Corfe Castle at sunrise
Sculpture by the Lakes is opening its own café in collaboration with award winning Yalbury Cottage owner and head chef Jamie Jones. The Gallery Café will open its doors this spring with the launch date set for Tuesday 4th April 2017.
The Gallery Café, situated in the current gallery space, will offer visitors to the park a relaxed, informal venue where, with Jamie’s extensive experience and expert cooking, they will be able to enjoy a locally sourced, freshly prepared, seasonal menu. Customers can eat in the café or outside in a newly created garden seating area. Or they can take one of the picnic baskets provided, fill it up with the café’s culinary delights and enjoy it wherever they choose in the beautiful surroundings of the sculpture park, picnic blankets provided as well!
The café itself will have a relaxed, cosy atmosphere with bespoke welsh dressers where customers can help themselves to coffee, a wide variety of teas from Dorset Herbal Teas and hot chocolate, alongside Dorset drinks such as Dorset Coast Apple Juice, Jurassic Spring Water, Dorset Brewing Company Beers, Purbeck Cider and locally sourced wine and prosecco from The Dorset Wine Company. The menu will use local suppliers such as Portland Shell Fish, South West Garlic, The Wasabi Compnay and include delicious sandwich boxes, fresh salads, soups, homemade breads, patisseries, Rolly’s Brownies, Purbeck Ice Cream and a hot dish which will change daily.
There will be an emphasis on sustainability with a recycle centre located behind the café to ensure that the ecological footprint is as low as it can be, mirroring the ethos of Sculpture by the Lakes. The café will use recyclable wooden cutlery, paper cups, sandwich and cardboard bento boxes, re-usable earthenware crockery and re-usable picnic baskets.
Simon Gudgeon, owner of Sculpture by the Lakes said “Providing a café is something we always planned to do and we’re so happy that Jamie Jones from Yalbury Cottage is behind the venture. We know that the café will enhance the visitor experience, allowing them to stay longer and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and artwork even more.”
During the summer, the café will be open from 10am – 4pm, Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays, and in winter it will be closed Sundays as well as Mondays alongside the sculpture park opening hours. Picnics will be able to be pre-booked, so on arrival visitors will simply collect a ready-made picnic basket and head to their favourite place in the park to enjoy. All types of dietary requirements will be catered for with a particular emphasis on vegan food and gluten free options.
Described as one of Britain’s most beautiful and unique sculpture parks, Sculpture by the Lakes is set amongst 26 acres of Dorset’s finest countryside; a tranquil and inspiring setting in which to appreciate both art and nature, and now food!
