Op my stoep lodge/Op My Stoep Restaurant
Accomodation/Hospitality
The owner and creative mind behind OP MY STOEP – Fanie Smit – was born as Esteban Alberto Smit in Argentina, migrated to South Africa with his mother at the young age of 17.
He then moved to Windhoek, South West Africa to complete his Trade Qualifications for Auto Electrical.
Fanie found his way to Oranjemund, where he worked for CDM and then started an Auto Electrical Business, but found his passion to be in catering and hospitality, cooking since 1988, starting with catering at the Off-Road Club (Log Cabin) and then he bought the Desert Inn restaurant and transformed it to become Don Esteban.
After Fanie sold Don Esteban, he envisioned a restaurant with lodgings offering a luxurious yet family orientated experience, thus the birth of OP MY STOEP.
OP MY STOEP LODGE has undergone an ownership change of sorts, where Fanie and Ria's son - Mauricio, his wife Shola and their daughter Stasia - has taken over the daily tasks and responsibilities of the restaurant and lodge, so as to allow Fanie and Ria to retire. They get to stick their toes in the sand and throw a rod into the ocean, in their newest home-town of Henties Bay.