Info
Opening times:
Mon-Fri 9am-4pm
Sat 10am-4pm
Thurs 7pm-10pm
How to get there?
By foot – From town, head down Derby road and take the left just before the Savoy cinema, follow the road until it bends right and church square is in front of you, with Crocus on the left (10 minute walk from Canning Circus). From The University of Nottingham campus follow Derby road towards town and turn right just after the Savoy cinema (20 minute walk).
By bus – From town, take the Indigo (Broadmarsh bus station), 34, 35 or 36 (outside the Victoria centre) and get off at the Savoy cinema stop (8 minutes). From the University of Nottingham take the Indigo (East entrance, South Entrance, West entrance, Sports centre, Lenton Hall, North Entrance), 34, 35 or 36 (Sports centre, Lenton Hall, North Entrance) towards town and get off at the Savoy cinema stop (10 minutes).
Venue Hire:
Buffet service:
Events
Crocus is keen to be involved in a range of community and ethical-awareness events including festivals, activity days, fairs etc. Please call the cafe if your event is looking for catering or a stall about this social enterprise.
Projects
Crocus cafe currently runs the Thursday night project – that’s every Thursday evening 7pm-10pm. The Thursday themes throughout each month are boardgames, three-course meal, art/creativity then acoustic music.
Ethos
1. Community focused
Crocus is a community café. It’s a friendly space where everyone is welcome, and seeks to promote ways of bringing different sections of the community together.
2. Volunteer-run
Crocus is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, run by volunteers. We have a small team of paid employees, but otherwise the cafe is entirely volunteer staffed. Any long-term profits will be reinvested in other community projects.
3. Healthy and affordable
We aim to provide good quality food at prices that all residents of Lenton can afford.
4. Fairtrade
Where possible, we sell fairly traded produce, guaranteeing a fairer price for third world producers.
5. Organic
Where possible we aim to provide organic produce, guaranteeing better protection for the environment.
6. Vegetarian
All food and drink sold at the Crocus is vegetarian, and we try to promote vegan options where possible too.
7. Environmental protection
We try to ensure that our business practices are as environmentally friendly as possible by recycling, composting and reducing waste.
8. Locally sourced
We try to obtain our goods from local sources in order to support local small businesses and reduce the costs to the environment of excessive transport.
History
2002 – A group of people from various community projects founded Cafe Lenton which ran one evening a week in what was the Red Door centre on Derby road. Problems with building maintenance lead the Cafe Lenton organisers to plan a more permanent enterprise…
2004 – Crocus Cafe opened on 25th October 2004!
2005 – Award-winning film director Shane Meadows used Crocus as part of the set for the film This is England, which went on to win a BAFTA for Best British Film in 2007.
2008 – The neighbouring unit to Crocus became available so, given the huge popularity of Crocus, plans were made to expand the cafe. The National Lotterty Awards for All gave Crocus a £10,000 grant for equipment and Nottingham City council has given Crocus almost £5,000.
2009 – Crocus has received a grant to support a trainee chef for one year.
Cafe organisation
Crocus cafe is run by a board of nine volunteers elected at the Annual General Meeting every April. The board is made up of the Secretary, Chair, Events coordinator, Finance officer, Day-to-day coordinator, Publicity officer, Campaigns and Community officer, Health and Safety officer and Volunteer coordinator.
Crocus employs one chef and two counter members of staff (who cover all openings hours). A trainee chef works at Crocus from 2009-2010. A huge team of dedicated volunteers give up their time to serve customers in the cafe in shifts of two hours at a time.
Food for thought
(see our LINKS page for more information and some interesting reading…)
Healthy eating
Why? Eating healthily of of central importance to our wellbeing and to living a happy life…your diet affects your mood, health and cognition.
Crocus tips-
Ethical eating
Why? Living a typical western lifestyle in the world today makes it unavoidable to be linked to the rest of the world. Also, our lifestyles use a HUGE amount of energy. As consumers, when we buy anything (food, electricity, clothes, DVDs etc) we have a huge impact on the world..however the effects are global and long-term rather than local and immediate so we are not aware of the effects we have- both on the environment, other species and other people! So, next time you go to the supermarket, have a think about where the food you are buying comes from, how it is grown, who makes it, how it gets to you, and the nature of the business you are buying it from.
Crocus tips-
How is it grown? Buy organic.
Where is it from? Buy local.
Human lives involved in producing it? If you can’t buy local then buy fairtrade. Human rights and welfare.
Animal lives involved in producing it? Vegetarianism, Freeganism etc. Animal rights, carbon footprint related to eating meat and animal products is huge compared to a vegan diet!
How food gets to you? Don’t get food flown from abroad. Buy local food. Walk/cycle to do your shopping or car-share by shopping with your family/housemates.
The business that sells it? Buy from local businesses or get a veg-box direct from the producer.
Waste produced by making it? Reduce waste – buy less packaging (buy loose food wherever possible), re-use packaging (eg for food storage, make tetra-pack wallets etc), recycle your packaging (either collected by the council or click HERE to find your local recycling depot).
