{"id":870176,"date":"2026-08-24T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870176"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:58:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:58:27","slug":"the-man-from-soweto-who-started-a-unique-fast-food-restaurant-taking-on-the-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/870176\/the-man-from-soweto-who-started-a-unique-fast-food-restaurant-taking-on-the-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"The man from Soweto who started a unique fast food restaurant taking on the giants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lwazi Madonsela began his entrepreneurial journey at the age of eight by selling his artworks to classmates and has since opened a unique restaurant in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He grew up between Mpumalanga and Soweto with his grandparents before moving to live with his mother in Gqeberha (formerly known as Port Elizabeth) during his high school years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This varied upbringing exposed Madonsela to a wide range of life experiences, allowing him to witness “the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His entrepreneurial instincts were evident from a young age. In grade two, he realised that his drawing skills provided a “loophole for money,” which encouraged him to sell his art to classmates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a child, Madonsela also spent weekends working at his late uncle’s store, where he learned retail concepts such as markups and customer relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For high school, he attended Pearson High School in Port Elizabeth, which focused on art and design. The school offered intensive coursework comparable to first-year university visual art classes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curriculum helped him gain early exposure to branding, design strategy, and marketing, functioning like a “makeshift agency” where students had to justify every creative decision<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was in grade 11, a school design tour to Cape Town first introduced him to the structural departments of advertising and marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madonsela told BusinessTech that he planned to study art at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) but instead chose motion picture at AFDA, specialising in VFX post-production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his first year, he returned to Port Elizabeth to support his mother during a health scare and briefly enrolled in a visual arts program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He dropped out, as it repeated material he had learned in high school. Due to his mother’s academic background, he felt inclined to continue studying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led him to enrol at Lisof to study pattern making, driven by his interest in fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madonsela finished his degree at AFDA while actively participating in the thriving sneaker reselling wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He began his media career hosting “Another Sneaker Show” at Shelflife, a popular South African sneaker store, where he explored sneaker history, design, and industry trends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this time, he learned skills from a mentor, including screen printing and direct-to-consumer sales, while executing brand activations for Nike and Shelflife from 2019 to 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From podcasts to restaurants <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In 2022, Madonsela worked as a freelance designer for Warner Music Africa during its rebranding, handling design and photography. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later co-founded the podcast “Cnr Juta and De Beer” with Shu McDowell, spotlighting independent creative entrepreneurs in Johannesburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The podcast has released over 130 episodes and became the first podcast on the Nike app in Africa, collaborating with brands like Johnnie Walker and Momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its success, he became frustrated with the corporate “invoice culture,” facing strict payment terms and delays even after the 90-day period for payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 26 years old, he realised he wanted a more stable business model that would allow him to earn money hourly and establish a solid foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He decided that sustainable success in the creative sector belongs to those who provide actual products and services directly to their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convinced that a restaurant was a recession-proof business, Madonsela devoted a significant portion of 2025 to intentional research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spent three months in Cape Town exploring fast-food establishments, even using his iPhone’s measuring app to assess the height and comfort of restaurant chairs to determine what worked best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He avoided high-overhead corporate locations like Rosebank and restrictive utility setups in Braamfontein. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, he returned to his roots, noting that younger generations living in the townships deserve the same high-quality culinary and design experiences as those in major cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By partnering with a chef to perfect the taste profile, he launched “And Fries.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Fries is a township-based restaurant and cultural hub in Soweto, South Africa, blending city experiences with township culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Madonsela, the goal is not just to sell food; he explained that he aimed to provide a community experience filled with music and design that fast-food giants couldn’t replicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The space features a red, white, and concrete aesthetic inspired by Five Guys, with a focus on community and experience over generic food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialising in high-quality chicken and potato dishes, the menu includes unique items like “sticky asian” wings, lemon pepper wings, and the “Lemon Dijon” burger with lemon pepper and Dijon mustard.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone eats chicken; if they don’t eat chicken, they eat fish, and that’s probably the next step,” Madonsela told BusinessTech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madonsela describes the vibe as creative and nostalgic, making it a popular spot for local creators, with photography on the walls and music sessions hosted on Sundays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos of And Fries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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And Fries founder Lwazi Madonsela started his entrepreneurial journey at eight, selling his art to classmates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":871579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2091888526983909383","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2185353758951690","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18002473490979163","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26254,26255,9976],"class_list":["post-870176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-and-fries","tag-lwazi-madonsela","tag-soweto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870176"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871609,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870176\/revisions\/871609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}