Brakes pays a second visit to Barcena

Representatives from Brakes paid a second visit to Barcena on March 14. Mark Irish (senior development chef), Anne Mulcahy (channel marketing manager) and Simon Ault (Brakes business development manager) met up with owner Richard Podesta and his team to present a number of new menu ideas (platters,sharers,fish, pasta, salads, sandwiches and desserts), as well as to discuss and make recommendations for menu formats and styles and to set them up as a Brakes customer.

Mark explained: "The aim of spending time with Richard was to agree on Barcena's core menu dishes, go through the menu descriptions to ensure they are up-selling the dishes and look at pricing/costing structure to ensure they acheive a suitable GP for the business.

The Brakes team arrived at 11.30am and after an initial meeting with Richard, Mark descended on the kitchen to present his dish ideas to chefs Mark and Tim. "It was very important that the guys were comfortable with the food that was being presented and I encouraged them to try all the dishes, which they did with gusto!!!" explained Mark

The presentation lasted about two hours and a range of dishes were shown from Greek Mezze, Moules Linguine and Goats Cheese & Sundried Tomato Panzotti to Classic Pastrami Club Sandwich and for dessert Warm Raspberry Waffle Stack.Both. "Mark and Tim were very enthusiastic about the food presented and offered really constructive feedback for each dish based on their knowledge of the customers that ate in Barcena and what they believed would be popular. It was really important to get them involved, after all they will be the guys preparing the dishes for customers" continued Mark.

The key objective for Brakes is to work with Richard and his staff to develop a food offer that takes full advantage of all the meal occasions that exist during the day and to create a fresh, contemporary and continental feel to the menu. This will be achieved over the next 6 to 8 weeks with recommendations for a streamlined core menu offer and black board specials and with some tweaks to current menu descriptors to allow for more provenance, regionality and up sell of key items on the menu.

Mark felt the meeting went really well: "I was impressed with the energy of the Chefs and willingness to look at the dishes I presented, it was also great to get their feedback as they know their customers more than I do. The next stage is to agree the core menu and specials. That will really give us some direction and a focus that we can then begin to build upon."

Mark was due to visit the site on the 22nd of March to present some ideas on morning goods, sandwiches and kids meals.