The Theatre Cafe at Redfields Garden Centre, newly re-built last year at cost of around £3.5 million, has been garnering plaudits not just for its food and drink but for its overall ambience and bold approach to service.

The cafe is is aptly named, because the ‘theatre of food’ is among the favourite topics of Alan Roper, CEO of the Blue Diamond Group, who bought the centre four years ago. The group’s Trentham (Staffordshire) centre pioneered theatre in the garden centre catering environment 10 years ago with its front-of-house pizza oven and was probably ahead of its time.

It’s also not inconceivable that ‘going to the theatre’ is a regular pastime for the regular clientele of Redfields. Part of the site’s attraction for Blue Diamond was that seven out of 10 households within a 20-mile radius were AB1 - a socio demographic group Alan believes was not effectively served by its previous owners (although, to be fair to them, they had proposed and obtained planning permission for an upgraded centre before Blue Diamond arrived).

He needed a model that the aspiring monied classes in prosperous north Hampshire could relate to - and the self-service option adopted by the majority of garden centres would not cut it here.

He opted not for full table service but for food-to-table, where the order is taken and paid for and then delivered to the table.

Many believe this is expensive to staff, difficult to execute and not welcomed by customers used to the McDonalds and motorway service areas.

But Alan believes the Theatre Cafe’s performance since it opened proves it was the right choice for Redfields. In May it achieved an average spend of £8.71, compared to £7.10 at the group’s Grosvenor acquisition in the equally AB1 catchment around Chester. (Overall, Redfields is now the group’s second biggest earning centre behind Trentham).

He believes it’s a nonsense to say that staff costs are higher for food-to-table. “In my experience here, they’re much the same as non food-to-table,” he says. “I don’t think those who believe you can operate a restaurant with staff costs lower than 30% will be able to achieve it. I choose to operate at 34/35%, which enables me to offer the right level of service and to add value. People will pay £10 or £11 for a main course if you are adding value by bringing it to the table.”

Of course, the food and drink offer has to be right. In the Theatre Cafe, all cakes and pastries are home-made on the premises, coffee is offered in a variety of 100% arabica beans, there is a full range of loose-leaf teas (including Orange Pekoe, Alan’s favourite) and a carefully chosen choice of mains. He gets the specials menu (and the sales figures) emailed to him daily so he can judge that it’s right for the target customer. “The old menus were a bit ‘pubby’ for me,” he says. “Many of our weekday lunchtime customers are ladies who lunch and they want lighter dishes, not roasts and burgers - but of course it’s different at the week-ends.”

And the ‘theatre’? Alan has eschewed a conventional shop-fit in favour of fixtures and fittings and personal touches that create a comfortable, often classical homely atmosphere. “I wanted to break down the usual corporate look,” he said, ”and have something people might be used to seeing in their own homes.”

The crockery is an eclectic mix of traditional styles and the counters and ‘blackboards’ are painted in homely Farrow & Ball shades similar to those Alan and his wife choose for their own home. Wall pictures, mirrors and some furniture were picked up second-hand from websites. He shopped at John Lewis for toasters, microwaves and light fittings.

The decor and furnishing in the main dining area is influenced by Harrogate’s famous Betty’s Tea Rooms, while home-conservatory-style folding doors open out on to a terrace alongside the covered plant sales area, furnished with patchwork-upholstered sofas.

The overall result of these theatrical flourishes is to turn what might start as a routine refreshment stop into a rather special experience.