Every night, Madame Zingara, a Belgian tent of mirrors with spellbinding circus acts and dazzling dramatic performances, enthrals audiences with a three-course dinner to seal the night. A creation by Richard Griffin nearly 15 years ago, it has had its fair share of glory, but some rainy days as well.
Having been raised by staunch Christian parents, Griffin ran away from home at 13 and found another home in hospitality.
Although he didn’t know it at the time, this would launch what is today known as Madame Zingara’s Theatre of Dreams, an entertainment tent traveling around the country for months on end showcasing acrobatic talent and singing from acts cast from across the world.
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When he ran away, Griffin worked in a kitchen as a dishwasher, he would watch how chefs prepared their most delectable meals and fell in love with the idea of doing it himself. As he grew up and travelled the world, Griffin started cooking in numerous restaurants. But, after spending years in the hospitality industry, he developed a deep desire to create something unique, a place that could boast excellence and culture, while keeping its staff happy and allowing them to be themselves.
“I fell in love with hospitality, there was something about it. The ability to make people happy was the driving force behind what I did. After 20 years of cooking, I was very lucky to step into a career of entertainment, but I had never left food behind me,” says Griffin.
And that’s where he is today, with Madame Zingara. But the journey was a tumultuous one.
Griffin first founded an 80-seater restaurant &#8211; the original Madame Zingara in Cape Town &#8211; back in 2001. It was an outlet for Griffin’s self-confessed love of excess. The restaurant had 13 themed dining rooms which paid tribute to the character of Madame Zingara.
The restaurant was a hit with local and international guests. While on holiday in Ireland in 2006, Griffin stumbled upon the Spiegeltent, a large traveling tent, at the Cork Festival and fell in love with it. He then began negotiations to bring the tent to South Africa.
Back in Cape Town, Madame Zingara grew to a 350-seater restaurant, then eventually taking over two entire buildings and increasing its staff to 100.
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While this was happening in the background, nothing could have prepared him for what happened following months of renovations and pre-booked reservations to the restaurant. Madame Zingara was gutted by fire, destroying it from one corner to another. Everything was lost. The cause? A suspected electrical fault.
“It was a dark moment in my life. Hospitality is my blood. It’s what drives me,” he says.
He had to find a temporary location to raise his business from the ashes and this is when the Madame Zingara’s Theatre of Dreams, a burlesque dinner show in the Spiegeltent, became a possibility. The 96-year-old mirror tent, called Victoria, is the largest and one of the last remaining antique mirror marquees out of the 17 left in the world.
In 2007, after months of preparation and planning, Griffin launched Madame Zingara’s first production, Aphrodisia, in Cape Town.
It became an instant hit and things were starting to look up. The fire disaster was becoming a distant memory in Griffin’s mind. Aphrodisia spent the next few months touring around the country, before it was invited to take the production to England.
But disaster struck again. The company that had agreed to set up Madame Zingara in London pulled out following the global financial crisis in 2009, leaving Griffin with a $1.6-million bill. It forced the business into liquidation.
Griffin was left out in the cold again.
“We have gone through so much. It was the most traumatic thing on earth losing everything. For me the heart-breaking side is the voice of the people, the public’s perception of what happened and it’s not based on any form of truth. I took three months off. I went home and developed a terrible panic disorder,” says Griffin.
The 41 year old couldn’t pay bills, his staff nor pay back all those who had invested in him. Others might have thrown in the towel, he didn’t.
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Following his experiences, he thought nothing else could get him down. He had to raise Madame Zingara from the ashes.
The brand was the only thing that remained after the liquidation.
Luckily for him, a friend who had worked with him in the kitchen persuaded Griffin to start cooking again. A random act of kindness that got him back on his feet doing what he loved most. He had a strong brand in Madame Zingara and the backing of loyal employees and shareholders.
“I started with Bombay Bicycle Club, a gift from Dr Charles and I gave it away to the people that I worked with and had lost all that money with me,” says Griffin.
The restaurant was under the Madame Zingara Holdings. Following its success, he opened a sister restaurant called Sidewalk Café nearly four months after opening Bombay Bicycle Club.
Once this was up and running, the shareholders told Griffin to start thinking of resurrecting the Theatre of Dreams. He agreed to a three-year contract as managing director where he would build the business back up.
“Pain is the birthplace of creativity. When we live the life of extremes, that is when we push ourselves to new boundaries and experiences, which is really what Madame Zingara is about for me,” says Griffin.
The three years lapsed and Madame Zingara is still standing, selling to sold-out audiences around the country. Griffin managed to repay all the creditors and build a brand synonymous with extravagant and entertaining dining. He has about 400 staff, six restaurants and is entertaining almost 2,000 customers a day.
For now, Griffin is planning Madame Zingara’s 15-year celebrations in 2015 with a bigger tent, astonishing acts and dinner that will keep your mouth watering.

Tag: Acts

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