Chicago Botanic Garden

Café Renovation

Key Points

 

  • The goals of the Garden Café renovation are to:
    • improve visitor flow
    • make food choices more visible to diners
    • increase capacity for the food service provider (currently Sodexo) to serve both the Café and private events
    • modernize features for more environmentally responsible practices in the Café
    • increase earned income
  • We aim to create an enjoyable and educational experience in the Café, consistent with the overall Garden experience. 
  • The current Café has served the Garden since 1993, when attendance was much lower than it is today and when standards and expectations for environmentally sustainable practices in public institutions (i.e., recycling) were minimal.
  • In 2011, the Garden embarked on the first phase of work which will allow us to expand the dishwashing and storage area allowing the Café to move from using disposable plates, bowls, and flatware to using “permanent-ware” (excluding cups due to lack of storage space).  This phase of the Café renovation costs $900,000.
  • Also in 2011, the Garden will incorporate composting food scraps and compostable materials (i.e., cold-drink cups) into its Café operations. 
  • Ultimately, it is our goal to create a “closed-loop” solution, whereby the Garden will then use the compost from this off-site facility on the Garden’s grounds or at the Garden’s Green Youth Farms and Windy City Harvest sites. 
  • In addition to the 2011 back-of-the-house changes, as soon as funding is available, the Garden hopes to complete a second, more extensive Café renovation to complete front-of-the-house improvements, including a food-court style arrangement with stations and cashier islands for better customer flow.  The cost for this phase of the renovation is $3,000,000.