I've been personally involved with several restaurant/museum shop projects in Taiwan (all of them are public subsidized). I will share my perspectives although they may not be applicable to yours.

1.Museums often contract out public services (restaurants and museum shops) to private businesses. This way the museums can minimize investments in both kitechen facilities and human resources. Depends on the size of museums, here we see cafes, sandwich stores, fine dining restaurants and even chain stores like McDonald and Moss Burgers in museums.
2.Restaurants ususally open only during museum hours unless sepearate entrances are available. In the case of special events hours can be extended.
3. These restaurants usually do their marketing under a grand museum marketing strategy (this is actually one of the benefits for restaurant owners to do business inside museums). There are also successful cases when restaurants develop their own marketing strategies. However museums must be careful with museum image in their advertising campaigns.

Jasper

Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:43:48 -0700
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Restaurants/Cafes in Museums
To: [log in to unmask]

Hello All,

I've been having an ongoing conversation with the folks who run the restaurant at our museum and need some comparable information. I'm wondering for those of you who have restaurants/cafes in your museums:
1. are they privately run, or does the museum run them?
2. are the restaurants expected to be open on the days/hours that the museum is open, including holidays?
3. do these restaurants advertise separately or is their marketing folded into a larger museum marketing strategy?

Thanks
Keni Sturgeon
Mission Mill Museum
1313 Mill Street, SE
Salem, OR 97301

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