Morrison Debuts Room Service/Retail Hybrid

Morrison’s Blossom Cafe at the Truman Medical Center serves both patient and retail meals from one on-patient-floor outlet.

Debuting on the third floor of the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City is the latest wrinkle in the hospital room service dining model. Blossom on Third is a “mini-bistro” that serves as a production kitchen for room service patient meals, and also as a retail dining outlet for staff and visitors.

Blossom chefs freshly prepare meals from a restaurant-style menu, which encompasses the Flavors 450 menu developed for foodservice management company Morrison Healthcare Services by celebrity chef Cary Neff. Each with 450 or fewer calories and less than 30 percent of them from fat, the entrees include Dijon herb-encrusted tilapia, pork roast in chipotle chili-corn broth, meatloaf and penne pasta with meatballs as well as sides and desserts.

Patients can either walk to Blossom or give their orders to servers, who record them on tablet computers that track dietary restrictions. The meals are then made fresh and served within a half hour.

The advantage of Blossom is that it also serves retail meals from the same menu to staff and visitors, who pay for their orders, thus generating revenue that supports the eatery while eliminating production redundancy by combining patient and retail meal service operations. It also solves the logistical challenge of bringing meals to patient floors from a distant production kitchen.

Currently, Blossom only serves the 45 beds on Truman's third floor, but Morrison, which developed the concept, plans to extend the service by opening Blossom outlets on other floors at the medical center, as well as at other hospitals where it operates.

Blossom on Third opened in December and operates daily from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm.