Framed against the sheer sandstone face of Table Mountain, its terracotta facade mirroring the mountain's own amber at dusk, the building that houses Cape Grace, A Fairmont Managed Hotel has one of the most commanding waterfront positions in the southern hemisphere. Built on a private quay within the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in 1996, the property was conceived from the outset as a grand colonial manor transplanted to the harbour's edge — five storeys of mansard rooflines, white-painted balustrades, and symmetrical fenestration arranged to face the working marina on one side and the mountain on the other. The 120-room hotel underwent a significant transformation following Fairmont's stewardship, with interiors refreshed to balance the building's period vocabulary against something more attuned to contemporary Cape Town. The guest rooms carry that calibration well: dark-stained herringbone parquet grounds cream panelled walls dressed in classical cornice mouldings, the furniture mixing tufted linen ottomans and nailhead-detailed upholstered headboards with geometric-patterned rugs in terracotta and ivory that quietly reference the Ndebele tradition. The main restaurant opens around a curved marble bar — brass-railed, plant-dressed, coffered ceiling above — that sits between the formality of white-linened dining tables and the harbour light flooding through tall windows. Downstairs, the basement bar pivots to something altogether moodier: fluted burnt-orange columns, green velvet tub chairs, tulip-base brass barstools, and arched mirror panels behind the counter conjuring a mid-century supper club that could belong to any continent but somehow feels entirely local.

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