June. We got offered to open a cafe

It’s getting harder and harder to sit down and organise my thoughts.

But I’m committed to stopping and reflecting on our journey because it actually helps us make better business decisions. Looking back reminds us how hard we’ve worked to get where we are.

June has been another great month.

I’m not going to lie, I was anxious about our first public event with the food truck this year and it was at the Meadows Festival. I love the festival, but it’s so weather-dependent that one rainy weekend could have easily cost us £2,000 in losses.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

People showed up. The queue showed up. And once again, it made us feel

incredibly grateful.

We sold out.

Not long ago, we were the ones without a queue. We’d stand there feeling frustrated, watching other food trucks (usually selling meat) with long lines,

wondering, Why don’t people want food made from scratch? Why do they prefer fries with cheese? There isn’t exactly much science behind that…

In the end, we still love doing festivals because we get to talk to people, and people discover us by chance. Like Courtney, a Vegan MasterChef contestant from the USA, who happened to walk past and found us.

That was such a cool moment because a few months ago I watched one of her videos where she said, “I’m a vet, and I don’t eat meat because it would feel weird eating my patients.” That always stuck with me, so I recognised her straight away.

Then came the hardest week of the month: three events, one after another.

First was Stockbridge Market. It went well, but we’re still trying to find the right menu for that crowd. We’ve realised that tourists don’t often choose kebabs when they don’t know us, so we’re thinking of offering more comforting, grab-and-go food that’s easy to eat without a table.

I’m sorry for those of you who wanted the gnocchi, we’ll probably be giving them a proper farewell at Leith Market this month, so keep an eye on our socials.

The day after, we catered a wedding at Comrie Croft, a beautiful sustainable venue in Scotland. We served a buffet alongside a live risotto station, and it was a huge hit.

Everyone praised the food, but one moment really stayed with us.

We made the venue organiser cry.

We gave her a plate with a selection of the leftovers, and when she took a bite of Gemma’s pizza/focaccia, she burst into tears because it reminded her of the one her grandmother used to make when she was a child.

Brava, Gemma. You officially cook like a grandma.

The following day we had a canapé party for an architecture firm. They ordered 500 canapés.

They looked beautiful.

Everyone loved them, and for once Gemma’s Italian instinct was absolutely right, we had made another 300 as backup, just in case. Normally, the backup is there because accidents happen. People drop trays, things go wrong…

This time, the “accident” was that people ate all 500 canapés in the first hour and a half because they simply couldn’t stop eating them.

The favourite?

The truffle mushroom hosomaki.

One thing that made me especially happy was that, just as I was about to leave, some people in the queue recognised me.

“Planet G!!! Are you serving the food here?”

They were genuinely excited because they knew they were about to eat our food.

That made me realise we’re slowly achieving our goal: making people excited to eat whatever we cook because they trust it’s going to be delicious.

Leith Market was another great one.

Our T-shirt designer, Wes Vaughn, came to the stall, so he got to see us actually wearing his artwork. We also gave him a little present, an embroidered unicorn patch, and, of course, the three free kebabs that were included in his payment plan. 😂

I’m still looking for the right company to print the T-shirts, but once I find one, we’ll do a pre-sale in case you want one.

Lastly, I went to Spain for a week and left Gemma and the team in charge of a corporate event for Trainline. Gemma was a bit nervous because was her first event without me.

They booked us for their company lunch last year, so I was really happy they invited us back.

Everything went well because after this event they booked us again for September so their team can finally try Gemma’s famous gnocchi.

Decision time 💬☕

And now… the biggest decision we had to make.

We were offered the chance to open a café in Edinburgh.

The concept around the space is amazing. A sauna, yoga, breathing workshops, a courtyard to hang out in, covered outdoor seating… honestly, it sounded like a dream.

But there was a catch.

In somewhere between two and five years, the whole site will be demolished to build student accommodation. (Exactly what Edinburgh needs…)

At first we thought, maybe this is actually the perfect opportunity. We could test whether running a café suits us without committing to a ten-year lease.

Or it could be bad? After all we experienced, businesses take at least 2 years to bloom, and we’d might be closing on our primer.

Also, lot of things can happen in 2 years, maybe demolishing plans change…

Our brains went into overdrive.

What food would we serve? What events could we run? All-you-can-eat vegan buffet nights. Lasagna nights. So many ideas.

Then we stopped.

We sat down.

And we did the numbers.

I personally wouldn’t be able to run the cafe, I don’t have more room for tasks.

With caterings already booked until November, we’d need to hire two full-time people.

I worked out the real cost.

One chef at £15 an hour would actually cost us around £2,800 a month once all the associated costs were included. Front of house would be another £2,500.

That’s over £5,000 every month before paying rent, buying ingredients or selling a single plate of food.

But the biggest issue wasn’t actually the money.

I know that, sooner or later, the café would probably become busy.

The real risk is splitting our energy.

I don’t want to take attention away from the catering business that has taken so much effort to build.

I don’t want to make mistakes on someone’s wedding day or most important celebration because I’m worrying about a café.

I don’t want Gemma to become overloaded and stop enjoying cooking because she’s exhausted.

And I don’t want to run a café if we can’t be there giving it 100%.

When we do something, we like to do it properly.

We also want time to enjoy life.

We’ll probably never be rich, and we’ve made peace with that.

We value life.

We value our time.

We need space to breathe so we can keep delivering our food with joy, love and care.

So although I absolutely loved the space, and I genuinely think it will become a brilliant project…

…we said no.

Sometimes stopping, reflecting and honestly looking at where your energy is going gives you the perspective you need.

Instead, we offered to help by running some of the evening events there.

So hopefully, if everything works out, you’ll be seeing regular Planet G supper clubs in Edinburgh soon.

And that was our June.

Monthly balance ⚖️

Future plans 🚀

Lots of things in mind, future collabs I want to do, merchandising, regular supper clubs… but today was a really long email. Maybe on the next one

Marta | Project Manager | Planet G.
Sustainable Kitchen by Gemma Costa (Masterchef the Professionals)
Scottish Street Food Award Champions 2024.
Catering, weddings, events
@planetgfood