Old cinema, re-purposed, re-imagined
Picturedrome is a social food and drink destination that has transformed Macclesfield’s oldest cinema space.
The site – also once a bingo hall and offices – is the third re-purposed food and drink destination from Market Operations, a company dedicated to turning derelict, unloved or unused buildings into socially useful spaces that benefit the local area.
Picturedrome can seat 180 customers and features two bars and seven food traders in the hall, plus another food trader in an external area, where there is additional seating.
CHR Equipment designed, project managed and installed the catering and bar facilities.
“On a busy Saturday Picturedrome can cater for more than 2,500 covers,” says CHR Sales Representative Pete Callaghan.
“It’s quite an amazing turnaround for the building. This was one project, but involved seven kitchens, two bars and a total of 10 clients. Each of the kitchens and bars is owned and run by an independent operator but the dining area and services such as the dishwash are shared.”
CHR and MEIKO are long-standing partners on kitchen schemes and this site created some challenging logistics.
The dishwash would have to cope with up to 2,500 covers at its busiest.
To ensure the right throughput capacity and the best possible wash for the high volume of crockery, cutlery, display dishes and glassware, CHR designed a three-zone dishwash and the design was careful to include sufficient working and storage space for each section, allowing them to operate without interfering or crossing over with the others.
Working with MEIKO, CHR specified three solutions for each of the wash zones.
A MEIKO UPster K rack transport dishwasher would handle the most soiled ware; pots, pans and crockery. To the left of this machine is a heavy-duty pre-spray and pre-scrapping area which would reduce the soil-load on the dishwasher and help ensure the most efficiency in use.
- Coffee and tea service creates its own warewashing problems because of tannin staining in the cups; a separate hood machine was specified to handle just this crockery.
- Finally, CHR specified two MEIKO undercounter dishwashers with GiO reverse osmosis for washing the glassware.
For clients who want their glasses and dishes to sparkle, improving the water quality is essential – and that calls for demineralisation or osmosis.
Having worked with Meiko for more than 20 years, CHR is well aware of the benefits of GiO reverse osmosiswater treatment, which provides top-quality sparkling, spot free results on glassware and saves labour by eliminating the need for any hand polishing.
Ancillary items include several rack trolleys for storing and collecting crockery; a selection of wash baskets include tall, segmented baskets for washing delicate glassware.
Large charts showing pictorial operating instructions are wall mounted above the UPster K rack-type dishwashing machine, making it easy for any new operating staff to be guided through the wash and cleaning processes.
“A key part of the dishwash are the sorting areas, which are essential to ensure a smooth workflow, because each of the kitchens has their own individual crockery, which needs sorting separately for return to the relevant kitchen or bar,” says Pete Callaghan.
For clients who want their glasses and dishes to sparkle, improving the water quality is essential – and that calls for demineralisation or osmosis.
Water does not always behave the same way when we clean with it. Some of the minerals it contains can inhibit performance by leaving those familiar ugly and unappetising smears on cutlery and glasses. In dishwashers they may deposit a fur commonly known as limescale.
“MEIKO were quick to provide their support and detail our equipment specification. We were able quickly to select the right capacity equipment package and this helped pull the project into focus and secure the right solution for the client; the dishwash area was one of the first spaces to be designed."
“Working with the different kitchen brands, the bars and the equipment suppliers to Picturedrome has been a good experience; we are all proud to be part of something new for the community.”
