Garden Centre kitchen and restaurant design is a specialism for Space Catering.
A long-established family business, Coolings acquired the Knockholt site from rival operator Wyevale in 2004. Major investment was made to upgrade the facilities and extend the range of plants, tools, materials and garden accessories on offer, with the site quickly becoming a profitable and popular attraction.
Last year Coolings decided to go one step further with the major redevelopment of the site to provide the full garden centre offer – everything from garden furniture and BBQs to statuary and Christmas decorations.
A contemporary designed, sustainable timber frame building, with numerous energy efficient features formed the impressive new home for the main retail space; naturally outstanding catering facilities – already a big attraction for visitors – would be needed to match.
Coolings brought in Space to design a modern, airy front of house coffee bar supported by a working kitchen to double the capacity of the eatery to 104 covers. Inside, a curved run of stylish servery units finished with light wooden counter fronts is perfectly in harmony with the natural materials used throughout the new building.
Delicious fresh sandwiches and paninis are made in the spacious new food preparation areas, whilst a hot food servery turns out the popular hot dish of the day.
Pale wood finishes are contrasted by bright blue glass lampshades above, a design touch echoed in the blue crockery and glassware and even the
name – ‘Blueberries’ perfectly sums up the eatery’s modern health-giving offer. Health is also apparent in the kitchen, where baked and grilled options take precedence over fried food and not a deep fat fryer is in sight.
“Our new eatery is fresh, modern and enticing and already it’s working well,” says Paul Cooling, Chairman of Coolings. “Space listened to our ideas and gave us the confidence to make them work. They also contributed their own ideas and made sure we ended up with the scheme we wanted, to make Coolings an even better place to visit.”