Should You Add Food?

gary

Should you automatically add food to your coffee shop or is the extra hassle not worth it. Sometimes you think that just the espresso based drinks with a good selection of biscuits and muffins is enough. But it will keep nagging at you all the time.

:-/

sketchy

Hi. It all depends on what your customer wants.  I started with just coffee, tea & cakes in a small cafe. Now 4 years later we have had to move to bigger premises and do all sorts of meals. All we did was ask our customers what they wanted & it went from there. LE

gary

The problem that i find with asking customers is that 90% of what they ask for you know you cant do. We were thinking of making ready made pieds and foccaccias without the hassle of making to order. My main concern is creating too much of a workload for the guys, then getting more staff in to take on the extra workload - there goes your extra profit. I think i need to find out what is the best food items to add without creating that extra workload. I've thought of specialist pastries as we are more of a morning cafe - then maybe a small breakfast menu? :-/ Gary

sketchy

I see your problem. The last time i was in Sydney i saw a lot of smaller cafes doing filo pastries with breakfast style fillings. Also croissants are always popular here either filled with ham & cheese or served warm with butter & a coffee. All are simple to do with a microwave and salamanda. Hope that gives you some ideas & good luck with it.

gary

Thanks, We are going to experiment with a few ideas next week. Pre-made sandwiches with fillings to die for. We are using schwobs swiss bread for these. Its also great for toasting. We will try a few different food items and see what works well and is not much effort to prepare.

nunu

Meals should be kept light, with few ingredients to minimise prep time. Salads are fairly inexpensive and quite easy to prepare.  Wraps are also a good idea, as they don't use too many ingredients to fill them up.  Soup and 1/2 sandwich, include a drink. If you offer breakfast, don't make it too complicated.  While breakfast usually doesn't require too much prep, it is somewhat intense cooking-wise.  You've got to fry the eggs, bacon, etc.  I like breakfast burritos, but I'm not sure how well that will go over.  You have your tortillas, some scrambled eggs, diced and cooked chorizo, some hash browns and cheese.  You just assemble to order, a spoon of each, fold the bottom in, and roll it up.

gary

Hey Nunu, I like the idea of the breakfast burritos its not complicated but sounds like a very tasty bite. We have been working on our coffee and now i know we are getting somewhere as people are actually saying how they enjoyed their cuppa. We need to now go with some meals that are not complicated but a welcome addition to the menu. Gary

Unknown

Yes, well, when I bought my coffee shop, they sold about 20 sandwiches a week for $5.95 each and I looked at the demograph of my store ie mostly 25 - 40 year old women, and decided that they did want quick finger food but cheap, I cut the price to $3.95, now I sell 300 per week! I but the sandwiches in for $2.20 each and toast them in 1-2 mins, not much work for my staff. Turnover has increased 20% since I took over the store, people who now want a quick cheap snack come to the store, whereas before they would not even think of us. Then of course, we also make the profit on the coffee they have with the drink.

gary

You buy the sandwiches in....have you worked out if this is better than pre-making them earlier in the day? The coffee is always our Priority and the focus, thats why people come in. I like the thought of buying them in but would have to weigh up the idea of making them as well. Have to calculate the labour factor... I suppose you buy in muffins and biscuits its no different.

Unknown

Yeah, we buy all the food in, I try to make my staff feel professional and they won't feel that if they spend their time making sandwiches, I costed the sanwiches and I could make them for about $1.20 each, but my focus is on driving the business and specialising in coffee, not sandwiches.

gary

I hear what you say, I will explore this avenue. PTB