In October 2016, the doors to the reinvigorated Chadstone Shopping Centre were swung wide open. This reinvigoration included the installation of two food zones in the centre, The Dining Terrace and Food Central. Like many retail centres around the globe, Chadstone was ready to redefine themselves not only as ‘the fashion capital’ but as ‘the fashion AND food capital’ with food and hospitality becoming such a major part of the consumer retail experience. Future Food had the pleasure of working alongside this project, assisting in creating an innovative and strategic food mix across both dining precincts, including 24 outlets in Food Central and seven full-service style restaurants in The Dining Terrace, that served both the customer and the centre.

At Future Food, our work does not just end at the point of project completion and one year ago, when Chadstone completed it’s refurbishment was just the beginning of our relationship with the food outlets in this space. We are constantly in touch with operators that we work with to ensure that success is still being met and to identify areas in which we can work together to improve overall standards and drive sales. During the building phase of the Chadstone refurbishment, Future Food focussed on matserplanning an exceptional dining destination and part of that included advising on concepts, menus, design, operating standards and pre- and post-opening alignment of all operators across both dining precincts. Now, we continue to look at these factors that make up an outlet and ensure that everything is operating as the centre, operator and customer hopes. Read more about our approach to performance tracking here.

One outlet we worked closely with was Marae Izakaya, a fine-dining Japanese restaurant located in The Dining Terrace offering an elevated, gourmet food experience. Last Thursday marked the one year anniversary since the opening of Marae Izakaya. The team enjoyed a night filled with music, Japanese tradition, culture, delicious food and vintage sake cracking barrel services.

Managing Director, Francis Loughran and Senior Consultant, Allan Forsdick were close partners with the owner of Marae Izakaya in the lead up and launch of this dining destination making it a night to be celebrated. Marae Izakaya is beautifully designed with paired back features and a light, bright vibe that suits the Atrium it sits in. There’s a touch of food theatre, inspired and exciting dishes not seen on other menus and you can dine casually, more formally or even take a seat at the outlet’s food train right up until 9pm, capturing the evening diners. We look forward to continuing our work with the team at Marae Izakaya as well as the other food and beverage outlets at Chadstone to ensure the retail (and now dining) destination maintains the gold standard in food and hospitality practice and continues to thrive.

All images provided by Brett C

Are you looking for expert assistance for your retail centre's food precinct or food outlet? Future Food offers a variety of services aimed at boosting business and driving sales from performance reviews to overall masterplanning strategies. See our services or get in touch with one of our food consultants for more information.