Sometimes, you just know when there’s a demand for something. I realised in 2017 that our customers were demanding coffee, and lots of it!
In 2017, the most asked question at public events – after food orders, of course – was “do you do coffee”? When we catered for private dining, our clients asked if we could serve coffee after the meal. In the end, we got so many requests for coffee that I decided I wanted to find the best way to deliver this!
I really love Italian coffee – especially a good, frothy cappuccino – and I wanted to find something special.
Many of the machines we saw were too big for the Vanstaurant and far more than what we needed. We decided to keep looking at coffee ideas while we were in Italy over the winter.
In February, we got tickets to ExpoRivaHotel – a big hospitality exhibition at the far north of Lake Garda. We had a list of items that we wanted to check, including coffee machines.
It was here that we met Marco from Caffè del Caravaggio, a company based in Bergamo who make portable, technologically advanced machines and a fantastic selection of delicious Italian coffees. They were perfect for us!
We decided to order two espresso machines and a steam machine, along with some of their high-quality pure Arabica custom blends. Specially created to satisfy different tastes, it’s a bit like choosing coffee in the same way you choose a wine. This would allow us to serve different kinds of Italian coffee, including espresso, cappuccino and americano. We were very excited when it all arrived!
So that we could get the best out of our coffee machine, Marco fixed a date to come and see us in Manchester. In the meantime, we practised making delicious Italian espresso. Look at this crema!
Here’s Marco visiting Casa Tigellae! During his visit, he taught us how to look after the coffee and steam machines and how to make the perfect cappuccino – my favourite! Thank you for your help and for coming all the way from Bergamo to see us!
Marco’s visit came just in time. A few days later we headed to Manchester Central to take part in a huge corporate exhibition with GardX, who transformed our Vanstaurant into a beautiful pop-up Italian restaurant!
GardX met with many potential clients over the course of the exhibition, so our little coffee machine was very busy! We made more than 200 coffees in two days!
Our coffee machine is available for hire as part of a food and drinks package for corporate events and private dining. If you need any more information on any of our services, please don’t hesitate to contact us.