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High-end meets convenience – 24 hours a day

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By Brendan O’Donoghue, director at BJ Cooling and Heating

This new-concept store located in the suburb of Rosebank, Johannesburg, is hopefully the first of a chain planned for South Africa and includes a range of only the best produce and eats in the city.

Due to the structural aspects of the site, the sign at the forecourt doubles up to hide away the extract air ducting. Image credit: ©Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits
Due to the structural aspects of the site, the sign at the forecourt doubles up to hide away the extract air ducting. Image credit: ©Cold Link Africa | Benjamin Brits

The Pantry, linked to the renowned Marble Restaurant (officially named The Pantry by Marble), achieves a number of objectives right off the knife offering easy, accessible shopping and great location as a forecourt stop. It is further said to host everything a customer really, really, really wants.

With warm eatery hospitality, The Pantry comes with in-house chefs and restaurant managers on hand to answer any questions, but more excitingly inspire clients with new foodie ideas. This all ties in with their slogan theme: ‘We’ve made it easy to be fancy’.

The inside of the storage freezers. The door spaces are fitted with strip curtains.
A number of display fridges border spaces in the store.
The fresh air ducts had to be placed in particular places so as to avoid the wrong airflows over prepared products.
A number of diffusers keep the general space cool as part of this project.
The inside of the storage freezers. The door spaces are fitted with strip curtains.

With access to the very best of local, and a few unique international additions that every food lover yearns for, what is on offer at The Pantry are grab-and-go meals, wines, salads and bowls, a selection of only the best local produce, baked goods, and of course, good coffee.

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The store site is open around the clock every day and comprises over 1 000m² of freshly stocked goods to treat oneself, a friend or spoil the family. The concept aims for a restaurant experience but made easy for customers and their slippers if necessary.

An installed fridge fancoil unit.
An installed fridge fancoil unit.
The roof space was absolutely minimal for the ducting to be installed and left little room for error.
The roof space was absolutely minimal for the ducting to be installed and left little room for error.

As an added convenience, patrons are able to fill up their vehicles – both traditional combustion engines and electric vehicles – as the site is shared with a modern-style filling station.

Walking up to this store, it would not be easy for the average eye to spot all of the fine detail that makes this project exceptional. From stopping at the court, one is greeted with a unique combination wooden ceiling façade that sets you up for what you know is going to be an obvious experience-and-a-half inside. What is not obvious, however, is the fact that almost every finish of this shop was custom made.

BJ Cooling & Heating was tasked to implement the design and supply that would be fitting but effective for this unique store, as well as fit into the very limited space available to run all the services.

A lot of careful planning had to be done as we had minimal time to install all of our services (ducting, cable trays, piping, cables, drains) before the plastered ceilings and other trades had to be installed, this included a new lift shaft too.

A number of different island-style display fridges are part of the store and also cater to different temperature ranges.
The food preparation areas and kitchen.
The ceiling façade of the filling station court.
The store’s wine section and wine fridges ready to receive stock.
A number of different island-style display fridges are part of the store and also cater to different temperature ranges.

The main extraction canopy is in excess of 9m, which hints to the idea that there will be a vast variety of some seriously fresh gourmet meals cooked up by the amazing chefs and presented along with many other exquisite offerings they have in store.

A full make-up fresh air system was also installed to complement the many extraction canopies and so as not to remove the air-conditioned air too.

There was also an existing extraction system from the restaurant above that had its extract ducting and motors running under the forecourt overhang. This had to be removed and re-routed to make way for the new forecourt ceiling design and we had to install the ducting and motors behind the SASOL wing, discharging out the top.

Three Samsung Inverter Ducted units were installed to feed the C-Store area with a number of round and square swirl diffusers. These diffusers were colour coded to match the laser cut ceilings (manufactured by Geneva Ad Shopfititng) amongst the other high end shopfitting and positioned evenly throughout the floor area to maintain a constant and comfortable temperature.

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Refrigeration was the main portion of the equipment installed at this site, as with any food-offering establishment, and comprises of the following cabinets that are connected remotely:

  • 8 x glass door chillers finished off in satin black inside and out with frameless glass doors and black shelves to match.
  • 1 x polyurethane walk in kitchen freezer
  • 1 x polyuretnane walk in kitchen chiller
  • 8 foot – 4-glass-door freezer cabinet
  • 20 foot – 10-glass-door chiller cabinet line-up (4’ft + 6’ft + 4’ft + 6’ft joined)
  • 24 foot – medium upright glass door cabinets (6’ft + 6’ft joined x 2)
  • 2 x double-glass-door wine coolers
Part of this project included the installation of a pizza oven that required special extraction.
Several under-counter fridges are located around the store.
The indoor ceiling panels and fresh air grilles for this project were all laser-cut in a single piece.
Most of the plant equipment of the site is installed behind ‘nature inspired’ mesh structures.
Part of this project included the installation of a pizza oven that required special extraction.

The Infrico cabinets in the food section were Imported by Cullinary and refrigerated by BJ Cooling with a combination of Cubicool Cubistar & CX condensing units.

Because of the limited exterior wall area, we had to link multiple cabinets to one condensing unit thus limiting the amount of condensing units installed instead of having 1 x condensing unit per cabinet.

From wine coolers, Cold drink fridges, frozen food fridges & fresh food fridges this site has it all more. As standard practice we have all the glass door freezers and back-up freezers running between -18°C to -20 °C.

The glass door chiller runs at between 2-3 degrees for beverages. The wine coolers installed can be adjusted to the clients required temperature depending on what will be stored as the perfect drinking temperature for red wines are: 12°C < 18˚C, White Wine: 8°C < 12°C, Champagne / Dessert Wine: 5˚C and 7˚C.

All of the pipework had to match the overall colour scheme of the store.
An inside view of one of the display fridges.
Some of the condensing units are installed at the back of the building.
The existing chiller plant area that services the rest of the floors above.
All of the pipework had to match the overall colour scheme of the store.

All units had to be designed and sized up to the correct specifications to adhere to the cabinet manufactures requirements. With the help of Cubicool International this was achieved without a hiccup.

Due to the large kitchen, variety of cooking options and multiple-prep areas we supplied 8 various sized under-bar fridges for fresh produce, pizza topping and pastries.

Another factor encountered at this site was the existing chilled water pipes from the chiller system that operates the cooling for the rest of the buildings floors – including Marble Restaurant, that were originally installed running on the boundary wall which had to be relocated to make way for a new staircase that was to connect the upper-level road parking with the same level as the C-Store forecourt.

This was undertaken with the help of Afrox to freeze the existing chilled water pipes as the original installation did not have shut off valves in the required positions allowing us to alter the chiller pipes. We welded up all the new piping and installed it into place ready for the final connection once we had frozen the lines and installed the new butterfly valves.

TISS insulation re-cladded and insulated the new chilled water piping on behalf of BJ Cooling.

The chilled water pipes from the plant room had to be altered re-installed because of the site alterations to include an additional staircase.
The chiller electrical control box – installed out of reach of any wandering fingers.
The back of house storage freezers.
The chilled water pipes from the plant room had to be altered re-installed because of the site alterations to include an additional staircase.

Considering all factors in play, it was an amazing project to be a part of and also to once again put the well know reputation of BJ Cooling that we have built up over the past 22 years to the test. Do yourself a favour and go and have a unique experience at The Pantry in Rosebank.

List of Professionals

Project The Pantry by Marble
HVAC Design & Supply BJ Cooling & Heating
Refrigeration Design & Supply BJ Cooling & Heating
Quantity Surveyor Matla Quantity Surveyors
Building Kwandisa Construction
Shopfitting Geneva Ad Shopfitting
Architect Theunissen Jankowitz Architects Pretoria
Shop Layout and Design Reddecco
Kitchen Design & Equipment Culinary Equipment Company

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