re:fined
STYLE
retail best practices to support a new guest experience
The hallmark of Bon Appétit cafés has always been about putting the fresh, whole ingredients out front for guests to see. With the increased need for prepackaged and reduced-contact meals, we’re restyling our merchandising approach and our café setups to offer the same restaurant-quality meals in enticing new ways.
FOUNDRY & LUX REOPENS FOR TAKEOUT, UPS INSTAGRAM GAME AFTER CLOSING DURING San Mateo County’s shelter-in-place order, Foundry & Lux in South San Francisco re-opened for pickup or on-campus delivery, using online ordering. With guests no longer able to walk around the café and eat with their eyes before deciding what to order, the Foundry & Lux team knew they had to find a way to get the word out. They already had a strong Instagram following (@foundryandlux), but now they had to up their game even more. Among their new, to-go-friendly offerings for this new era are special heat-and-eat Dinner Hero kits, cocktail kits, and more. As has been true since normal times, justharvested ingredients from Foundry & Lux’s on-site garden make their way into almost every menu item, giving the on-site team great fodder for photography. A Vietnamesestyle salad bowl, for example, featured herbs from the garden, grilled Mary’s Chicken, and a sweet chili dressing, while the new Silk Road Organic Matcha includes Foundry & Lux garden strawberries. The colorful food photos are shot outside in natural light, often with a natural background of greenery, carefully composed in their to-go packaging to show guests what to expect when ordering from Foundry & Lux. Tagging the vendors who have products featured in various menu items or in kits has helped to increase reach. For variety, the team also posts staff in mid-prep and closeup shots of what’s growing in the garden. The efforts are working: Foundry & Lux now
Menu items like this Vietnamese-style salad bowl and rotisserie chicken are packaged in the to-go containers guests can expect and photographed outside in natural light to ensure the best photo possible
has more than 1,000 followers, and orders are going strong. The Foundry & Lux garden also does double duty as a peaceful place for guests to queue as they wait to pick up their to-go orders. A walk-up window has increased the sales of coffee and tea as well as breakfast and lunch items.
12 | BRAVO
Always concerned about minimizing waste, the Foundry team added an option for guests to indicate they’d like to skip the togo bags and/or the packaged compostable cutlery kits when placing their online orders. Many have taken them up on it: there has since been a significant decrease in the number of bags and cutlery kits needed. — Submitted by Michelle Tejada, Catering Manager
