taste and experience at the recent 2023 Twalumba National Travel and Tourism Awards organised by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
The Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry launched the Twalumba Travel and Tourism Awards in 2020 to rebrand the National Tourism Awards that had been there over the years and stimulate individual and collective efforts in pursuit of growth and development in the tourism industry, as well as recognise and acknowledge outstanding people and organisations.
Ms Sarah Lilford, the proprietor of the establishment, opened the unique restaurant offering a traditional dining experience in the heart of Victoria Falls in the Old Chinotimba suburb in 2019.
Before the eatery could fully establish itself in a market dominated by bigger players, there came the global Covid-19 pandemic which halted all businesses in 2020.
She had to restart everything in March last year, and one year later, Dusty Road Township Experience was voted the best restaurant offering an authentic Zimbabw ean experience.
“I was overjoyed because we have worked so hard recovering from Covid-19 after shutting down for two years.
We restarted in March 2022 and we have been working tirelessly to get the restaurant going and make the food up to standard with lots of training and marketing,” said Ms Lilford.
As if to celebrate women, the facility employs 12 staff, 10 of them women.
“We are very much about women empowerment,” said Ms Lilford.
The grotesque image coming from vintage materials used to decorate the premises makes the restaurant, located on stand number 1195 along Madonkini Road, very unique.
The Madonkini Road location evokes memories of the old life where people would drive donkey carts to sell different kinds of goods in Victoria Falls in the early 1900s.
Everything within the premises is vintage, from the building itself to every material in the yard and inside the house.
These include a broken down Peogeot 404 truck, recycled utensils, traditional three legged pots and other household items, which gives it a perfect connection to the African way of life.
Flower pots, rockeries, water glasses, plates, cups and dishes are all made of recycled material.
All water glasses and cups are made from recycled glass bottles.
The bar is made of old zinc sheets from broken down cars.Food is cooked from an old wood stove with Ms Lilford saying people love the smokey flavour on the food.
An old bath tub was also neatly cut to make garden chairs and table, set outside the old 1930s building.The menu is wholly traditional, from hot and cold beverages made from wild fruits, to solid foodstuffs, all African dishes from farm produce.
Being in the thick of the township adds a special touch to the restautrant as clients enjoy experiencing the true African life.
Ms Lilford said she had the brand Dusty Road for 25 years before deciding to open the restaurant to showcase the best of local food and rural life in Zimbabwe.
She grew up in farms exposed to rural life and ran a catering business for 25 years in Harare before moving to Victoria Falls in 2017 where she worked for a year at a hotel.
“I found a gap in the market in Victoria Falls where there was no place offering authentic Zimbabwean food.
“I was looking in central town but got here. I put so much energy into it before Covid-19 shut down everything,” she said
Ms Lilford said while she initially sought a place in the central business district, the high density location had proven to be a draw card for clients, a majority of which are foreign from fair shield countries who want to taste true Zimbabwean dishes.
“I love walking around, I love the people of Zimbabwe and the public markets so this is the place to be. For me Dusty Road is going down that road in a rural like atmosphere with so many things happening along the road.
“Everything here is just grotesque. I am passionate about the broken part of Africa. It’s an authentic vibe with the real lifestyle of the Zimbabwean life with people from the suburb,” said Ms Lilford.
She said the eatery serves mostly foreign vistors from across the globe who want to enjoy a real feel of Zimbabwean life.
Victoria Falls, being the country’s tourism capital, has a number of other restaurants that are loved by clients in their own right, but the unique experience at Dusty Road was the killer punch for the award.
The facility is more like a recycling centre.
As one enters the gate, he or she is welcomed by a vintage Peogeot 404 truck with statues of a goat and chicken resting on its roof.
Seat covers are made of old flour cotton cloths and newspapers.
Flower pots are made of recycled material. Inside the house, floors and walls are decorated the rural style.
In an effort to depict a true African lifestyle, bath towels, panties and braas are hanging on the line in the bathroom just for fun and to depict how African homes look like.
Ceilings are made of recycled material.
Cracked floors are fixed with bottle tops.
What people throw away as old material becomes raw materials for Dusty Road.
The whole idea is to promote township tourism.
There are about 10 children that come and sing for guests at Dusty Road in the evening and money raised from there is used to pay school fees for vulnerable children.
Ms Lilford said the aim is to expose youths to foreign visitors so as to open opportunities for them.
“The whole idea is that in as much we are into business, the community should also benefit. After touring Victoria Falls, tourists want a real feel of Zimbabwean life.”
Ms Lilford is not new to award-winning.
She has under her belt two awards for two cooking books both of which talk about Zimbabwean farm life.
Ms Lilford is grateful for the support she got from her family and staff.
She said the secret to succes is hard work, resilience and finding a market that people are interested in.
“It’s the environment, the food, being able to showcase something that’s Zimbabwean and we do that properly here so they get an experience,” she explained.
“This is my first restaurant award and I am proud of it. We are the best restaurant in Zimbabwe and we have the best concept. It’s all about being passionate about Zimbabwe and its people and local ingredients.
“Dusty Road is on the move, it’s coming. Last year was a good year and this year we
got some bookings coming in and good support from tour opertators and we anticipate 2023 and 2024 to be really good,” she said.
Ms Lilford said with more marketing, the restaurant will scale more heights. — @ncubeleon
Online Reporter