COY
A brand hidden in plain sight
The ocean has a voice
COY sits in the V&A Waterfront with Table Mountain as its backdrop, hidden between million-dollar yachts and working fishing trawlers. It is the second restaurant from award-winning chef Ryan Cole, recently crowned South Africa’s Restaurant of the Year at the 2025 Eat Out Woolworths Awards with a three-star rating. Cole, raised in a family of fishermen, understood and owned a location that would inhabit more than one perspective.
Cole, the 2023 Eat Out Chef of the Year, has spent over six years perfecting his voice. Cole calls COY “the cool younger sibling” of Salsify, a landmark in Cape Town’s fine dining scene. COY’s menu explores African produce and forgotten ingredients: ancient grains, samp, fermented amadumbe sourdough, bokkom, coal-seared tuna and braaied kingklip. Sustainability is baked in.
Understated fine dining
Redbeerd partnered with Cole to bring COY to the world. Our work included brand strategy, logo development, illustration, and a visual and verbal language that is quiet and curious. The brandmark almost at once dis/appears, and the illustrations are deeply rooted in place, speaking to the land, the sea and the ingredients. COY embraces the understatement.
Hospitality is family
