- New and evolving cafe developments, brands and products
- The latest elements of 'buy with your eyes' cafe presentation
- How the bar is constantly being raised in terms of standards
- The leading players and those to watch
- Design ideas as they may relate to your market
"Thank you very much for your insight and guidance. We felt the London Cafe Tour to be worthwhile, thought provoking and incredibly useful in helping us to form emerging ideas for our re-development."
"London Cafe Tour - I must say that it was a very interesting, thought provoking and worthwhile day and I would highly recommend it to anyone."
‘Chris Brown is a walking encyclopaedia of eateries and trends within the food industry. His London Cafe tours are inspiring and a must when planning a new outlet. His forthright views and determination to get a job right make him worth his weight in gold.’
"The tour was much more helpful and insightful than I had imagined. It's wonderful to get the chance to see what's happening at the cutting edge of the café industry and I came away buzzing with ideas"
"A really comprehensive, focussed and inspirational day. The outlets visited provided a resounding insight into current trends and good practice. Extremely helpful."
"It has given us lots of ideas as to what changes we can make and our team were absolutely buzzing and energised by the whole experience.""The tour was much more helpful and insightful than I had imagined. It's wonderful to get the chance to see what's happening at the cutting edge of the café industry and I came away buzzing with ideas"
"A really comprehensive, focussed and inspirational day. The outlets visited provided a resounding insight into current trends and good practice. Extremely helpful."
"the Cafe tour of London is a must for anyone in the food service industry, Chris's enthusiasm and passion for this area shines through, highly recommended and should be done a couple of times a year"
‘This tour certainly met its objective but just as importantly was a great way for us to think more creatively as a team away from our ‘day jobs’ and to return inspired to take our businesses to the next level. I can heartily recommend it.’
"I had a brilliant day and am now bursting with ideas to implement straight away."
" I thought the café tour was truly superb, it showed an extensive range of London’s best, coolest, newest and quirkiest café’s. It really gave an insight as to what the different players in the market are doing, how they are keeping themselves unique and what the underlying trends are across the board. As a caterer you can sometimes be sceptical that you know it all, but to have the opportunity to spend a day with the team looking at all the venues with a fresh pair of eyes was certainly beneficial and inspirational"
"The café tour was really useful; I found the day motivational, thought provoking and fun. Furthermore, it was great to spend time east of town seeing some new cafes and concepts, to provide us with further inspiration for future concepts."
"28 coffee shops in 4 hours, certainly time well spent. Very useful in seeing with fresh eyes what our competitors are doing in the way of display, presentation, offer and pricing. Chris was great sharing his knowledge and insight; we all came away inspired with lots of realistic and achievable ideas."
"The tour was excellent in reminding me how simple it can be to deliver good quality. Both the breadth of operators and the amount of detail you managed to cover in such a short space of time was incredible."
"Really useful and insightful, and we all got a lot out of it."
“An insightful tour of London café culture. Chris clearly knows his business inside out and tailored this visit perfectly to our needs. Pacey, professional, and at times, provoking Chris got us all thinking hard about our offer and the potential for our business."
"A really informative tour and an insight to what people are doing out there."
"I found the tour very thought provoking – much more than I had anticipated. It really helped to focus my mind on what is wrong (and right) with our catering at the moment. And it starts with imagination, not catering skills. This is all about our offer, not about providing refreshments as an end in itself. Food as theatre/experience and not because we all need to eat."
"It’s now 5.04am and I have yet to sleep this night. I have 132 ideas, mostly now written on pieces of paper, drawn out on sheets of A4 and A3, jotted down in Notes on my mobile and yet still my brain will not rest.
It was a whirlwind tour of the fourth wave but I am cresting on my very own current of creativity. It was a menu of brick walls, exposed ceilings, handbags on string and cheese in drawers; container malls, concrete floors and grafitti walls; toasters on tables, letraset signs and corker cakes in colourful creative curls. Who could forget the smell of coffee roasting or the sight of pallets floating? The taste of a fougasse at Albion or a brownie at Paul Young’s?
It was inspiring, stimulating, exhilarating. I am buzzing with ideas – and some far removed from what we saw – and I think I only had 2 coffees. Think on this: I have had no sleep. I have lots of ideas. My poor staff.
Thank you, Chris. And good morning."
"Thank you Chris for a whirlwind tour of cutting edge Cafe Society in London. Things are moving fast in London and clearly the New is now very much the Old. Retro design is very much abound in all the trendy hip places we visited. Likewise, food trends seem to be harking back to the 60's and 70's for traditional comfort food. Street food seems to becoming ever more popular with excellent variety at very affordable prices. All in all, plenty of food for thought. Finally, a most interesting and enjoyable day."
"As I sit working on my budgets for next year I find that my usual long list for new equipment has shrunk and I am finding new solutions to old problems or eradicating the problems by implementing new operations or products. I am working on new offers with new products inspired by the Tour."
"A very insightful and enjoyable cafe Tour"
“The Café Tour was a great opportunity to see in 5-6 hours what would have taken several months to absorb and research under normal circumstances. Chris challenged our knowledge of current trends in an enjoyable and stimulating way and introduced subtle nuances in the emerging café scene. Well worth both the time and cost of anyone seriously considering this sector.”
"A great day out, fun, fast and furious."
"Fun & insightful cafe tour, thanks @Greatcafes. 30 cafes, 100s of ideas. More business owners should get on a tour & learn about new trends"
“At Haskins Garden Centres we found the London Café Tour to be the most worthwhile quality time we have spent reviewing and bench marking our restaurant business for many years. We will definitely be doing it again”.
"The Tour was exactly what was needed – in particular it allowed us to dig into issues on neutral ground which was incredibly helpful. I think the number of cafes looked at was exactly right – a good balance between enough to bring critical weight to the points being made whilst not overloading too much."
"Inspirational"
"Not only was it informative but done in a very natural way. It was great we could tailor it to our needs and we all got a lot out of it"
"I found the tour very rewarding as it helps put into context the advice you will be giving us on the sort of things we should do"
"A very enlightening day and I have come back with lots of ideas"
"We got a lot out of it and it was great to see the true passion you have for your chosen speciality"
"A great and thought provoking tour – lots to consider"
"Thoroughly enjoyed the café tour. Some very useful and thought provoking insight that will help us continue to develop our cafe offer."
"A really useful day; it was very interesting to see how things have changed in the 3 years since last doing the tour and also how far we have come but also how far we still have to go to catch up. It’s certainly given us a lot to think about and loads of inspiration for our sites!"
"Thank you Chris for a whirlwind tour of cutting edge Cafe Society in London. Things are moving fast in London and clearly the New is now very much the Old. Retro design is very much abound in all the trendy hip places we visited. Likewise, food trends seem to be harking back to the 60's and 70's for traditional comfort food. Street food seems to becoming ever more popular with excellent variety at very affordable prices. All in all, plenty of food for thought. Finally, a most interesting and enjoyable day."
"As I sit working on my budgets for next year I find that my usual long list for new equipment has shrunk and I am finding new solutions to old problems or eradicating the problems by implementing new operations or products. I am working on new offers with new products inspired by the Tour."
"A very insightful and enjoyable cafe Tour"
“The Café Tour was a great opportunity to see in 5-6 hours what would have taken several months to absorb and research under normal circumstances. Chris challenged our knowledge of current trends in an enjoyable and stimulating way and introduced subtle nuances in the emerging café scene. Well worth both the time and cost of anyone seriously considering this sector.”
"A great day out, fun, fast and furious."
"Fun & insightful cafe tour, thanks @Greatcafes. 30 cafes, 100s of ideas. More business owners should get on a tour & learn about new trends"
“At Haskins Garden Centres we found the London Café Tour to be the most worthwhile quality time we have spent reviewing and bench marking our restaurant business for many years. We will definitely be doing it again”.
"The Tour was exactly what was needed – in particular it allowed us to dig into issues on neutral ground which was incredibly helpful. I think the number of cafes looked at was exactly right – a good balance between enough to bring critical weight to the points being made whilst not overloading too much."
"Inspirational"
"Not only was it informative but done in a very natural way. It was great we could tailor it to our needs and we all got a lot out of it"
"I found the tour very rewarding as it helps put into context the advice you will be giving us on the sort of things we should do"
"A very enlightening day and I have come back with lots of ideas"
"We got a lot out of it and it was great to see the true passion you have for your chosen speciality"
"A great and thought provoking tour – lots to consider"
"Thoroughly enjoyed the café tour. Some very useful and thought provoking insight that will help us continue to develop our cafe offer."
"A really useful day; it was very interesting to see how things have changed in the 3 years since last doing the tour and also how far we have come but also how far we still have to go to catch up. It’s certainly given us a lot to think about and loads of inspiration for our sites!"