North Lodge Park Cafe
Crepes and Cakes to open 10am 7th August 2015
There is only one word for how you have responded to our call for help in getting the cafe open: amazing.
You have responded with enthusiasm and energy – both the local community and visitors, many of whom come regularly to Cromer and North Lodge Park.
The number of you who have donated the contents of your cupboards (and dining rooms) shows your passion for the Park.
After an unbelievable week your cafe in North Lodge Park will open this FRIDAY 7th AUGUST at 10am and then daily from 10am (we’ll probably shut Monday’s for a breather!)
To manage the opening on Friday (we’ll ‘cut the ribbon’ at 10.15), for the first hour we will not be serving the usual fare, but will serve opening drinks and samplers outside, with the cafe opening at 11am.
Whilst the cafe has been overhauled ready for the opening, we still need to establish some of the working processes so please be gentle!
Many of you have offered to bake for the opening – many many thanks; please can you let us know tomorrow what you are baking, and deliver your cakes, labelled, as early as possible.It would be very helpful if some of you could bake your cake(s) not for Friday but for either Saturday or Sunday to help us cover this first weekend.
We need to establish longer term plans for baking. Those of you who would like to become part of the baking team (we will pay for all ingredients), please let us know so we can establish a proper system that conforms to the regulations within which we need to operate, and maintain appropriate supplies to the cafe. Whilst this has to be a fun project for us all, it needs to be fit and proper.
If all goes well over the coming weeks, we will establish proper commercial systems to reward our baking team. Let’s get the cafe open and the summer rush behind us to give us some space to think.
Many of you have offered to help by working in the cafe, again we need to establish a proper process (and rota), for this and ensure you are all upto speed with the regulations and processes. We have some of your names already, we need to formalise this quickly to ensure you all know what you are doing when. Please come and talk to us as soon as you can.
In some ways the excitement of the last week will, in hindsight, be the easy part – we now need your help to keep your cafe open for the next 4 months (the length of our current licence) and hopefully beyond. As well as your custom (I’m sure the Crepes and Cakes will keep you coming) we will need your ongoing help running the cafe – you wanted the cafe, we now need your help to keep it.
We are discussing with NNDC parts of the Park for us to manage – we are already giving the once over to the gardens around the cafe, we will need your help (and donations of good useable gardening tools) on this as well. This week we are focussing on the cafe and this has shown what a positive change you can make.
Hope to see you soon.
Barry Meadows
