This Is the East: The Windmill of Van Riebeek Avenue
Fifth in an occasional blog series called This Is the East, featuring hidden spots on Johannesburg’s East Rand.
On a busy stretch of Van Riebeek Avenue in Edenvale, amidst hair braiding salons and car stereo places and dusty old bookshops, is an authentic, nearly full-sized Dutch wooden windmill. Inside the windmill is a Dutch pancake house and below it is the best Dutch bakery in Joburg.
De Backery was founded by a Dutch family in 1963 – originally a small, single-story bakery. The place became popular over the years and continued to expand, with people coming from all over Joburg for its bread and pies and pastries.
In the 1990s De Backery’s owners looked into commissioning a neon sign shaped like a windmill but eventually decided to build an actual windmill instead – a 3/4-sized replica of the Zeldenrust windmill in Gronigen, Holland. That’s when De Molen (“the Windmill”) Pancake House was born, inside the windmill on top of De Backery. The vanes even turn when there are no customers on the balcony.
Breakfast on the Windmill
Breakfast on a windmill – what more do I need to say? We sat on the balcony overlooking the busy street, feeling the breeze and eating pancakes and pies and drinking coffee. It was a perfect East Rand Saturday morning and I wish I could have stayed there forever.
De Backery is a worth a trip to Edenvale, no matter where you live. Go this Saturday and get there early before the best pastries sell out.
De Backery is at 47 Van Riebeek Avenue, Edenvale.
This looks great. Thank you for the post.
Have been going there for years but lately seemed to also have forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder. Somehow I thought the windmill was there way before the 1990’s.
Great post ????
It is a great place to visit and buy. In the depths of winter we go there for their stunning Pea Soup - a meal on it’s own!!
You’re the second person to tell me about the pea soup - need to go back in winter.
The pea-soup is Mark’s Oma’s recipe. The best ever!
Thank you for the write up. I hope all our customers feel the same about our Bakery and Restaurant. Hopefully next time you are in the area we can meet.
The best ever!!!! To many favourites to mention… but nothing beats their white custard slice!
Congrats Mark, family and team, a well deserved write up. Will have to come up in winter next time to have some of Ouma’s soup. Cheers to many more happy years xx
I’m definitely going back for soup and custard slice.
French fries and gravy! Just add some cheese curds and you’ll have poutine, which is the greatest, most unhealthy food ever.
Hmm, I need to find out if anyone makes that in Joburg.
Can you please let me know if you find fresh cheese curd? I have also been searching. The northeastern Iowan in me would really love to know. I’ve nearly resolved to just learn to make it myself.
Hmm, this is something I haven’t come across but I will keep an eye out!
Darn, how did I miss this while living there? That looks like a true pancake, meaning thin and plate-wide, and one is a complete meal. The bacon/sweet combinations are unexpectedly good!
I was actually wondering if you’d discovered it! I didn’t learn about it until around 2014/2015. We’ll have to go the next time you’re here :)