Wyevale Garden Centres has transformed perceptions of its garden centre restaurants with a new Botanic Kitchen concept, designed by Kiwi & Pom.

With a brief of bringing the “joy of the garden” to its food and beverage offer, Wyevale was looking to consolidate and refurbish its existing restaurant offer, while delivering a step change to consumer expectations in this competitive sector and attracting a wider-ranging demographic.

 “Botanic Kitchen firmly drags garden centre restaurants into the 21st century with a fresh contemporary look while championing home-grown ingredients and seasonal flavours,” said Kiwi & Pom director Emma Young.  “It delivers the garden on a plate.”

The first three sites have been completed at Huntingdon (pictured), Woodbridge and Shrewsbury. An additional 15 are planned to be ready by early 2016. Botanic Kitchen aims to increase footfall to by creating a recognisable destination brand in its own right, helping to maintain year-round appeal for customers.

Kiwi & Pom’s brief encompassed all aspects from graphics and branding to environmental design and space planning. Of special note are a number of bespoke elements, including specially designed wallpapers, textiles and illustrations, as well as Botanic Kitchen-branded slip-cast flowerpots.

At the heart of the solution is a desire to create a light and airy restaurant space that blurs the boundaries between indoors and out. Key challenges included dividing existing large seating areas into a series of more intimate ‘rooms’, achieved using plant-laden wirework screens, trellis-inspired booths and pergola-style gantries with hanging plants. This succeeds in bringing lush greenery into the heart of the restaurants, ensuring diners are always near to plants. 

Central to the design is the repeated use of motifs that evoke the architectural and design language of conservatories, greenhouses and orangeries. In particular, diamond grid patterns found in garden trellis have been applied to multiple elements such as furniture, graphics and signage. 

The approach also greatly informed the choice of materials and fittings such as wirework, cast iron, terracotta, terrazzo and Lloyd Loom. Eames wire chairs, in a special powder-coated sky blue finish, mingle with bespoke Lloyd Loom pieces by Belgian manufacturer Vincent Sheppard. All elements have been designed to be free-standing to maximise flexibility while keeping costs down. 

Kiwi & Pom’s design brings a fresh, chic appeal to the restaurants.

 “At our initial sites we are seeing a significant uplift in sales compared to the previous restaurant offer,” comments Jason Dancinger, food & beverage director at Wyevale Garden Centres. “There is also evidence of a ‘halo effect’ where the delivery of new restaurants is also boosting sales across the entire garden centre.”

The project is part of a wider portfolio of work for Wyevale Garden Centres, which also includes the innovative Coffee Ground cafés, featuring on-site batch roasting of coffee beans.