Alice Holt Forest Cafe - LET - 24th June 2010

Successful caterers take over cafe in Alice Holt Forest

A new operator has been found on behalf of the Forestry Commission for the Alice Holt forest Café, by licensed and leisure property specialists Stonesmith of Exeter. The new operators are John and Sally Hall who run the successful Oriel Restaurant at The Quay in Poole, Dorset.

With nearly 20 year experience in the catering business, John and Sally have established a flourishing restaurant in Poole and felt that time was right to expand their operations with a new opportunity.

Working closely with The Forestry Commission’s vision for the site, John and Sally operate a family orientated café and are investing heavily in redesigning the cafe and are in the process of installing a new kitchen. So far they have bought new furniture and coffee machines etc and will re-decorate once the new kitchen is installed.

The cafe provides refreshments, picnic hampers to take away for the day, corporate catering and they work closely with the other businesses on site to provide bespoke catering for their specific needs, using locally sourced and organic produce and fair trade products such as tea, coffee and sugar with well balanced, well priced, fresh and home made meals.

They also plan to open a separate ice cream kiosk on site and they invite all locals and regulars to make suggestions as to how they can improve the business. Looking further ahead, they would like to offer the facilities for private parties/functions and to hold mother and toddler meetings.

Internally the cafe briefly provides seating for 30 plus, with a shop space and kitchen area. Outside there is a covered veranda and decked area with covers for 100 plus and a hard standing for a mobile ice cream unit.

This is the second Forestry Commission cafe that Stonesmith have been involved with, having successfully secured operators for The Ridge Café at Haldon Forest near Exeter.