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.

The first things customers see when they enter the Theatre Café are plates of glorious cakes and pastries, all made on the premises to French patisserie standard by trained patissiere Alton Rudd, who used to work in a popular local hotel.

Alton’s ingredients are kept in jars on view behind the counter, where customers can see him at work in his bakery. “If you’re making something special, put it on show,” says Alan Roper. “I know we’re not the only garden centre to put the bakery on view but I think we do it well here. We’ve given it a country farmhouse personality with bespoke counter units in Farrow & Ball colours, and all the plates and cups and saucers are different, like a traditional English tea room.

The ‘Coffee and Cake Mezze’ deal is just the thing when you can't choose between the delights on offer. You get taster-size pieces of cake on a tiered plate so youcan try them all.

Alan Roper was keen from the outset to get the coffee right. It’s 100 per cent arabica and ground to a precise granule size for best results.

“Personally, I got tired of cappuccinos and lattes and drinking coffee that was 95 per cent milk and 5 per cent water. I wanted 95 per cent water and 5 per cent milk, which also gives me more margin, but mostly I wanted to get back to what I remembered in the 70s. My mother always had a percolator on the go and a coffee pot on the table when we had people around. So that’s why we’ve got so many coffee pots at Redfields – I went out and bought them myself from John Lewis!”

Little about the Theatre Café cake counter fits a conventional template, not even the obligatory menu blackboards. Here, the chalk boards are French grey. And there’s not a plastic milk dispenser in sight – they’re hidden inside some modified milk churns Roper acquired in Guernsey, where he and his family live, near Blue Diamond’s HQ.

Alan Roper, CEO of the Blue Diamond Group, who pioneered theatre in the garden centre catering environment 10 years ago with the front-of-house pizza oven at Trentham gives GTN Food Xtra readers his Top 10 tips for garden centre catering:

1. Setting up catering if you don't already have it is not that difficult. The main outside advice you’ll need is from someone to help plan your kitchen.
2. If you have an experienced chef in your existing set-up, use him when you’re planning an upgrade. He’ll know what is needed.
3. If you buy your equipment from specialists like Counterline in Liverpool, they can help you with the planning.
4. Everything else is simple. The Theatre Café at Redfields looks elaborate, but underneath it’s fairly basic.
5. You can have a good business even without hot food. If anyone doubts that, go to some of the places in Soho or some of the boutique places in London where they do a lot with quiches and salads, pulses, cakes and light bakes, homity pie, home-made sausage rolls and so on. You’ll be amazed at what you can do.  Our Wilton centre does that sort of thing and turns over £500k from a shed and a counter.
6. Sandwiches are key. Be adventurous with your fillings. Use good rolls and not just a piece of bread, and be sure to present it nicely.
7. Cakes should really be home-made. They are at all our centres.
8. Choose the bean for your coffee carefully. We use Ethiopian, 100 per cent arabica. And think about tea. But as an owner you do have to have a passion for this sort of thing. If you're into Nescafe, Mr Kiplings and fry-ups, don't bother! You’ll only mirror your own lifestyle in front of your customers, so find someone who has that passion.
9. If you’re a small centre, visit small tea rooms in places like Cambridge, Bath, Soho and the like. They’re not trying to do high-end sutff, just simple things done very well.
10. Of course, you’ve got to have the audience to play to. If all you have is C1s on your doorstep, it will be different. Round here (Fleet, in Hampshire), people are well monied.

Each week, for 9-weeks, Catering Design Group, one of the UK’s leading restaurant and commercial catering design companies, will be providing readers of GTN Food Xtra with a range of solutions, hints and tips around the theme: “Are you wise to the value of good design!”

The first topic in the series opens with “Catering for Financial Success”

The first question we’re often asked when meeting a prospective new client is “what value are you going to bring to my business?”  What a great question.  

Ultimately, our aim as designers is to hand you an operationally efficient catering space which will drive customers to your restaurant or café whilst substantially increasing your sales.

On average, catering within garden centres provides between 20-25% of turnover and in some cases as much as 50%, so any investment in the dining space will have a huge impact on the overall financial success of your business.

To find out more, contact Catering Design Group at: info@cateringdesign.co.uk

http://www.cateringdesign.co.uk/

Cornish garden centre Trelawney@Wadebridge has turned a piece of unused land into a Grow Your Own plot to produce salads and vegetables for its Carriages Restaurant... 

Peter Burks, general manager of the award-winning, family-run garden centre, said: “We’ve established a growing space near the kitchens that previously wasn’t in use.

“It’s a really interesting idea, which will help us reduce food miles and just picked produce is always tastier too. We’ll be using all the produce in our Carriages Restaurant.”

Harvesting from the new GYO area has already started and crops will continue to be planted and sown throughout the year to show the connection between the growing, cooking and eating of seasonal produce.

Peter continued: “Our mini allotment is based on conventional growing methods. We have lots of popular veggies and salads. The whole area is visible from the restaurant, so our visitors will be able to see quite clearly what we have planted. The potager also includes companion plants and herbs too.

“People are very keen on growing their own food, even if it’s just in a small way with tubs on a patio or in window boxes, and it’s not a trend that is looking likely to go out of fashion. The new area will provide a fantastic space for us to grow our own and give visitors some inspiration too.”

One of Cornwall’s largest and leading independent garden centres, Trelawney@Wadebridge was originally launched in 1970 as a nursery by Frank and Marion Danning. The garden centre is now run by their son David and David Symons, who started working for the family at the age of 11.

The garden centre provides customers with a wide range of quality gardening products including plants, furniture, barbecues, gifts and food items. Its friendly and knowledgeable staff are on-hand to give visitors help and advice on all gardening matters. There is also a garden building and Elite Spa concession on site. 

Carriages Restaurant, which seats up to 240 customers, is situated next to the lake at Trelawney@Wadebridge. It serves hot and cold drinks, snacks, cakes, breakfasts, lunches, a daily carvery and children’s meals.

The award-winning, family-run business includes two generations of the Danning and Symons families. More than eight years ago the company launched a sister garden centre in North Devon, Trelawney@Ashford and is opening its third garden centre Trelawney@Probus on a green-field site in Cornwall next year (2015).

Trelawney@Probus looks set to offer visitors a chance to see plants and products in action with garden areas on site showing how things grow and work.

For more information, please call Trelawney@Wadebridge, which is located just off the A389 in Sladesbridge near Wadebridge, on 01208 893030 or visit www.trelawney.co.uk.

Photograph caption (from left to right): Head Chef, Tracey Cowling and Chefs Carl Morrison and Graham Pattingale at Trelawney@Wadebridge’s Carriages Restaurant in the award-winning garden centre’s new potager, which is supplying produce for the restaurant.

Mayfield Lavender is a small family run business that specializes in growing and selling all kinds of Lavender from their 25-acre site in Banstead, Surrey.

An additional dilapidated plant nursery was bought in 2011 near Epsom, and has been slowly cleared of over 20 skip loads of plastic, glass, metal and rubble to enable owners Lorna and Brendan Maye to develop the business, increase the overall site area and alongside it the food and drink offering which was operated initially from a 25ft shipping container.

Brendan and Lorna visited the Horti Catering stand at Glee stand last year to get help and advice on how they could develop their ideas for expanding their Café and business. They also entered the competition being run by Horti Catering at the show to win a £25,000 Coffee Shop for their garden centre. To their complete amazement they won.

Brendan comments: “We couldn’t believe it when we got the phone call to tell us that we’d won the prize, and to be able to tune in to and trust the years of friendly, down to earth advice that runs across the whole team at Horti Catering.

"This level of expertise will help us to boost the future growth of the business. We hope to be selling our first panini’s and lavender cakes from the new unit in the next few weeks – it’s all very exciting! “

Horti Catering’s Managing Director, Amanda McGreavy has overseen the project and worked alongside Lorna and Brendan to ensure that they have a Coffee Shop that they are happy with and that can be developed further as their business grows. 

“Being able to reinvest profits back into the Coffee Shop as footfall increases, is vital,“ says Amanda.  “We always work closely with our clients with the future in mind so that they can expand easily as and when the business allows."

Amanda and the team at Horti Catering will be at Glee again this year, but if you would like some friendly advice about your food and catering operation in the meantime call her on: 07715 077582 or email at: amanda@horticatering.co.uk

For more information about Mayfield Lavender visit www.mayfieldlavender.com

Artists from Somerset who like to create their masterpieces on walls are being invited to contact a garden centre to help it decorate some partitioning. 

Monkton Elm Garden & Pet Centre near Taunton wants to find youngsters keen to make their mark using aerosols on screening put up as work begins on its new restaurant.

Norma Moore, Restaurant Coordinator, explained: “We’ve got quite a bit of boarding going up to help cordon off the area that we’re working in and we’re looking for youngsters, and anyone older too, from 15 years plus, who might like to help decorate the boards using aerosols, so in a graffiti or street art style, featuring flowers, birds, bees, butterflies and ladybirds, in fact anything gardening or outdoors related.

“We’re happy to provide the materials people need and to give those who come to do their artwork here a free lunch. We’d be delighted if they were happy to have details of who they are with their work and we could create a mini street art gallery on the boards, but if they wish to remain anonymous like Banksy, then that’s fine too.

“Anyone keen to be involved should call me at the garden centre on 01823 412 381 or email me at n.moore@monkton-elm.co.uk as soon as possible. Initially we’d love to discuss ideas for the artwork and how the artist would envisage it, and then take it from there.”

Monkton Elm Garden & Pet Centre at Monkton Heathfield was given the greenlight to revamp and expand its Four Seasons Restaurant to meet growing customer demand last year.

Norma added: “As a family-orientated garden centre, we understand how important it is to serve our visitors and their families with thefood and refreshments they would like, in an environment to match.

“The next chapter in our story is our new restaurant, which will open next year. It will seat 350 people and our chefs will prepare food for diners on-site in our new kitchens.

“It represents a wonderful addition to the eateries in Somerset, as we will be able to offer lunch at any time of the day, times when people want it and not just serve it between 12noon and 2pm. The menu and options will also be very interesting and when we’re done we’ll be offering our customers some of the best catering in the county.”

The 950 square metre development, which is approximately double the size of the garden centre’s current restaurant, will be officially opened in the spring.

Monkton Elm Garden & Pet Centre’s Managing Director, Mike Lind said: “There is much to look forward to but as we embark on our new restaurant development, we do anticipate some disruption and we apologise for this. However, we are creating a vibrant new space for our customers to enjoy when they visit in the future and it’s something we think the short-term upheaval will more than make up for.

“During the development of the project, the current restaurant will continue to operate as normal and customers we hope will be largely unaffected by the building work, which will extend across the top section of the outside plant area. We will take all steps possible to minimise any inconvenience and we’re keen for customers to be involved in the development so have commissioned some boards to be erected to show them our plans.

“In the meantime, our current restaurant space will still be operational, albeit with a reduced number of tables, for teas, coffees, cakes, snacks, breakfasts and lunches, and our wonderful Pondside Café will also be open too for everything apart from breakfasts and the larger lunches.”

For more information call 01823 412 381, visit www.monktonelmgardencentre.co.uk, log on to www.facebook.com/Monktonelm or follow the company on Twitter by visiting www.twitter.com/Monktonelm. 

Photograph caption: Restaurant Coordinator, Norma Moore with some of the boards that need to be filled with street style artwork.

Units may be supplied in one, two or three drawer modules, all of which require only a 13 Amp power supply, for plug and go operation. For cold storage versatility, the temperature of each drawer may be regulated through a range from -22^oC to +15^oC, at 0.1^oC increments, via user friendly control buttons. For smaller outlets where floor space is limited, Adande offers a compact drawer unit with a footprint of just 450mm width by 800mm depth.

High efficiency panel insulation allows cooking equipment to be mounted on the units, to create space saving, self contained food service stations. Adande offers a comprehensive range of GN pans and drawer dividers for effective food storage management, as well as a variety of accessories for the customisation of its drawer systems.

For more information visit www.adande.com, email info@adande.com or call 0844 376 0023.

A fantastic opportunity has arisen at our Birchencliffe garden centre for an enthusiastic, self-motivated Restaurant Manager for our established café within our family-run garden centre.

The successful candidate will be a confident and committed individual with excellent people management and communications skills. You will have a proven record of achieving growth in both sales and profit targets, and able to positively lead and develop your food services team to ensure a consistently high level of customer service.

Key experience

· Previous managerial experience in a catering environment is essential

· Demonstrate planned career progression within quality food and beverage environments

· NVQ level 3 / 4 or equivalent

· Coordinate and direct the day-to-day operations of the kitchen and front-of-house

· Responsible for the direction and supervision of all catering staff

· Ordering food, costing and planning menus

· Responsible for maintaining high standards of hygiene, health and safety

· 40hrs/week, daytime working and alternate weekends, occasional late nights

To apply, please send your CV with a covering letter detailing your experience, evidence of your capability to fulfil the role and why you should be considered for the position to recruitment@armitages.com

Closing date Friday 8th August 2014

GCA member garden centres have been finding out which restaurants came out top in each of 6 regions of England and Wales in their annual garden centre audits.

And the winners are...

GCA Regional Best Restaurants - Garden Centres:

• Fron Goch – North West
• Armitage’s Birchencliffe – North East
• Stratford Garden Centre - Midlands
• Squires Garden Centre Shepperton – North Thames
• Newbridge Nurseries – South Thames
• The Old Railway Line Garden Centre – Wales & West

GCA Regional Best Restaurants - Destination Garden Centres:

• Bents Garden & Home – North West
• Armitage’s Pennine – North East
• Van Hage Peterborough - Midlands
• Frosts at Woburn Sands – North Thames
• Chessington Garden Centre – South Thames
• Endsleigh Garden and Leisure – Wales & West

The winners in the Scotland & Northern Ireland GCA Region will be announced on September 22^nd.

The awards are decided by the results of the annual inspections, which take place at all GCA garden centres. Garden centres have no advance warning about when their inspection will take place and they do not have the option to turn away the inspector.

The GCA represents nearly 200 garden centres nationwide.

Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.

For further information, please call 0118 930 8918 or visit www.gca.org.uk

Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of Leon and a founding director of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, Steve Flanagan, UK marketing and category director at Starbucks, and Sarah Doyle, brand director at EAT. are just three of the big name Keynote speakers already confirmed to appear at this year’s lunch! show, which returns to the Business Design Centre in London on 23-24 September.

Martin Hambleton, head of procurement & innovation at En Route International, will also be adding lunch! speaker duties to his impressive resume (he has held senior buying positions at Elior UK, EAT. and DO&CO).  As a buyer, Hambleton has been a keen supporter of lunch! for years, calling it “the best trade show a buyer can attend”.  As a speaker, his ‘Buying Masterclass’ looks set to prove just as essential.

Running throughout the two day show, lunch!’s free business seminars are renowned for attracting a host of high-profile brands and industry leaders from across the food to go retailing and contract catering industry.  With past speakers including representatives from Pret, YO! Sushi, Subway, M&S Foods, Caffè Nero, AMT Coffee and the Compass Group UK & Ireland.

Creating an appetite for change
“We all like to think we're open to new ideas and like to experiment, but then we seem to eat the same sandwich from the same place most days,” says EAT.’s brand director Sarah Doyle, speaking ahead of her 11am opening day Keynote (Tuesday 23 September).

Given that many people’s eating habits can be firmly ingrained, the first step for lunchtime retailers looking to boost their customer base is “not scaring them off before they've walked through the door”.

Drawing on over 18 years of experience as a marketer in the food industry, working on FMCG brands such as Hula Hoops, Typhoo Tea and Quorn, and overseeing EAT.’s recent brand revamp, Doyle will divulge strategies on how retailers can maximise their sales by persuading these “creatures of habit” to change their routines.

Independent and thriving

The Working lunch! Theatre (sponsored by Magrini) will also include sessions by entrepreneur Tim Hall, creator of healthy fast-food brand Pod, and Richard Garcia, founder and owner of Cook & Garcia.

Discussing ‘How to become the best independent sandwich shop in the UK’ is a bold undertaking for any operator.  But if anyone’s in a position to give advice, it’s Garcia – winner of ‘Best independent Sandwich Bar in the UK’ for two years running at the BSA’s Sammies Awards (2013 and 2014).  Since its launch in May 2012, Richmond-based Cook & Garcia (co-founded with his wife Janet Cook) has not only taken the British sandwich industry by storm but made it on to the prestigious ‘Start Ups Top 100’ list (it moved in to the top 45 this year).

With over 25 years’ experience as a chef, Garcia will be sharing some of the key lessons he’s learned along the way, with a focus on how to compete and thrive as an independent on a high street full of the global brands.

'”lunch! is a fantastic show for trade each year – and a key source of inspiration to us at Cook & Garcia,” says Janet Garcia, director of Cook & Garcia.  “At last year’s show we met two new suppliers that are now key to our business.  We are looking forward to attending again this year.”

Fresh market insights

Other new sessions announced today include ‘Lunch as we knew it… A post-recession review of the lunch market,’ hosted by Emma Read, director of marketing and business development for foodservice analyst Horizons.

This essential market update will give an overview of established and upcoming trends in the vibrant food-to-go sector, and look ahead to what’s likely to happen to the market now that the UK is out of recession.

“Street food is just one example of how operators are responding to the rising demand for sustainable, healthy, hand-held food,” says Read.  “Providing innovative solutions to meet consumers’ demand for flavoursome, innovative, authentic on-the-go dishes.”

She’ll also be using the Horizons’ latest data to review how the upcoming allergen regulations, which come into force in December, are likely to impact lunch menus.

The full Working lunch! Theatre line-up is set to be unveiled early next month.

Returning to the Business Design Centre in London on 23-24 September, the multi-award winning lunch! show will feature 300 exhibiting companies showcasing a wealth of new food and drink products, packaging, equipment and technologies.  Show features include the Working lunch! Keynote Theatre, Innovation Challenge Live, Innovation Challenge Showcase, and the British Smoothie Championships.

To register for a free trade pass, please visit http://www.eventdata.co.uk/Visitor/Lunch.aspx?TrackingCode=PR.

Cotswold Fayre is gearing up for what it predicts to be a bumper year for Christmas fine food sales following a year of industry growth.

According to the fine food distributor, large retailers including farm shops, garden centres and department stores are expected to increase their Christmas stock order by at least 20-25% in comparison to last year.

Paul Hargreaves, managing director of Cotswold Fayre says: “Many of our customers are reporting an increase in business and we have seen a 25% increase in revenue this year.

“Larger independent retailers are also looking to have their Christmas orders delivered in earlier than in previous years in order to maximise this key selling period.  Our sales team are out with customers five days a week at present and this will continue with orders coming in thick and fast between now and September.

“In fact, we expect that during the eight weeks from the end of September to beginning of November the amount of stock leaving the warehouse will increase two and a half times in comparison to any other time of year.”

To prepare for the festive season and what forecasts show to be an upcoming period of further growth the distributor is investing £100k in a new IT system.

Paul says: “Naturally, as we have grown we are also outgrowing our current process and procedures. This new integrated order system will cut down issues with stock control and product ordering in general, creating a better and more efficient ordering process for our customers.

“The month’s leading up to Christmas are our busiest in the year and in the past our resources have been stretched. This new system will increase our efficiency dramatically and help this busy period run much more smoothly.”

In order to help retailers capitalise on this key selling period, Cotswold Fayre has also adapted its product portfolio to incorporate the very best seasonal products.

Ashton Marriott, who has recently been promoted from graphic designer to marketing manager, says: “A total of 450 new lines have been added to the Christmas catalogue, from the more traditional items such as panettones, mince pies and mulling syrup to gifts sets, and many more “presents for men”.

“One of the most important factors when selecting products for inclusion in the catalogue was packaging. At this time of year, retailers like to incorporate large and attractive Christmas displays and so we have selected a range of eye catching products that is sure to look great on display, including some giant beer and cider bottles.”

The Cotswold Fayre Christmas catalogue is available to order on 08456 121201 or to download from:

http://cotswold-fayre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Cotswold-Fayre_ChristmasCatalogue2014_LowRes.pdf

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• Blackbrooks
• The Garden Cafe at Craft Nurseries
• Eastfield
• Highfield Garden World
• Langlands Shiptonthorpe
• Loch Lomond Homes & Gardens
• Meadowcroft
• Old Railway Line
• Perrywood
• Poppies of Oban