The street food boom shows no sign of letting up, whether front trucks, in food halls or in bricks and mortar restaurants. We recognise the many challenges of serving tasty food on demand, at speed, often in tight kitchen spaces. As commercial kitchen designers and installers, we provide intelligent, considered design solutions, and have helped deliver some remarkable results for clients, several of whom have gone on to become renowned names in the industry.
Why street food is here to stay
Street food is much more than a buzzword these days. Its roots may lie in the Asian Hawker markets, but with permanent sites and pop-ups in cities across the UK, this category has evolved into one of the fastest growing catering sectors, and a breeding ground for some of our best culinary talent.
GOOD FOOD SERVED ON-THE-GO CONTINUES TO PULL CUSTOMERS IN
QUALITY CAN NEVER BE COMPROMISED, NO MATTER WHAT THE LIMITATIONS
STREET FOOD IS BRINGING RESTAURANT QUALITY CREATIONS TO THE MASSES
NOT FORGETTING TRADITIONAL TAKEAWAYS AND FOOD-TO-GO FAVOURITES TOO
A booming sector
Some figures show street food alone is worth £1.2 billion in the UK, with food-to-go sales, which includes takeaways, drive-throughs and bakeries, as high as £23 billion. We’ve been at the forefront of this trend, working with everyone from first-time vendors to award-winning entrepreneurs, designing the kitchen spaces they need to work their magic.
We’ve worked with some of the UK’s hottest street food talent through every step of their career. Whatever stage you’re at in your food-to-go food journey, our smart kitchen designs can help bring your inventions to life.
Tailored for takeaways too
We don’t forget traditional takeaway establishments. Wherever you need a kitchen capable of serving food on demand, we’ve got you covered, including QSR, click & collect and front of house or retail food-to-go. The same principles apply; designing kitchen spaces that combine the right equipment with efficient workflows to help meet your customers’ expectations when it comes to quality and speed of service.
Solutions for every environment
Space is always a challenge in street food and takeaway kitchen design. Your food is cooked to order, assembled and served quickly, and all within the confines of small, restricted or unconventional spaces. Getting the appliances you need takes careful planning, but anything is possible with creativity and intelligent design. Our customers are cooking pizzas in horseboxes and putting together tikka wraps in spaces smaller than most commercial cold rooms. In fact, we’d go as far as saying that we thrive on spatial challenges.
PUTTING THE ‘KIT’ INTO KITCHENS
It doesn’t matter what you’re cooking, we can supply the equipment you need to bring your products to life and keep customers coming back. And we know space is a luxury you might not have. So, here are just a few examples of appliances which are typical within the food to go sector.
From the markets of Marrakech, to the favelas of South America. Asian spices or American Deep South sauces. Whatever influences your menu, we’re on hand to design a kitchen fit for your creations.
Working on wheels?
The UK street food boom initially began in London’s markets, but quickly grew to become a mainstay in provincial cities across the UK. So, whether you’re creating masterpieces from a truck or a semi-permanent kiosk in a market hall, your kitchen flow and super speedy service can never let up. Cooking equipment is often modular, hooked up to temporary power supplies or tanked gas. It might be ‘plug and play’, but it’s still a significant investment and it’s critical to the success of your enterprise. We’re here to help you get it right.
IMAGE WITH NO TEXT OVER
Moving to bricks and mortar
The street food sector is awash with success stories of entrepreneurs who have taken their concept to the high street and we’re proud to have worked with a number of talented chefs who have done just that. If you’re looking for a more permanent set-up, we have what it takes to design scalable, intelligent kitchen spaces where you can evolve your menu and grow your business. All without losing the values that got you where you are today.
WHAT WE DO FOR YOU
We’ve got you covered, from start to finish. Our beginning-to-end solutions include:
Got plans for a destination venue?
We don’t just work with culinary creators. If you’re developing a food hall with multiple units or transforming an indoor market into a destination for foodies, our design team can support with every aspect of early-stage kitchen planning.
We factor in service efficiency, ventilation and more, to enable you to build intelligently-designed kitchen shells that make your project more marketable to chefs and entrepreneurs. So, your tenants simply need to install their own kitchen equipment and fire up the burners.
ALL YOU NEED
Kitchen design and installation to meet your unique challenges…
Dark kitchens, cloud kitchens or ghost kitchens. Whatever you call them, they’re on the rise too. And we also have what it takes to plan and deliver carefully considered kitchens for food delivery concepts.
James Breslaw
Co-Owner - Neds Noodle Bar
We’ve been using Nelson since they kitted out our very first site back in 2000. Working with them was great. They totally understood what we needed to achieve and the service and equipment they supplied were perfect so it was a simple decision to keep on working with them across all our other sites!
Nelson’s experienced design team always listens to what its clients require and then suggests the best possible layout and most appropriate equipment.
Here are some examples of operations we’ve helped:
Feast Canteen
Rajah Rowing Team
Bird
The Begging Bowl
Wokit
Queen Vic Pie & Liquor
Smoque Burger
Chick ‘N’ Sours
How can we help you?
Whether you’re in the earliest stages of planning or you have a site that’s ready to go, it’s never too early to involve us. We can advise and assist you at every stage so let’s start the conversation today.
