The Pantry by Marble is widely considered to be the fanciest petrol station in South Africa.
Located in Rosebank, Johannesburg, the Pantry was founded by two men who wanted to create a luxury forecourt that goes well beyond what you’ll find in a typical convenience store.
The story behind the Pantry
The Pantry is the brainchild of celebrity chef David Higgs and serial businessman Gary Kyriacou, who are responsible for multiple high-end restaurants around the country.
Kyriacou started his career in the family business, opening and operating several Spar supermarkets as director of retail and commercial development, before moving on to co-found the coffee establishment Lulu.
Higgs, meanwhile, co-founded a catering company and won the Young Chef of South Africa title in 1993, before becoming a member of the South African National Culinary Team and creating his own cooking school.
The two men came into contact when Kyriacou asked Higgs about opening a restaurant – an idea that later went on to create Marble.
The high-end eatery, situated in Rosebank, was a hit before it even opened its doors, with over 3,000 bookings prior to its big debut in 2016.
Marble became an enormous success by 2022, leading the pair to eventually open a second location at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town at the end of 2024.
Higgs and Kyriacou went on to open another successful restaurant – Saint – in Sandton in 2018, but everything changed following the pandemic in 2020.
The subsequent lockdowns hit the restaurant industry particularly hard, and the business partners needed to find a new avenue to weather the storm.
This came in the form of an unexpected idea to create their own petrol station, which would allow them to build a premium forecourt with a greater focus on hospitality.
“We came up with four or five different concepts of what we could do if this happened again or this Covid thing doesn’t go away quickly. How do we restructure our business? And that’s sort of how it came about,” said Higgs.
“One of the most important things that we wanted to do was to bring the hospitality feel back into the grocer.”
The Pantry goes well behind what you’ll find at a typical supermarket-affiliated outlet found at other petrol stations, such as the Woolworths Foodstop at Engen or the Pick ‘n Pay Express at BP, as it stocks everything from wine to grab-and-go meals, local produce, high-quality coffee, freshly baked goods, and wood-fired pizzas.
Located underneath the Marble, the forecourt is supplied by chefs and staff from the restaurant group, who are on-hand to help customers with their queries.
It is open 24 hours a day, and the fuel station-side of the business is operated by Sasol.
One issue that Higgs and Kyriacou ran into when opening the site was that they did not yet have a retail licence for petrol, and so the service centre operated for two months as a convenience store without selling a single litre of fuel.
In the end, it did little to hurt the Pantry’s prospects, as the store was so popular that it initially struggled to keep the shelves stocked.
The site itself aims for a modern but rustic look, with marble countertops, wood-lined displays, wicker light shades, and plenty of greenery.
The Pantry by Marble Petrol Station
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