Find a kitchen residency to improve your venue’s profit
Plate Club partners you with a handpicked operator. They run the kitchen, you run the bar. Better food, happier customers, busier venue, more profit.
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Three ways to run your kitchen
The old way
Traditional in-house kitchen
I’m responsible for hiring, paying and running the kitchen. I’m run off my feet.
- A fixed wage bill, busy or quiet
- Hiring, training, rotas & payroll on you
- Allergens, food cost & waste too
The halfway house
DIY residency
I get operators in to take on the kitchen, but I have to find them, and I’m on my own.
- No kitchen wage bill
- You scour for operators yourself
- No support if it wobbles
The easy way
Residencies with Plate Club
Plate Club finds top-quality operators. I focus on the bar and my customers.
- No kitchen wage bill, no sourcing legwork
- A handpicked selection of operators
- We support matchmaking, launch, growth & your next resident
Tap the i on any row for the detail behind it.
Thousands a week in kitchen wages. Food cost, waste, menu pricing and all the profit (and the losses) sit with you.
No kitchen wages. You charge a fixed licence fee for the kitchen, or take a revenue share, usually around 15% of net sales.
A low setup fee, then a nominal % of food sales each month. For that you get matchmaking from a roster of top quality operators, contracts, launch and ongoing support. You earn more money with far less hassle.
It’s already working
Jordan ran his kitchen in-house for 30 years. Then we introduced him to Cue Point.
“Working with Plate Club has been fantastic, they listened to my brief and presented several high quality operators spanning many different food styles. I chose Cue Point, seasoned operators, young, enthusiastic and social media savvy. The food resonated with our loyal customer base whilst also attracting a wider diverse new crowd.”
How it works
- 01
We find your resident
We agree on what kind of cuisine and operator will work for your venue, then do the legwork: tapping our vetted network, screening for quality and references, and sharing a shortlist we're proud of. Once you've met them and picked your favourite, we help you agree a fair deal, from commission to break clauses, using what we see across the market. Transparent terms, no nasty surprises.
Vetted operators + simple contracts
- 02
We help you launch
We share an Ops and Marketing blueprint and launch schedule to help the launch go off with a bang. We can offer further support with PR, photography, social media and more from our tried and tested black book of support partners.
Make the launch smooth
- 03
End-to-end support
After launch we keep close with check-ins, performance reviews and support if anything starts to drift. If the residency is working, we help build on it. If it isn't, we help fix it early. When the time comes for your next resident we have a shortlist of options so you can minimise any gaps in service.
Keep on growing
It’s already working
The Sun & 13 Cantons was buying food in. Now it’s a Cambodian residency people book weeks ahead.
The brief was a cuisine that would stand out in crowded Soho. We matched them with Mamapen, and within four weeks food sales were up over £4k a week, with rave reviews and bookings weeks in advance.
Commercial overview
Say goodbye to your kitchen wage bill and instead earn a simple share of the operator's food sales, typically 10 to 20%. The biggest profit driver though? The uplift in your wet sales.
Our average residency runs well over a year: an initial ramp-up period whilst they settle in, then flexible rolling break clauses so you can switch things up if you'd like to.
It costs nothing to list your venue, get matched and agree a deal. You only ever pay once an operator is live and trading in your kitchen.
Once you're live, a low one-off setup fee and a small, nominal percentage of net food sales each month. No long lock-in, and we only earn when your kitchen does.
It’s already working
A fresh residency every few months at The Rose & Crown, without any of the legwork.
“Since partnering with Plate Club the process has become infinitely smoother. They’ve saved us countless hours, easily 20 to 30 per new residency.”
FAQs
Besides the obvious (quality food in a quality venue), the best residencies have a few things in common: 1) a transparent, high-trust relationship between you and your residency partner, 2) operators that are actively investing in growing their brand, pushing content on socials, building hype and attracting new customers to the venue, and 3) venue partners that support the resident to succeed and see them as a true partner, not just an outsourced kitchen.
A great food offer brings in new customers and more of them, keeps people in longer, and drives more drink sales. That extra footfall, dwell time and spend per head is the main financial win, on top of the revenue share you earn on food.
A residency runs on a simple revenue share. You take payment from customers as normal and pay your kitchen partner each week, keeping an agreed share of every food order. There are no kitchen wages, no food cost and no waste to carry, as the operator runs all of that. You keep covering utilities and rates, and get your time back to focus on the bar and your customers.
Plate Club costs you nothing until you sign with a new residency partner. After that we charge a low one-off setup fee and a small, nominal percentage of net food sales each month, so we only earn when your kitchen does, and we stay invested in keeping it busy.
No. You set the brief with us and align on the menu with the operator before any contract is signed. Your residency partner then takes responsibility for food, kitchen staff, suppliers, food hygiene and insurance. It's still your venue, and if something isn't working, you tell us and we sort it.
We work hard to vet operators before putting them forward to you. But in the unlikely event a residency isn't working, we'll find a replacement quickly, so no one's stuck. We also build in flexible break clauses, typically on a two-month basis, so you're never locked in.
Your kitchen partner does. They bring their own team and handle all kitchen staffing: hiring, payroll, HR, insurance. None of that sits on your books.
We can go live in as little as 30 days, but most residencies take a couple of months from first conversation to first service. We present a shortlist of interested kitchen partners within about 10 days, then move through site visits, contracting and launch planning.
We have a handpicked roster across every cuisine from smash burgers to elevated modern European dining and everything in between. They range from street food traders to up-and-coming chefs to large restaurant groups. We match based on your venue's demographic, location, food revenue and the cuisine you think will work best.
Many of our partner venues are tied or tenanted. You may need approval from your pub company or landlord, but most are supportive because kitchen residencies increase footfall and wet sales. We can help you make the case.
Ready for a better kitchen?
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