Proline has recently completed work for Stansted Park Garden Centre where the team designed and installed a brand new servery for the garden centre’s cafe during a recent overhaul.
Located on the Hampshire/West Sussex border, the garden centre is set within the beautiful grounds of Stansted Park Estate and offers a wide range of plants, gardening tools and much more at great value for money.
The cafe, named The Gardener’s Kitchen, was somewhat tired with a limited food offering and required a fresh look as well as a new roof structure to attract both new and existing customers.
Working alongside HCE Foodservice Equipment who designed, supplied and installed a brand new restaurant catering facility, the overhaul included the installation of new coldrooms, kitchen and servery equipment and extract ventilation.
Within this overhaul, the servery was of particular importance and needed to look both attractive and inviting to be able to meet the fluctuating demands of the operation, including being able to operate in both high and low customer throughput with the right amount of staff at any one time.
The servery had to incorporate a high-output refrigerated ‘grab and go’ section which needed to meet the requirements of the DDA. This was to include both hot and cold food including salad, ice-cream, a ‘farmer’s table’ display for ‘help yourself’ home made cakes and two beverage stations.
Taking into consideration both the noise and potential heat that can often be generated within garden centres during the summer, the refrigerated ‘grab and go’ counters were all fitted with external remote compressors, as well as the cold and freezer rooms.
The project was a huge success and was completed to programme, with the servery in particular providing a real stand-out piece in the cafe which both the Proline team and the client were delighted with.
Although the project went extremely well overall, the team faced a slight challenge as there were insufficient electrics available for the project which meant that an electrical generator had to be temporarily installed until a new supply to the garden centre could be provided.
Paul Richards, joint MD of Stansted Park Garden Centre, commented that the work completed was great and was clearly delighted with the outcome.