CATERING
Getting the menu right Chris Brown, director of catering consultancy Turpin Smale, advises on catering within garden and hardware retailers.
Let’s get the basics right first – decent tea and coffee. Garden centres deserve credit for investing in proper bean-to-cup machines rather than hoping to get away with powdered cappuccino and plain filter coffee, and tea is up-and-coming - there are plenty of trendy brands that can add individuality to your operations.
meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner - cafés are all about all- day grazing; for garden centres mid-morning and mid-afternoon options are just as important as lunchtime meals. Few plantsmen ever thought that 25 per cent of
W
here traditional caterers think along the lines of the main
their business would be catering, but offering all day food is critical to those of you for which the café is a footfall generator; it must be about cake, scones, traybakes and pastries. Get this menu segment right and you’re off! Sadly, health-wise we
shouldn’t be eating cake and café operators are increasingly seen as purveyors of sin and obesity. The way to get customers to feel they deserve a treat and to grab a delicious chocolate brownie is to present the cakes well. Opaque plastic domes, plastic wrapping, glass barriers and chilling the taste are all on the list of ‘No No’s’. Yes there is a food hygiene argument, but carry out your risk assessment, see what every trendy successful café is doing and take a risk.
“Offering all day food is critical to those of you for which the café is a footfall generator; it must be about cake, scones, traybakes and pastries.”
You might not sell much fresh
fruit but your business is about growing items in the garden and you need to show a healthy side; have a good display of locally sourced fruit and tell its story. You no doubt believe that your
business stands for quality. Do you sell yesterday’s sandwiches with that tell-tale date coding? Stale doesn’t sell and your reputation is going with it. Crisps, and now popcorn, are useful extra sales – just make sure they are displayed right by the sandwiches – a classic linked purchase. Watch the profit on the cold
drinks and sell what you want to and not what a highly trained drinks salesman suggests. Bulk purchased juices decanted into disposable cups is a popular way of combining profit with quality. The most difficult menu item to
get right and the one that involves all the staff skill, equipment and angst is hot food. Most cafés start with soup, baked potatoes and panini with more substantial main courses helping to boost the average spend figure. Don’t get complicated and don’t change the menu every day; in
our experience daily changes may suit the cook and manager but are simply not needed by the customers. It’s far better to get the consistency, costing, batch cooking and savings arising from a standard menu. The larger cafés are looking for
points of difference and you now see crepes, pizzas, self-serve ice cream and baking all carried out in front of the customer. ‘Buy with your eyes’ has never been so true. Increasingly local sourcing is
big with organic and fairtrade of less importance to customers. If customers have the time and disposable income to visit your centre they probably care just as much as you do about what they put in their mouth. Cheap, nasty sausages, juice from concentrate and stale scones do not cut it as we prepare to enter 2012. Lastly a good menu should cater for all manner of special groups: baby food, kids’ meals, gluten-free food, Weight Watcher food – show you care and you will have customers for life.
For more information visit
http://greatcafes.blogspot.com
30 | Garden & Hardware News |
DIYRetailer.co.uk
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