What appeals to Iain Harris about this Ethiopian restaurant is the communal aspect. "I love eating by hand and I love that you share collectively, instead of having your own little fiefdom of food," says this relentlessly upbeat lateral thinker as we tuck into our aromatic portions of lamb, beef, mushrooms and lentils. They're all ceremoniously arranged on a giant pancake covering the colourful little traditional straw table.
Coffeebeans Routes MD Iain Harris
Surprisingly, restaurants are not a major feature of the innovative Cape Town tours organised by Harris's company, Coffeebeans Routes. "We take people to places they couldn't normally access without inside assistance. Our routes are designed so both visitors and Capetonians can cross boundaries and engage with the people of the city in all their diversity." He has a wide-ranging network of musicians, artists, poets, sangomas, gardeners, foodies, spiritual leaders, Rastas and sportsmen.Naturally the musicians are the big draw. In a story in April this year, Time magazine's "Global Adviser" section goes on a Jazz Safari with Harris's group, visiting musicians in their homes on the Cape Flats. After Harris launched Coffeebeans Routes four years ago, the New York Times wrote a feature on the music route that was so enthusiastic bookings came in immediately it hit the streets.
Music is one of the core passions of this 33-year-old son of an Anglican priest, who majored in English literature, film and acting at UCT and has travelled as a music journalist to the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
"One of the reasons we got into tourism was to provide opportunities for the musicians. To grow resources here that would otherwise never have seen the light of day.
"We see ourselves as pan-African."
Music is what puts the bread on the table for Harris and his two-man team - a full-time guide and an operations manager. "Though we're getting to the point where we just about cover ourselves, the routes alone are not profitable yet. The profits come from acting as a broad-based music agency working with everyone from film and music companies to corporate incentive groups.
"We consulted on the music for the movie Disgrace, the JM Coetzee novel. And last week we assisted a Japanese pop band, signed to a major label, to plug into the fabric of the city. There were 12 of them, including a film crew, and it was a three-day programme of studio sessions with local artists, composer master classes and performance."
The Cape Town Partnership commissioned Coffeebeans Routes to do 13 free public Goemarati concerts all over Cape Town, celebrating the Cape's own brand of music, goema, and culminating in a CD. Spier is another corporate client. Harris's team organised 72 shows of Cape Town music for Spier's Village Hotel with 60 different acts, over a 16-week period at weekends. "Everything from choral and classical to jazz and folk."
HOW HE CHILLS
 Cycling and jogging
Experimenting with vegetarian curries with his journalist wife Linda Daniels
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The tourism side is growing. But Harris's company doesn' t do township tours, though statistics show about 30% of international visitors want them. "What they want to see is shacks. We don't offer that. As long as we perpetuate that thinking we will never develop the informal settlements. We try to show things in a different light, visiting the townships only as part of our Urban Futures Route, and talking about how we see transformation. We take them to places like Manenberg, which is developing a waterfront, and the former power station which will become a cultural and retail precinct. We're in the business of shifting perspectives."
But some visitors are looking only for soccer. They can tour the Green Point stadium and get to play with a team like the Gugulethu Pirates or Winnie's Ladies.
Typical of Harris's offbeat approach is his company's name. "We wanted something universal. Historically people have gathered over coffee to share stories."
