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ON-TRADE: In from the fields
“standfirst”>InSpiral was originally conceived as a café at outdoor music festivals, but it has recently taken up residence in a permanent home in Camden Town. Ben Grant reports on an ethical concept that aims to inspire consumers
The on-trade is all about pleasure. From pubs to clubs and bars to restaurants, the spectrum of different types of establishment is virtually limitless, but in spite of this rich variety, almost all venues adhere to a single common guiding principle: to create an inviting and hospitable space where consumers can enjoy themselves. For InSpiral Lounge, however, the raison d’être is rather more expansive. The café-cum-bar opened earlier this year in the bustling heart of Camden Town, underpinned by a dual philosophy. Creating a hospitable environment is crucial, but it is just one part of the equation – equally important is the desire to raise awareness of nutritional and environmental issues.
With a strictly organic menu, a well-stocked library of books and resources, a regular programme of speakers and films, a comprehensive recycling strategy and an energy-efficient set up, the venue is so “green” that it borders on the political. But in spite – or, perhaps, even because – of these credentials, it is also functioning as a highly effective business, attracting impressive levels of custom in one of the most congested corners of the London on-trade. And after just six months expansion plans are already on the cards.
“The essence of InSpiral is to inspire people to make conscious choices in their lives,” explains Dominik Schnell, director and project manager. These choices are divided into two distinct groups: those that relate to personal health and wellbeing; and those that relate to environmental impact. The café is therefore focused on serving “genuinely healthy, nutritious food that is not price prohibitive”, as well as providing a forum for learning and sharing ideas – hence the books and a regular roster of talks, discussions and films. “The idea is to lead by example,” he explains, “ultimately we aspire to inspire people to implement some of the suggestions in their own lives.” However, Schnell is acutely aware of the need to make the experience enjoyable and engaging at the same time as being informative, so the café and the concepts that it extols are “packaged in a fun way”.
InSpiral operates a strictly organic and vegetarian policy, including the bar. An intriguing range of organic (and, where possible, locally sourced) beer, cider, wine and spirits generates upwards of 20% of total sales. And this figure is likely to increase as and when a licence is granted to serve alcohol to customers who aren’t eating.
“Nutrition is the area that I’m most passionate about,” says Schnell. “90% of the food you find in the supermarket I’d describe as toxic, and the knowledge we’re bringing our kids up with is flawed.” He is concerned that the green debate is increasingly being “hijacked”, pointing towards the “dilution” of the criteria that define organic farming and bemoaning the rise of “green wash”, whereby genuinely green business practices are difficult to discern amidst the ocean of spurious claims. He is critical of organisations who “try to establish a ‘green’ front” where negligible changes are dressed up and publicised for PR purposes. However, he derives some optimism from the fact that at least it means the issue is rising up the agenda – “it’s a step in the right direction”.
The café is located in a solid brick building overlooking the canal at Camden Lock, but the organisation has not always rested on such solid or permanent foundations. The story began in 1997 when German-born Schnell arrived in London via a two-year stint in Japan. The economics and Japanese graduate began working as a multimedia and performance artist, and rapidly became involved in the “alternative” music, arts and nightlife scene. In the beginning the focus was unlicensed parties, but by 1999 he was active in promoting licensed alternative club nights, and soon realised that his particular niche was creating a visually stimulating environment to host performances and serve a range of organic food and drink. The ID Spiral café was born.
Having successfully set up the café at club nights around the capital, Schnell and the ID Spiral team hit the road and began to operate at outdoor music festivals. As everyone in the on-trade well knows, setting up a space that looks good and serves great food and drink is tricky enough at the best of times. Operating in a field – or, frequently, a mud bath – brings with it a whole range of additional challenges. “With a festival you often have to operate under adverse conditions and you need to set up all the infrastructure (from power and water to shelter and decor) each and every time. It’s hard and repetitive work, and you then only have about 70 hours to make the money you need to break even.” In the early days ID Spiral set up shop at up to 10 events each summer, and rapidly earned a reputation as one of the most comfortable and visually creative “chill out” spaces on the festival circuit.
Since these early days the concept has evolved; the facilities have grown so considerably that at each event the café welcomes a crowd of up to 3,000 people. It now takes approximately three weeks to set up the entire operation with a core group of about 10 augmented by a temporary staff of up to 70 cooks and servers over the course of the weekend. The team has thus cut back to about three large-scale events each year.
With the festival café flourishing, Schnell was one of the founders of The Synergy Project, an ambitious and high-profile club night that began at London’s SE One club in 2003. The objective of the night was to host a fun, appealing night “collaborating with cultural, political and environmental organisations”. Charities, NGOs, protest groups, petitions, political organisations and high-profile speakers were a central feature of the event, raising awareness of a range of different issues, and engaging with a crowd of over 3,000 revellers at each party in a fun, informative environment.
The underground scene that had caught Schnell’s imagination six years earlier had found its way above ground and into the mainstream.
But it wasn’t long before a new challenge was needed. Schnell is is an incredibly inventive and creative character, but is also highly dynamic and proactive – two sets of qualities that don’t always go hand in hand. With both the festival café and the club night continuing from strength to strength, he was soon looking for “something new to get my teeth into”. Having wandered, nomad-like, around the nightclubs and the festival fields it was time to put down permanent roots, he explains. “A permanent space was the logical progression”. It was time to establish a “static space to consolidate what we’d been working on for the last seven years”.
A business plan was drawn up in early 2007 and after securing start-up funds of £100,000 the next job was to find a suitable home. Having viewed a number of premises Schnell saw a rather dilapidated café overlooking Camden’s famous canal. In spite of the great location, the outlet was dark, dingy and usually empty, so he pitched the landlord who was, fortuitously, “looking for something young and dynamic”. It was a great stroke of luck: not only is the spacious site in a prime spot on one of the most lively and busy shopping and tourist streets in the capital, but it also boasts a panoramic view and a private waterside jetty (from where the previous tenant still operates canal cruises).
After a frantic six weeks of construction, the café officially opened its doors in January. Compared to working in a field, “it is,” Schnell jokes, “a very different ball game,” but the team have quickly adapted to the challenges of the new space. And within months of the launch, plans are already being formulated to grow. “Camden is a prototype – we’re seeing if the concept works, if the market is ready for it,” he explains. The early signs are certainly highly encouraging, with regular custom through the day from breakfast until close at midnight.
Ambitious as ever, the expansion plans are twofold. Firstly, planning permission is possible for a third floor at the Camden site, and some pretty striking architectural plans are already on the drawing board. Secondly, there is the possibility of further outlets. Schnell explains that this will take the form of a “social franchise”. Various parties have already registered an interest, and if a roll out takes place Bristol looks set to be the first location.
Every on-trade operator will tell you that employing the right staff is important for business, and for a concept such as InSpiral this is particularly true. Because everything about the café is grounded in a very tangible ideology, “it is absolutely essential that they believe in the message. The ethics of the organisation must resonate with the mindset of the employees,” so picking the right team is absolutely critical.
Schnell is insistent that the staff are passionate about the issues, “that they are eager to acquire knowledge and they share it with customers”. Feeling motivated, challenged and valued is the key to a satisfied workforce, so the InSpiral policy is to rotate staff around various roles in the business – from serving to event planning.
To establish a business based on a highly politicised and ethical philosophy represents a pretty grand vision; to make it a commercial success is truly an impressive feat. The issues that underpin the InSpiral ideology are rapidly surging up the public and political agenda, and young people are particularly attuned to the message. Schnell explains that the number one priority is to inspire people to think about their actions and their consumption. With tens of thousands of young people from all corners of the world passing by the front door every weekend, he has found the perfect pulpit from which to preach the message.
db © August 2008