Great Cafes

Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Little Island:Big Trend

Bakery cafes are a trend we have been going on about for some time. On the little island of St Margaret's in the Scilly Isles the Island Bakery manages to do well off the tourists.

Monday, 4 August 2014

Posh Cheese On Toast

M&S's new Posh Cheese on Toast spread at £2.75 - two types of cheese, double cream, Dijon mustard and Worcester sauce.

Popular Bookham & Harrison Cheese on Toast unit at Ascot and Goodwood features Sussex Charmer with a Parmesan zing!

Friday, 1 August 2014

Warm Welcome = Good Business

Clever Brasserie Blanc welcomes mums - today is the start of National Breastfeeding Week and all their restaurants are offering a free cup of tea or coffee between 10am and 11.30am. How did they get the idea - see http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cheltenham-restaurants-breastfeeding-sign-goes-viral-after-offering-mums-free-tea-and-place-to-relax-9614490.html

Thursday, 31 July 2014

Scilly Cows & Shoemakers

Love the local ice cream sales pitch in St Agnes, Isles of Scilly plus the Little Arthur Cafe & Shoemaker on St Margaret's.

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Buoyed Up Advertising

Advertise your cafe anyway you can - The Lifebuoy Cafe in Fowey has a boat 'hoarding' moored off the town quay. Brilliant.

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Contactless is Coming

Great for speeding up transactions at cafes (and racecourses). The average spend per transaction in UK cafes is under £9 (incl VAT) - have you installed contactless yet?

Monday, 28 July 2014

Beach Weather

Novel edible beach made of biscuit at anonymous works cafe. Thanks Maurice for the photo.

Friday, 25 July 2014

Healthy Eating and Chips with Sauce

This Wasabi kiosk is parked outside Liverpool Street Station. The world is certainly changing when we have this rather than a burger van. The City may lead trends but more healthy eating is on our customers' agenda.

Just to make sure we don't get too carried away, a unit spotted at a stately home half marathon event that just does chips, with added sauce!

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Whose Brand Are You Promoting?

The ubiquitous and prominent Coca-Cola fridge but whose brand are you wanting to promote in a cafe. Dur...... Surely your own. Companies may provide free equipment but it's at the expense of promoting yourself.

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Food Storage as Styling

Benugo's Bishopsgate Kitchen is in the design style of Bill's Produce Store, Carluccios, Albion Caff and Jamies Italian - the food does the talking/styling.

Almost all storage is out front - you just keep the unbranded items out back.

Monday, 21 July 2014

Now that's how to sell a Sandwich

We are reviewing some of our most popular blog posts over the summer - this was from April 2011. Carluccios now have 80+ outlets in the UK. Maybe it is down to their sandwiches!

Look .... Carluccios (53 cafes and counting) displaying their lunchtime sandwiches 'au naturel' - no packaging or chilling and presumably they have done their risk assessment well.

Great display and taste.

Thursday, 17 July 2014

Look After The Locals

Cupcakes may be commonplace but they are a great way of making that local connection. Glendoick Café sent in a photo of their limited edition St Johnstone Cup Cakes in celebration of the team winning the Scottish Cup Final back in May. St Johnstone's Chairman is boss of a major local employer. Local connections count.

Wednesday, 16 July 2014

A New Type of Venue Caterer?

Jupiter Artland is a wonderful external contemporary art location just outside Edinburgh.

The cafe is part vintage 1953 Silver Streak caravan and part inside space - their Proposal Room - and opens Thursday to Sunday.

The Cafe is operated by sister company to Leo's Beanery Cafe http://www.leosbeanery.co.uk/ Will we see more cafes becoming concession caterers at venues?