Backstage pass
Earlier this year Aramark took over the job of providing food and drink in a dozen of London's most prestigious West End theatres. David Tarpey spent a day seeing how it ensures top performance.
It's just past midday in late July and, despite talk that the Americans aren't coming to London, several knots of them cluster around the box office of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Above them, in the decorative Royal Retiring Room, sits Nick Levens, Aramark's group manager for the contract to supply food and beverage services to the West End's 12 Really Useful Group theatres. Opposite him is Mike Brown, operations director for 10 of the theatres, seen by Levens as both client and colleague. Amid the classically patterned walls, chandeliers and ornate mirrors, they're here for a tasting of a new bespoke canapé range.
This is a quarterly event and is the first step in a process that will include several of Brown's colleagues as well as selected VIP guests. F&B is just one of the areas in which Brown has an input, but it's clear how important he considers it.
"The perception has always been that food in theatres has not been very good yet is overpriced," he says. "We're nibbling away at that perception. We don't just host audiences but bring in lectures, seminars, product launches and award ceremonies. Our theatres have lots of hidden spaces, and we can do everything from tea and biscuits to buffets and function dinners. We chose Aramark because it has a culture of openness and flexibility, and is commercially focused."
Executive chef for the theatres is David Pay, who has put together today's canapé offering. His brief has been to keep within budget and to keep an eye on details, such as whether the canapés will remain intact when travelling to the 11 other theatres in the group.
He is part of a brigade of just three, based in a small kitchen at the Theatre Royal. All employees of Aramark, their job is to feed the full range of punters. The other theatres contain finishing kitchens, but it's Pay and his two colleagues who are at the nerve centre. If transportation of the food to another theatre is required, out come the white van and the blue cooler boxes - and Aramark's squad of 10 fit cellarmen.
Brown picks up the Oriental monkfish and fine noodles and wonders whether women, in their finest evening dresses, will feel comfortable about eating them. Pay assures him that the spoons are quite wide enough. Brown also spots the quail's egg florentine and reminds Pay and Levens that quails' eggs have not been popular in the past, but he tastes one and decides to give these a go. He is particularly impressed with the tempura prawn skewer and ginger syrup, and the wild mushroom beignets.
The tasting takes more than an hour and then Brown and Levens are off in a car to the London Palladium for a meeting. As they arrive, waves of children on summer holiday and their parents are funnelling through the entrance for a 2.30pm performance of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The atmosphere is charged with excitement, heightened by the arrival of sports presenter Gary Lineker and his family.
In the stalls bar, there has been a run on the strawberry and raspberry Slush Puppies (£1) and a brisk trade in the Kids' Treat Box range. Themed around the eponymous Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, these cost £2.50 and contain either chicken nuggets, spiral fries and a Slush Puppy, or popcorn, chocolate and a fruit drink. About 2,000 of these are sold each week.
As the curtain goes up, Levens and Brown start discussing IT with three specialists who have come in from Cardiff Bay, Essex and Derby. The plan is to introduce a wireless system that will allow staff to take guests' bar orders at diverse points around the auditorium. The aim is to reduce the irksome scrums which dog every theatre bar at interval time, and thus allow the staff to upsell products such as two glasses of Champagne and a punnet of strawberries for £10.
Levens says: "It will allow people to go in to the auditorium and find their seats, and then the staff members will come by and take their orders," he says. "They will then be able to pay by credit card, which is a massive advantage. It will also cut queues at the bar and take people away from the bar area altogether. The key part of food and beverage service in theatres is to make it easy for the customer."
Next it's on to Her Majesty's Theatre, on Haymarket, to check the quality of its afternoon tea. Here they meet manager John Fitzsimmons, with whom they are especially pleased. It was his idea to introduce a doubles bar inside the auditorium at stalls level, this being a mobile bar which can be taken into the auditorium during intervals to serve spirits and mixers only. It has been a big success. So, too, is the afternoon tea (price £9-£13) for which the main takers are people on theatre tours.
By 5pm they are back at the Theatre Royal. This is Levens's base and his favourite theatre. To endorse this, he is holding his wedding reception here in September. For now, though, he rushes to check that tonight's three VIP dinners are on course, to be served in the Royal Retiring Room, the Ivor Novello Room and the Board Room.
Red-coated butlers are preparing themselves, while other catering staff are taking a break before the evening rush. At 5.30pm Levens calls a meeting with those staff who will be serving the dinners. He reminds them in which order to serve the different rooms, and stresses that the cutoff time for serving dinner is 6.30pm. After that, latecomers will have to miss a course. It's vital that everyone is in their theatre seats by 7.30pm. Guests have a glass of Champagne on arrival, followed by starter and main course pre-show, dessert in the interval and coffee and liqueurs at the end.
As it turns out, all the guests are on time, apart from one who fails to arrive. The house is full again tonight and, later in the second half of My Fair Lady, when actor Denis Waterman is delivering his lines as Eliza Doolittle's prodigal father, Levens slips away, content that his audience will come back for more.
Sample dinner choices available at the Really Useful Theatres
Starters Peppered goats' cheese mousse
Saladette of prosciutto ham
Crispy confit duck leg
Tartare of marinated tuna
Sun-blush tomato, black olive and artichoke tart
Mains Breast of corn-fed chicken
Herb-crusted canon of lamb
Oven-baked salmon fillet
Fillet of pork wrapped in bacon and puff pastry
Thai spiced vegetable cake
Puddings Banana crème brûlée
Glazed lemon tart
Dark chocolate mousse
Forest fruit pudding
Brie de Meaux
Aramark's brief
Aramark provides everything from kids' snack boxes for £2.50 to lavish corporate dinners at £200 per head. Liquor gives the biggest profit margin while the children's snack boxes provide the least.
The VIP offer can be canapés (savoury and sweet) and Champagne, sit-down dinners or a buffet, depending on guest requirements, numbers and budget. All packages are built around the shows, and prices include the performance ticket.
Although not aimed exclusively at the corporate market, in practice, most clients taking up the VIP offer come from this sector, which offers a profit margin of 40%.
What's on?
At the time of writing, the Really Useful Group theatres where Aramark is making its mark are staging:
Theatre Royal Drury Lane:My Fair Lady
London Palladium:Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Her Majesty's Theatre:Phantom of the Opera
The Palace:Les Misérables
The Lyric:The Constant Wife
The Cambridge:Fame
The Gielgud:Humble BoyThe Garrick:The Lieutenant of Inishmore
The Duchess:Via DolorosaNew London: between productions
The Queens:Umoja
The Apollo:Sleuth
Aramark
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JF
Tel: 020 7379 4981
Group manager: Nick Levens
Executive chef: David Pay
Cellar manager: Craig Beecham
Number of visitors catered for weekly: 80,000
Average number of visitors to Really Useful Theatres per year: four million
Staff: 110
Projected annual group turnover: £8m
The contract
The contract began in January 2002 and will run for five years. It covers 12 theatres, eight weekly shows and 44 bars. Under its terms, Really Useful Theatres pays Aramark an agreed fee to provide the food and beverage service in all its theatres. The fee is determined as a percentage of the profits. For its part, Aramark has guaranteed a certain level of profits, although it would not reveal the amount.
Projected group turnover is £8m per annum. Of that, banqueting and conferencing are worth about £2m a year, 25% of the group total.
The contract allows for an open-book accounting system. This means that both Aramark and Really Useful Theatres have automatic access to all decision making, as well as to all financial details concerning the contract.
