The first Bossa opened in Paarl in 2002. This was a time when popular fast food American burger chains were sweeping across South Africa. Bossa’s founders, Pieter van der Westhuizen and Braam Swart decided to take the contrary approach to the market and opened a restaurant guaranteed to appeal to all and sundry.

Fresh ingredients, 200g ground beef burgers, 35-day matured steaks and woodfired pizzas bucked the fast-food trend and proved to be hugely successful. Twenty-two years later the Bossa in Paarl is still as popular as ever.

For the Bossa management there are non-negotiables which create the pillars of the Bossa success story.