Health & Happiness

Great Cafes' 900th Blog Post

Think about it, Itsu sell health & happiness not food or sushi.  Health is a major trend and is here to stay.  Cafes will have to wake up to what is exploding throughout London - more healthy lunch options.

Name Recognition

We all like to be recognised and Willows Farm Village has a great birthday party business.

Souli's Spelt

 Spelt is a key part of the offer at Souli in Marylebone.

Fresh Four Days

Freshly made and proud at M&S but how fresh are sandwiches at some cafes elsewhere - 4 days?!

Real Tea to Go

IngenuiTea loose leaf tea brewer.

Och Aye The New

Guest Spot

Robert Burns Night (tomorrow) care of West Cornwall Pasty Co spotted by Claire Martinsen of Breckland Orchard drinks.

Black Gold

Funny place Courcheval - bottom of the slopes where you would expect a catering outlet there is stall selling truffles - at €300 a time!

Fat and Rind

The industry still has a way to go when cafes are serving (sorry, deep frying) 42% and 50% pork content sausages.  No names.

Wash Up Romance

Cafes do the washing up for you too!

Drink Your Greens

Apple, cucumber, celery, spinach, lime and ginger juice in the green.
Apple, carrot, beetroot and ginger in the red.

 Pret's £3.49 veggie wonders produced in Portugal.

Kale Crisps

Where will kale appear next?  Pret crisps at £1.50 a packet.

Hot Bunnies

 Bunnychow (at Boxpark) is food in a mini-loaf and originates from South Africa.  Nice fillings but shame about the soggy microwaved bread in our £6.50 pulled pork 'bunny' yesterday.

Meet the Red Guerilla

Want to stand out from the crowd - be distinctive and give potential customers an easy visual reference point to meet up.  The cafe at this Courcheval 1850 hotel received our business.  In addition, there was an orange guerilla on the roof.

Mc Mocha

Mocha (espresso, steamed milk, foam and chocolate syrup) goes nationwide and mainstream with McDonalds.

The Cafe Conference Centre

Timberyard Cafe has really switched on to being a meeting and event space with "versatile seating arrangements accommodating groups of 6-8 and a semi-private meeting area with boardroom table seating up to 12".

First Class

 Fortnum & Mason's new cafe at St Pancras station.

 First class prices - coffee and cake for £9.75.  Will they get the custom?

Workplace Catering of the Future?

Tuckshop cafe in White Rabbit Studios under the Arches in Dereham Place, EC2 with mobile cafe bar counters so that a function space can be easily created.  Tuckshop provide an in-house service plus appeal to an external market - a model for workplace catering of the future?

 Magnus the owner knows how to keep the fit out cost down - he welded the tables himself

 The tables overlook the set design workshop.

Glass teapot and see through tetrapak-style square milk jug are fun.

Lovin' it

 McDonalds get the freshly cooked message over with Made/Ready/Discard timings on their individual apple pies.

£1 Warm Up

£1 porridge or toast for Costa Coffee Club members before 11am.  The offer to beat - and a difficult one at that - is Waitrose's free coffee for card holders.  See http://greatcafes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/little-waitrose-big-offer.html
Great Cafes predicts many more offers and promotions all in the effort of attracting footfall.

Heston's Secret Vice

Prawn Cocktail sandwich at Waitrose - Prawns, cucumber, gem lettuce and vanilla butter with Heston prawn cocktail sauce in oatmeal and poppy seed bloomer bread at £3.50.

Seat Beautiful

Funky, colourful and eye-catching external furniture at Itsu.

Chilly but Cheerful

Peyton & Byrne's Chilly Snowmen and Mini-Christmas Cakes.  On with 2014 and we are forecasting another great year for cafes.  Catch us at the National Farm Attractions Network Awards Dinner on 11 Feb (we judged the Best Food and Beverage Award) and Garden Centre Catering Conference on 12 Feb (where we have been asked to chair the proceedings).  Happy New Year.