Child friendly cafe

[Batemanh1985]

I have always dreamed of having my own tea shop and would love to make this a reality. I am well aware that there are a lot of cafes around the Chichester area but I am a nurse working with children and would love to combine the two interests and have a real child/ family/ breast feeding friendly cafe. Have lots more ideas to make it unique but want to know whether any of you lovely mummy's feel that you want/need a shop like this? Comments would be greatly recieved. Thank you!

You might want to ask for this to be moved to the Sussex/Chichester local area board.

I live nowhere nr you but your idea sounds great but for the love of whatever dont get wooden highchairs my heart sinks when i go in somewhere and see them.
The whit bucket type ones with a tray are so much better

Your idea won't be very profitable. Your market is too narrow.

There was one here in plymouth and it didn't last long. However A really great cafe in a middle class area which happened to be v family friendly has been going for years.

Cafes in my area open up all the time, but after 6 months of groups of mum's sat around with their children, nursing a cup of tea to last 2-3 hours, they shut down.

My advice would be don't do it. You'll get groups who come in, buy one or two drinks, break out food for the kids, stay for hours and leave a mess.

There was one in Glasgow that lasted about five minutes due to the "lovely mummy's" (six) nursing a coffee for hours and letting their kids run riot, totally alienating any other potential customers.

Yep they won't buy your food for their kids they will bring their own. Workers who want to buy lunch won't use it if it's full of kids. Families won't use it every day. You need regular trade.The lunch time trade from workers is the best trade. Trust me I've worked in cafes and catering for years.

Great idea. I'm on mat leave and often meet up with a group of other mums for coffee (maybe 5 or 6 of us) and have to think of places that have enough pram space and where we feel comfortable if babies start crying etc.

Would suggest:

Plenty of space for prams.
Things to keep toddlers busy, play area, activity sheets etc.
Regular events e.g. Rhythm and rhyme sessions, storytelling.
Healthy foods for babies and toddlers, purees, finger foods etc.
Notice board or similar with information on what's on in the area e.g. Mums and tots groups.

There's a great one near me that has a cafe on one level, and on another is a play room. Full of toys, a rocking horse, train set, cars etc and a telly with some DVDs too.

Parents spend time with their kids there. You can have coffee, lunch wine and the kids are happy. There's also the option of staying in the play room until lunch is ready then going to the 'proper' cafe bit when your order is ready, which means kids don't get bored irritating whilst waiting.

Everyone in the normal cafe bit is unaware of the carnage below and happy having an undisturbed lunch!

Oh, that's the other thing, they want room for their massive prams. Your rental cost will be huge. People use them because they don't want to trash their own houses by having everyone, so they'd rather use yours.

Room for prams cuts down on your table space.

Have a look at the wilkinson sisters playtime cafe. it's a sort of soft play for younger kids so you play a small enterance fee, but it's easy for group of mums with small babies that go there.
Chichester is a lovely area and could use more nice cafes in my opinion!

Read this thread. You'll be swimming against the tide to turn a profit by targeting one of the least profitable but most demanding customer groups, and tidying up yoghurt tubs and wrappers from their pack ups. Best you could do is state 'No picnics' or 'No outsourced food permitted'.

peoplebringingpackupsintorestaurants

I was thinking about doing weaning talks/ sleep talks/ workshops etc for a set price with tea/ coffee and a piece of cake too. Would this be of interest?

You could look into renting out the cafe to Nct or other groups. What would everyone do with their babies when the talks were happening? A load of screaming babies wouldn't work.
You could try and make it a kid friendly children's afternoon tea place?

You could have childrens parties on the weekends to make some money if the cafe was big enough?

Lovely idea, but it's hard to make a cafe profitable because of the cost of rent and all the overheads.
Mums with small children will prob spend little and stay a relatively long time, compared to the work lunch crowd who spend more and eat fast.
I do know of a few cafes where this has worked though. One is in a very busy location so lots of passing trade. Another has a proper big interesting play area with a small entry fee, so people bring there kids to play frequently and buy lunch. Another somehow bridges different crowds, so a little play area in one corner, but the rest of the cafe is grown up so they get different types of customer.

Evening all. Could just do with a cuppa and a slab of cake now you mention it! OP - we're going to move this over to your local site for you in a tick.

I appreciate all the comments, thank you

Hi - We would love something like this in Chichester - there are plenty of local mums who would be interested.

Best
Kate