City Mall delicatessen aiming to brand its culinary offerings
The three enterprising sisters whose culinary offerings have won the approval of scores of visitors to the City Mall, have decided to seek an even bigger clientele in downtown Georgetown. On April 1, Allison English and her sisters Carol and Deslyn Hamilton, proprietors of the popular Brown Bag Deli launched their new cafeteria and coffee shop on the Main street premises of Courts Guyana Inc. having signed a three-year contract with the local furniture giants a few weeks earlier.
The move, Allison told Stabroek Business, was inspired by a desire for expansion born of what she described as the “modest but encouraging response” to the launch of the Brown Bag Deli at the City Mall in December 2006.
The new cafeteria is designed to serve the staff of Courts while the coffee shop is open to the public and according to Allison the new venture is being seen by herself and her sisters as the start of an initiative to expand their business while seeking to brand the Brown Bag Deli.
While the Brown Bag Deli has earned the plaudits of customers particularly for their salads and roasts, Allison says that the delicatessen’s emphasis on “healthy eating” has been the primary factor in winning people over. “We believe that given a choice most people will choose healthier foods,” she says.
And according to Allison while the Courts facility will also be placing emphasis on healthy foods, customers there will be offered different options. “Our Main Street menu will include more local foods, more snacks and some of the cooking that we offer at the City Mall. What will not change is our focus on good cooking and healthy eating,” Allison says.
This new venture, they hope, marks the start of a process of branding the Brown Bag Deli and winning an even greater share of the patronage of city dwellers, workers and tourists.
When Stabroek Business visited the new Courts facility last week the new proprietors of the Cafeteria and Coffee Shop still appeared to the finding their way around the new facility. Allison told Stabroek Business that they are still in the process of getting their feet on the ground. She says that while the Cafeteria is already well-supported by Courts employees, there is still much work to be done to attract “outside customers” to the new facility. “We have our minds set on giving this new initiative the Brown Bag Deli image and we are giving ourselves a few months to get there.”
Part of their plan is to launch a vigorous marketing exercise to target employees of the various public and private sector workplaces in the locale, including nearby banks, insurance companies travel and department stores.
Allison says that the decision to undertake the new venture was taken after careful consideration. “We are only too well aware of continually rising food prices. In fact it seems that the prices of imported foods, particularly, rise almost every week and the cost of providing food to the standards that we have set is growing.” The Brown Bag Deli proprietor told Stabroek Business that she believes that the local restaurant industry is beginning to feel the effects of a drift away from “eating out” in the face of rising costs. “What we are seeking to do both at the City Mall and at the new location is to constantly find ways of holding our prices down. One way of doing so is by providing cheaper but no less nutritious snack-type foods,” Allison says.
To win over more customers both facilities will be placing more emphasis on “event” lunch offers to coincide with special occasions. They already have a special Mothers’ Day lunch in their sights.
