TREASURE & INSPIRE: Poké Box and Phansi Museum fuse heritage in Durban

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> Culinary roots and traditions preserved, cultivated, created as Hawaii meets Vietnam meets Korea meets Zulu customs and culture in the cool café Thomas Wright has created at the Phansi Museum. Two ‘hidden’ suburban Glenwood gems, one address.

Heritage. Custom. Culture. Tradition. Roots. How about Hawaii meets Vietnam meets Korea meets China via Australia at one of South Africa’s finest repositories of indigenous African art.

This is a condensed version of the story behind Thomas Wright’s Poké Box at Phansi Museum; architect, cultural conservationist, 2023 UKZN honorary doctorate recipient Paul Mikula’s trove of African art and artefacts. To quote Mikula: “We exist to treasure, share and inspire.”

If you’re not in Durban, you can take a virtual tour of the Phansi Museum here .

Wright opened his initial Poké Box from a hot-pink strip-lit hole-in-the-wall find-it-if-you-can converted garage in a bougainvillea-meets-barbed wire single lane service alley that runs for a block parallel to Florida Road. We wrote about it in TGIFood soon after it opened, here.

Morningside fans lamented and Glenwood celebrated when Wright shuttered there and moved across town to open Poké Box, version two, in a “proper eatery” space, right next to Adam Robinson’s Glenwood Bakery .

As soon as he got there, he expanded his menu and, with his engaging quicksilver energy and enthusiasm, created a buzzy hub in Glenwood with movie nights, dance club nights, music nights, art exhibitions and assorted cool informal happenings, mainly shared through his fun, often funny, sometimes serious, occasionally whacky, always informative posts on TikTok and other social media platforms.

Wright, since he opened, has whetted appetites and made tastebud waves in Durban (between riding big surf waves early mornings at North Beach), serving up his deconstructed sushi-style poké bowls, Asian street food, ramen and Korean-style toasted sarmies.

Everything he slices, chops, preps and puts on the menu or his “specials board” is fresh and made from the best quality ingredients he can source and afford.

Fish, of course, from Bartho Brothers (whom we wrote about here ). Everything creatively prepared and delicious. Always a few treats, usually with quirkiness and humour mixed in, like his “sneaky banana & bran muffins”.

Then there are the weather-inspired specials such as an “uncomplicated pork belly ramen” or a “Durban curry with Japanese vibes” or a “katsu curry fish cake & carrot salad”. Also noodle salads with a choice of beef, chicken or tofu (vegan).

Signature poké options include a free range smoked chicken box, sesame marinated tofu and trout ceviche. Newly added, and in a sense a throwback to his pre-poké days, is a short menu of pasta classics.

“I grew up in Glenwood. I went to Glenwood Primary and Glenwood High. I had this romantic idea about opening in my old neighbourhood,” he tells me.

We’re sitting chatting in Poké Box, version three, which has opened in “the cowshed” at Phansi Museum, which those familiar with this urban landmark will know.