A Real Living Museum

 The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley lives up to its name with boiled sweets produced daily and all on show for the visitors.  Sweet stuff.

What If?

 This is more thought for the day than Great Cafes but allows me to announce a whole series of postings later this month about some superb cafes and street sights in Vancouver.  If you want to see the photos uploaded almost as they are taken, go to
 https://plus.google.com/photos/109676056046114476162/albums/6044508565775365329?banner=pwa

 Bravo Terry Fox.

Cafe → Restaurant

Coastguards Cafe by day and High Tide seafood restaurant by night and, remarkably, run by two separate families.  It may be down to the small friendly St Agnes island spirit in the Isles of Scilly but the logic is inescapable - two bites of the cherry in terms of maximising sales, spreading the investment and having a work/life balance.

Healthy Happy Meal

 McDonald's offers free fruit (a pineapple stick) on the first Friday of the month - it may be one of your five a day once a month but the health message is getting louder.  What does your cafe do to promote health?

Three at a Time

The Five Bells in Wickham, West Berks serves their 9 Real Ales and 7 Real Ciders in 1/3 pint glasses so you can try 3 at a time.  Seems a great idea and thanks to my brother Simon who undertook the sampling on behalf of Great Cafes readers.

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.

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!

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

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.

Buoyed Up Advertising

 

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

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?

Beach Weather

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

 Wood fire and jugs of wild flowers complete the ambiance.

Tree Huggers

 Eye catching and attractive wooden furniture at Foodilic in Brighton.

Blitz those Cold Drinks

Pod gets the visual appeal of their various smoothie ingredients and take it from the chiller to the counter to be 'blitzed'.

A Positive Welcome

Do you have clear and published provision for customers with disabilities.  Bravo Whitbread's Premier Inn.

Pork is Popular

 Loughborough gets its Hog Stop.

Pod & Prunes

 Prune and Chia seed and Cacao, Agave & Pistachio Yoghurts by Pod.

Scotland Decides

 Cuckoo's Bakery in Edinburgh has its own, and sweeter, voting record updated weekly.