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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

I am going to be (potentially hopelessly) optimistic about this.

Yes, most of our experiences with Aramark have been hideous. However Gloomy Wood has been great, and Bianca has made it very clear she wants to replicate that.

Hopefully this will be evidence of that attitude.


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Just thinking about this. The fact the food outlets are marked as being in units A1 to A4 makes me think these won’t be food trucks and that it potentially is a mini food court.
 
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Squiggs said:
It would seem not, the four new units all fall under the category of Mobile Caterer. The only other units at Alton that fall under this category are things like Slushie carts and Ice Cream Vans.
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Aah, mobile caterer working from vans... some years ago such vans often picked up the moniker of being a "maggot wagon". Hold on, had better not give Aramark ideas on how to further lower the quality of the food! (Gloomy Wood excepted, which is good).
 
Kraken27 said:
Aah, mobile caterer working from vans... some years ago such vans often picked up the moniker of being a "maggot wagon". Hold on, had better not give Aramark ideas on how to further lower the quality of the food! (Gloomy Wood excepted, which is good).
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There's a vast industry around street food that has accelerated in the last decade or so. I think a lot of the stigma or associations with a bacon bap van in the car park of a B&Q or a layby has vanished, and presumably the "maggot wagon" idea with it. If anything, people seem to gravitate more towards the concept. One of the local kebab houses near my place has recently started turning up at a market with a 'street food' concept and some nice graphics and seem to have reinvented their trade by association. In Towers case, I would now always opt for one of the event street food vans than Burger Kitchen or Pizza & Pasta, if the option is available.
 
Plastic Person said:
There's a vast industry around street food that has accelerated in the last decade or so. I think a lot of the stigma or associations with a bacon bap van in the car park of a B&Q or a layby has vanished, and presumably the "maggot wagon" idea with it. If anything, people seem to gravitate more towards the concept. One of the local kebab houses near my place has recently started turning up at a market with a 'street food' concept and some nice graphics and seem to have reinvented their trade by association. In Towers case, I would now always opt for one of the event street food vans than Burger Kitchen or Pizza & Pasta, if the option is available.
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This is very true. I live in a village and the new bar that opened doesn't have a kitchen so it uses various food trucks at weekends and food can be brought into the bar. It's a great concept and it allows them to mix up Thier food offerings. The quality is very good as well, it's a far cry from the greasy burger van you can still get at car boots and football matches.

If Towers are using food trucks it's not really a bad idea though I would be worried about service if the park was very busy.
 
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If they’re all in X Sector, is there a chance that Just Chicken could be closed for a refurb or change of use? Or would that have required planning?
 
Mick said:
If they’re all in X Sector, is there a chance that Just Chicken could be closed for a refurb or change of use? Or would that have required planning?
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I can't see Just Chicken being big enough for all those new outlets, although I suppose one of them could be in there in place of the chicken. Doubt it would need planning - it isn't a change of use, it's going from food outlet to food outlet.

Hopefully, assuming they aren't mobile units as has been alluded to, they have done something in X-Cite which, let's face it, has been mostly a waste of space since the Oblivion shop closed.
 
Katy said:
I can't see Just Chicken being big enough for all those new outlets, although I suppose one of them could be in there in place of the chicken. Doubt it would need planning - it isn't a change of use, it's going from food outlet to food outlet.

Hopefully, assuming they aren't mobile units as has been alluded to, they have done something in X-Cite which, let's face it, has been mostly a waste of space since the Oblivion shop closed.
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Sorry, I meant could these outlets be placed elsewhere in X Sector (such as where the Retrosquad were) whilst they do something more substantial to the building.
 
Mick said:
Sorry, I meant could these outlets be placed elsewhere in X Sector (such as where the Retrosquad were) whilst they do something more substantial to the building.
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Oh I see, I suppose it's possible - who would have expected them to ever do anything with Edge Games in FV and now they have replaced it with an actual building, will be interesting to see what happens in X sector over the next couple of years.
 
These are all listed as mobile caterers on the food safety website.

mobile.JPG

If Just Chicken was being re-themed/branded then the name of the existing restaurant would have just been changed (as has happened with the FV units), however that is still listed as normal.

It feels very likely that these units and a new seating area will be going on the Retrosquad sites.
 
Given the interest in FV this year it seems like a great opportunity too add some F&B options to the area.

Sit down quick service seems like a real missed option
 
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AT86 said:
Locking yourself into a commercial contract for that length of time would be very unlikely.
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Most contracts like this have a break clause often at the half way point which would allow either party to walk away if it wasn't working out. Id be surprised if there isn't such a clause in the Aramark contract, so far it's not been great.
 
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