Chocolate Cafe
The quaint seaside suburb of Howick Auckland…a picturesque village steeped in history…with a vibrant local community…
There are dozens of restaurants and cafes competing for the customer dollar here, but The Chocolate Café is barely staying in the game.
It’s owned by Victoria, who runs the place, and her partner Jared who works as her weekend kitchen hand. During the week, it’s his day job that keeps this place a float.
They opened their pride and joy 12 months ago, their vision…an indulgent café producing speciality chocolates and delicious treats. But instead; a truly confused day time café with tearoom style food, cum chocolate shop retailing other products, cum evening desert restaurant if there’s a booking. This is an eatery having a crisis.
With only 5 days to turn this place around, John starts with five minutes alone to case the joint, and then hears what Victoria has to say, discovering that she has very strange ideas about indulgence. And the food on the menu is hardly inspiring, from chicken & peach croissants, to toast with cream cheese, it’s hardly a chocolate lovers dream as the cafe name would suggest.
When John spills the beans on Victoria’s food, she is less than impressed, and a battle begins. It gets worse, when John then shows her hidden camera footage from a week ago when he came in for lunch, culminating in Victoria storming off in tears.
John’s had enough, time to kick his serious game plan into action, and first up, a lesson on customer service and presence out front. Victoria’s display cabinet is an obvious eyesore and hardly a customer attraction, despite its contents. But what’s worse, it screens her off from view, a bad first impression that could determine whether customers stay or go. So John has a temporary solution today aiming to show Victoria that a great cafe is all about excellent service and customer interaction, and he moves the cabinet making Victoria accessible and present to customers.
Then for the food, if the ‘Chocolate Cafe’s was an indulgent experience, then the food should be stunningly sumptuous and wickedly rich, but the bought in wraps, sandwiches, chocolates and frozen pre-purchased crepe’s here, don’t make that grade. So John’s called on Auckland’s finest crepe maker and owner of Torchon French Creperie; Alex Roux to teach the team how to make delicious fresh crepes, and cull the uninspiring menu, giving the food a direction of indulgence here.
Next, Victoria stays up late at night, baking very average cakes one at a time, in her tiny convection oven, possibly the core of her cake problems when John was previously less than impressed by her attempt at making a decadent cake. He knows there’s room for improvement but has to prove it to Victoria, a difficult task. So he joins forces with Jared, and hits the streets with tasters of a dark, rich, decadent looking ‘buy-in’ cake, and Victoria’s very average cake to test his theory, and it’s no surprise that the results don’t impress Victoria.
Next, the current layout & decor are sterile and unimaginative, contributing to the fact that ’The Chocolate Cafe’ is losing money by the hour. But they can’t afford to shut up shop for long so John’s has a face lift planned that must happen in record time, and his team of experts are on hand, and ready for 2 days of action. He is turning the place into something that does reflect Victoria and Jared’s initial vision; to be indulgent, and it’s gets a new name Chocolat, that spells out exactly what this place is, but Victoria is going to need time to get use to the idea.
Victoria currently retails individual chocolates as well as expensive boxes of other people’s chocolates. By boxing and branding the individual chocolates, Victoria will create a speciality item of her own, so to help, John calls in branding consultant and packaging expert, Steven Gravelle. Packaging her own chocolates will ensure a grater profit margin.
Today John is helping Victoria finally realize her dream of making her own chocolates by sending her to Phillipes Chocolates’, for training with French Chocolatier, Phillipe himself. For the first time, she is excited about the lesson ahead, and gets overwhelmed when John presents her with her very own chocolate making tempering machine. Victoria may need more practise, but if she perfects this skill, her own speciality chocolates will fore-fill her vision but more importantly, if she does it well, make her much needed cash.
And lastly, it’s time for some serious tips on marketing on the streets of Howick, to get more people in the door, and more cash in the till, in preparation for the big re-launch. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, John’s trying to teach Victoria & Jared that a small effort can make a big difference.
Back at the restaurant, John still has to sort out the problem of Victoria’s insane Latte glasses, and to help, he’s enlisted support from Toasted Espresso expert barista Chris Innes who has his work cut out for him convincing Victoria that she needs to adhere to coffee standards.
Finally, it’s the big relaunch, and its action stations for Victoria and Jared as they rush to complete the final touches, but first John delivers the last blow that a critic will be in the house tonight.
Tonight’s an opportunity for Victoria & Jared to promote their new menu, and guests will be treated to ‘Savoury Crepes’, cheeses, chocolate fondue, and the first batch of Victoria’s very own chocolates.
The team struggle to impress the critic with poor service, and average crepes, but the fondue and chocolates do impress.
A month later, and John’s back in Howick. First impressions; the place is quiet.
Unfortunately Victoria and Jared haven’t capitalised with great food and excellent service, on the influx of customers that followed the makeover
At least Victoria has satisfied a life long dream to make her own chocolates, as well as her initial vision for the cafe which is a start.
If she keeps this up, with a larger profit margin than the expensive chocolates previously bought in, she will be much better off!
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