The Westcott Venture Park community gathered on 25th February to celebrate the official launch of the much-awaited Skylark Café, a new 100-seater café and restaurant operated by the highly regarded catering company Lamb Catering & Events.
The company founded in 1981 now provides more than a thousand employees across the 650-acre business park with access to quality food, fresh bean coffee and full events catering services.
The opening marks a significant milestone for the Westcott business community, addressing a long-standing need for quality dining and hospitality facilities at the park.
The Skylark Café offers a diverse menu featuring daily changing dishes in a plat du jour style, from midweek roasts to traditional fish and chips on Fridays. All dishes will be made in-house, including daily soups, freshly baked baguettes, a salad bar, breakfast selections, jacket potatoes, paninis and pasta, alongside a wide selection of drinks, cakes and grab-and-go options.
Open Monday to Friday from 8am – 4pm the café champions local suppliers and operates a no-plastic drinks policy, all soft drinks will be served in cans or glass bottles.
In addition to daily café service, Lamb Catering provides comprehensive catering for meetings and events held in the Skylark's conference centre and meeting rooms, offering park tenants a complete food and beverage solution for their business needs.
Nigel MacKenzie, Development Manager at Westcott said: "We are delighted to welcome Lamb Catering to Westcott. Having a high-quality café and catering operator with such a strong commitment to fresh, locally sourced food and excellent coffee is a tremendous asset for our tenants.
"The Skylark is designed to be the beating heart of the park, and Lamb Catering's approach perfectly complements our vision of creating a vibrant, attractive environment where businesses can thrive and people can connect. The café is poised to revolutionise the working environment at Westcott, significantly boosting its attractiveness as a prime location for prospective tenants.”
Simon Stonehouse, Managing Director of Lamb Catering, said: "We are thrilled to have opened at Westcott. This is a wonderful opportunity to bring our successful approach to this dynamic business community. Since taking over The Oxford Factory Café at the ARC business park in Cowley last year we have developed a formula that works well, offering variety, quality and locally sourced ingredients.
"The response from the Westcott community has been fantastic, and we’re committed to providing great food, coffee and catering services to everyone who works at or visits the park.”
The Skylark facility is named in tribute to the motors of Britain's first space rocket developed at Westcott in the 1950s and forms part of a major programme backed by UK Space Agency funding. It also includes Grade A office space with suites of 1,500 sq ft, a larger suite of 3,864 sq ft or the entire first floor of 5,521 sq ft available to pre-let.
