Two sisters have seen their joint business ambitions come true with the opening of their new café, housed in a converted container.
Claire Lewis and Julia Coregan have launched the Lazy Llama Cafe, located near a community centre in Greenwood Park, Chiswell Green just outside St Albans, Herts. Open seven days a week, the outlet sells teas, coffees, homemade cakes and hot food to take away, or eat outside at the café’s picnic tables.
Central to the plan was the design of the 20ft shipping container to accommodate two areas separated by a hatch – a cooking area with stainless steel kitchen equipment and a sitting area with uPVC French doors. Due to the impact of Covid-19 social distancing measures, the indoor seating area isn’t yet open to customers, but does provide a useful additional area for staff and storage.
In terms of exterior appearance, porthole windows have been included to let light in and the entire container is covered in wood cladding.
Regulations demanded that the café met all food safety standards and was fully insulated to be suitable for all-year round use. Electronic roller shutters were installed over the doors for maximum overnight security.
Claire says: “Julia and I had already seen a unit like this and so we had a vision of how we wanted our café to look. We then worked closely with Ian and Lee at Portable Space to bring that vision to life.
“Lazy Llama is everything we wanted it to be and we’re delighted with the feedback we’ve received from our customers so far. Ian and the team were so easy to work with and always communicated well, which meant we felt supported throughout the project. Any small issues were rectified quickly.
“We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone else looking to plan a container conversion and we hope to use them again at some point in the future.”
