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A photo tour of employee dining space Wantable Café

Food Management’s March Innovator of the Month Wantable Café in Milwaukee promotes interaction among its customers, a traditional role of onsite dining with elevated importance in a coronavirus-impacted corporate environment.

Mike Buzalka, Executive Features Editor

March 2, 2021

6 Slides
Wantable_headquarters.jpg

Wantable Café in the newly opened headquarters of online apparel marketer Wantable in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood is an example of the kind of business dining venue poised to operate in a business world that has been changed by the coronavirus pandemic. With the mass of employees likely no longer coming to the office every day, opportunities for team building, collaboration and person-to-person interaction become more important as they become less frequent, and onsite dining—a traditional facilitator of such interaction—has a key role in this if it can develop the kind of venues that take advantage of this need while remaining financially viable.

With its menu of shareable foods and socialization-friendly beverages like coffees and alcoholic drinks that is offered free to Wantable employees, its accessibility by external paying customers, its large, open spaces that both invite entry and make it safe in the COVID world and its scalability to host large events once the pandemic subsides, Wantable Café hits the different requirements corporate dining spaces will need to accommodate the changed business environment.

Here’s a photo tour of the Café space and highlights of its current menu.

 

About the Author

Mike Buzalka

Executive Features Editor, Food Management

Mike Buzalka is executive features editor for Food Management and contributing editor to Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News. On Food Management, Mike has lead responsibility for compiling the annual Top 50 Contract Management Companies as well as the K-12, College, Hospital and Senior Dining Power Players listings. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from John Carroll University. Before joining Food Management in 1998, he served as for eight years as assistant editor and then editor of Foodservice Distributor magazine. Mike’s personal interests range from local sports such as the Cleveland Indians and Browns to classic and modern literature, history and politics.

Mike Buzalka’s areas of expertise include operations, innovation and technology topics in onsite foodservice industry markets like K-12 Schools, Higher Education, Healthcare and Business & Industry.

Mike Buzalka’s experience:

Executive Features Editor, Food Management magazine (2010-present)

Contributing Editor, Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News (2016-present)

Associate Editor, Food Management magazine (1998-2010)

Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1997-1998)

Assistant Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1989-1997)

 

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