Open Forum

We are in the process of evaluating these options ourselves right now. I have no data to share, but definitely am interested in the question. We are a small historic house museum struggling to increase our visibility and impact in our community and hope that on site food service will drive traffic. It is a gamble but seems a worthwhile one, and it would set us apart from other HHMs in Austin. 

We have about 6 1/2 acres on our grounds and we use one of the original Summer Kitchens of the Keeper's House as a small cafe. There are basic drinks, chips, and hot dogs. Since Summers are very hot, we have bottled water available at a reasonable price. The staff is in-house and it helps fund the operations to some extent. Having a cafe also helps when we have events.

Hi Alissa,

Portland Children's Museum is not necessarily small (300,000 visitors per year), but we've found that our cafe is particularly successful because the food is of such high quality. We felt the need to "walk the talk" in terms of healthy eating, and parents are motivated to buy our food because it hits a successful balance of great taste and good nutrition. Because we've built a reputation for great food, our customers include not only visitors, but also our own staff, and employees from neighboring institutions (the Oregon Zoo) who come to our place to eat instead of their own!

I would be very interested in hearing the experiences of small museums that offer any kind of food or drinks on premises (or on the grounds in the summer.) Is it worth the additional cost and labor? Does it encourage visitors to stay longer at the museum? Our location is not well served by restaurants (as in, there aren't any) and it makes it tough to promote our museum as a day trip destination.

Thanks for your thoughts -- 

I wonder if a food truck might be a viable option for some locations. It's zero investment to the site/organization. Perhaps offer the site free at first and then put the it out to bid after proving the concept. Food trucks in the Boston area have a bit of a cult following so it could even be a nice bit of exposure for the site. 

I doubt there are statistics regarding what sort of food service can be offered in a particular museum.  However, I will look forward to others' responses.  

I like having food and beverages available for the public.  People often ask if they can get something to eat or drink when they visit.  Few museums can offer a full menu of choices, nor should they get tangled up in doing so.  At the Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, we had a few vending machines.  We had a contract with a company who stocked the machines and paid us according to our contract.  This was a more than acceptable arrangement.  We did the same thing when I was at the Western Resrve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio,  Since I have never seen an attrractive vending machine, the challenge is where to put them.  At Boscobel we contract with a local restaurant to stock a large glassfront refrigerator with sandwiches, salads, and, drinks.  

Having a more elaborate food service can be complicated from a management perspective and since most museums are small, this can be problematic.  I should add that some offer food and drinks in their gift shops, which again is a nice gesture.  If such amenities keep visitors longer, i have no idea but it does no harm.  Of course, everyone once in a while an "out-to-lunch" (pun intended) trustee thinks your museum is missing the boat by not having a full-service food-service.  He or she voices with great confidence all the financial advances that will accrue when his or her idea is put in place.  I had that happen at the Morris Museum. Such trustees never listen to staff.  He brought in a friend who ran a coffee bar in town and had him assess the situation.  After looking at our facility, reviewing our attendance figures and the nature of them, predictably the friend told the trustee he was nuts.  

On a related aspect of this topic, Boscobel is a mile from the town of Cold Spring which has several nice restaurants.  We have no problem directing visitors there as this reflects nicely on our communituy spirit when they dine and still have their Boscobel admission stickers on their clothing.    

Alissa,

We also work with many small museums (and your firm) helping them figure out way to provide a dining amenity for the purpose and reasons mentioned. It's very difficult to identify a specific annual attendance # where the service is profitable because of variables about the type of museum, admission free or paid, location, seasonality, alternative locations to dine, length of visitor stay, etc.

Many of our smaller museum client self-operate dining/café and purchase prepared sandwiches, salads, deserts, etc. from local caterer or restaurant. Examples of good self-operated smaller museum models that we are familiar with would be The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY and Adirondack Museum, Blue Water Lake, NY.

Hope this is helpful.

Art Manask

artm@manask.com

I was at a science center in the mid-80s to early 90s that had an in-house restaurant. It wasn't cost-effective and eventually was contracted out. That didn't last, either. Eventually a space was renovated on the ground floor with a door on Main Street and opened to a bagel shop (which did not last long). It has been a Subway for many years.

Our park Interpretive Center opened in 1994 without refreshments, but we worked out a contract with a vending company to set up vending machines in a designated lunchroom space. That lasted about 2 years (maybe less) and we've not provided food since at least 1996. Our gift shop has sold chilled soft drinks and bottled water, though not since our renovation.

We direct visitors to "restaurant row" along the river about a mile and a half from our park. Except for one, they are all local establishments with a wide menu offering. It takes the sting of not having food on site, which might only succeed with a full-size restaurant - and our site is too small for that!

HI:

You may know this already, but the implications are different depending on which side of the admissions point you site the cafe.  Inside, it's considered to be a visitor amenity.  If it's open to the public without regard to admission, you have UBIT to consider.

Sue

Alissa--

We are also asked a similar question and, as others have pointed out, the answer is "its complicated."

The challenge with coming up with any rules of thumb is that the circumstances of each museum are so different. How far have people traveled to get to the museum? Do they come with the expectation that there will be food? How far away is the nearest option? What is the nature of the experience you want to provide?

That said, our sense is that it takes about 100,000 visitors to make a cafe with a full-service kitchen viable. It takes 500,000 or more to think of visitor food service a profit center. (I can't back up these ideas with any data, but they are in the ballpark)

One way to determine whether it makes fiscal sense to offer food at a small museum is to ask several local cafe operators or caterers if they might like to operate food service for the museum. They can likely give you a good sense of the viability of various options. For medium and large museums, it is more complicated and you likely need a food service consultant to work things out.

We are in favor of food as a visitor amenity in even small museums. We typically recommend that smaller museums offer packaged snacks and drinks as part of their gift shop. These are easy to stock and satisfy an immediate need. If there is sufficient demand, they can also offer remade, prepackaged sandwiches.

Guy