Art Gallery – Café & Catering Consultancy Post Lockdown Opening Advice

Montfort Catering Consultants have recently supported Nottingham Contemporary with development and planning advice to ensure their café and wider food and beverage operations are commercially resilient post Covid-19 re-opening, both in the interim and longer term.

Nottingham Contemporary is one of the largest contemporary art galleries in the UK, presenting free exhibitions, special events and family activities. Since opening in 2009, over two million people have been welcomed in to the iconic RIBA award-winning building designed by Caruso St John.

As well as hosting world-class exhibitions Nottingham Contemporary can accommodate conferences up to 300 delegates as well as regularly holding music gigs for up to 600 standing.

The airy, contemporary café serves locally sourced food and is popular with both visitors to the gallery and the wider community.

Montfort Catering Consultants have been supporting Nottingham Contemporary determine the most appropriate opening times; menu offer and production style; management and staffing requirements for the café and wider food and beverage offer to ensure the operation remains commercially resilient and agile when it reopens post Covid-19 lockdown.

Our work has included developing interactive models setting out sales forecasts, menu categories and associated sales mix impact as well as labour/ staffing requirements based on different visitor and footfall scenarios. This elements has enabled the team to quickly understand the financial impact of different variables, providing an important tool on which to make key decisions relating to menu style, food production, opening hours, management and staffing structure as well as the subsequent operating cost structure and profit implications.

If you’re looking for support to develop a new gallery café or would like to discuss how we could support you improve your existing visitor café sales, financial return and visitor experience, do get in touch.


Posted on April 12th, 2021