We're Modernising! Here's What You Need To Know

Can you believe it’s almost twenty years since the beginning of our journey? We’ve come far since first setting foot in that abandoned Little Chef in 2004. We’ve lived through setbacks and many unprecedented challenges, especially in the last couple of years. 

But no matter what life throws at us, no matter how hard things get, we are always looking ahead.

And so today, we’re excited to announce that the long-planned modernisation of our facilities starts in one week from Monday 23rd January. It is the first phase of three in a two-year-long programme running up to our Cafe’s 20th anniversary. 

During this first two-week long phase of the modernisation, we’re looking at improving our kitchen, KP area and updating our toilet facilities with the aim of improving service efficiency, and creating a higher standard of working environment for the team which will all lead to an overall better customer experience. 

If you’re curious to know what exactly we’ll be doing, then here’s a breakdown:

• Upgrading the kitchen area and installing highly efficient kitchen appliances including an 11-deck combi oven, new high-efficiency griddles, 4 ring convection hob and oven under, hot hold and plate warming, new grease trap, new ducting and roof fan, new shelving and new flooring.
• Updating our KP areas to create a better working environment for our team. The KP areas will get a new high-capacity pass-through dishwasher, new sink, shelving and layout, new flooring and new grease trap. 
• Renovating the toilets to reduce our environmental impact, improve efficiency & durability.  Our toilets will have new automatic electric flushers and taps which will include new sinks and vanity units and a new red emergency cord in the disabled loo. 
  
• General clearing and tidying including an improved staff eating area.
• New upgraded fire alarm
• New CCTV

All of these improvements will allow us to serve more customers, increase energy efficiency and reduce time spent on repairs. 

Furthermore, and perhaps a little more exciting announcement is that our menu will also see an update. Don’t worry, our staple menu items & your favourites such as fish and chips will stay untouched.

As you all know, we take pride in serving delicious locally sourced food and we want everyone to be able to find something they like on our menu. We were pioneers in introducing gluten free menu and our gluten free fish n chips and well known far and wide. During this exercise, we’ll have a deeper look at our menu and identify customer groups whom we’d like to offer more to choose from when visiting us. We already know that we would like to introduce more menu items for our customers who follow vegan & halal diets as well as more regular street food specials. 

Kiosk Open for Business

During the time of the modernisation, from Monday 23 January until Sunday 5 February 2023, our facilities will be closed but our kiosk will be open. It will offer hot & cold drinks and limited availability of delicious food including homemade sausage rolls, scones, soups & cakes. The kiosk will be open daily between 09.00 and 16.00.

Looking Into the Future

Providing everything goes well with phase one and the industry takes positive strides towards recovery, we’ll start looking at progressing next phases of our modernisation project. We don’t want to give away too much just yet, but here's a rough outline. Phase two concerns staff accommodation and phase three is all about the front-of-house areas.

This is an important & exciting project we've planned for a long time and one we are not undertaking lightly, given the numerous pressures on small businesses. Some would say, we’re brave to take on such an investment. However, we believe that these changes are important & necessary in setting ourselves up for a successful future. 

Now, that you know what the plans are, we hope that you come to visit us and see the changes we’ve made before we turn 20 years old.