While eating tapas with the film stars

A grand café with an indoor cinema. You might think this is a golden combination, but nothing could be further from the truth. "The restaurant was not full during the first two years. We achieved better than the national average on all fronts, but this wasn't reflected in the cash register". And so Managing Director Bart Vleugel decided to change course.

House of flower bulbs becomes home of cinema and tapas lovers

Pictures of the famous 'Bloembollenveiling' flower bulb auction in Lisse are a reminder of how the premises were used years ago. "Boats full of tulip bulbs passed the building. Upstairs is the ' Mijnzaal'l hall, the “Mine Hall”. If you offered a basket of flower bulbs you shouted "mine”. Today we show films in there.” says Bart. He has been working in HoReCa since he was 15. Together with the two owners Hans and Edwin Kluft, he started Grand Café Cineac and Cinema Floralis in 2015.

They present films six days a week. There is room for 250 visitors and most of them don't just come to eat there. Vleugel wanted to stand out in Lisse and thus decided to serve tapas all you can eat, based on French cuisine. Now there are 30 dishes on the menu. Meat, fish and veg – each a mini delight. Everything is freshly-made and you can taste it. Salmon tartare, pumpkin curry, Texel lamb. “We change the menu twice a year. Since the introduction of the concept, we have been booked every night. Not with movie-goers, but with people who really enjoy eating a whole evening."

With 70 guests, some 400 plates and a few hundred glasses going through the dishwasher every evening, it is impossible to do without a dishwasher and a glasswasher. The cutlery is washed in a dishwasher and then again in a glasswasher. “Thanks to reverse osmosis, it comes out lime-free and we don't need to do any more polishing". Bart likes everything to be clean and tidy. Twice a year he has the kitchen completely dry-cleaned. New sealant edges are applied and then the kitchen is as good as new. “Every evening we take apart the dishwasher, wash arms and sieves. Together with our oven it forms the heart of our business.”

Dependably working in the background are an UPster H500 hood type dishwashing machine and an undercounter glasswasher UPster U500 G from MEIKO. "The first glasswasher broke down after just three years – cheap is expensive in the end. I have now also arranged the chemicals with MEIKO. Since we switched to MEIKO ACTIVE, the machines use much less detergent and rinse aid. Sometimes I think that there must be something wrong with the connections but the dosage is just lower," Bart laughs. 

With the MEIKO ACTIVE Advanced package, maintenance is also taken care of. "I simply know where I stand now. It sounds very cliché, but I would like to be completely unburdened and have a single point of contact. Even if there are malfunctions, someone will be there for you within an hour. A package like this costs money, of course, but you don't want to run the risk of being without a dishwasher on a Saturday night. What's more, it is cheaper than a separate maintenance service and purchasing separate detergent and rinse aid".

“I am really satisfied with the dishwasher. It copes well with a capacity of 40 racks per hour. I sometimes operate it myself, to show that it is not inferior work". Then Bart proudly shows off a glass. "Feel it! This is really clean. It is a matter of organisation. As soon as the dishwasher is finished, we leave the glasses in the rack and after two minutes they are cool, dry and ready to be reused. The dirty glasses go into the other rack. The system works really well.” According to Vleugel a half-filled rack is a real money drainer. Therefore, the dishwasher is only switched on when the rack is full.