Planning the Dining Areas
There are a lot of things to remember when designing a dining space that will used about a million more times than the dining room in your house. Keep in mind the overall concept of the restaurant. If you're designing a self-service restaurant, you'll need to have tables and chairs that aren't so plush that diners will linger and hinder your turns.
Things to Consider
- Make sure the noise level won't be too loud when the room is full. If the waiters can't hear the customers, things will not go smoothly. Remember to take any music system into account!
- Check that the waitstaff can easily move from table to table and to service areas.
- Ensure that floors will not be slippery.
- All surfaces and fabrics must stand up to a lot of wear and tear. Saving money and using residential materials doesn't work. A regular grade of carpet, for example, will be ruined in a matter of days.
- Carefully select your lighting. People want to be seen in a warm glow, not with florescent light bulbs. Spotlights should not be in anyone's face. While eating in the dark is an interesting concept, it's not for the mainstream. If people can't read your menu, it's too dark. Some restaurants actually hand out pen lights to their customers, so they can read the menu. That's insane!
- Banquettes don't move, so plan carefully. The beauty of using tables and chairs, especially a deuce or a four top is that they can be rearranged as the restaurant evolves, so use banquettes carefully.
- Having a good HVAC system is essential. Even if you have the coolest looking restaurant and the best food in town, if the place doesn't have good heating or air conditioning and air circulation, no one is going to enjoy eating in your restaurant.
- Install a security system. Every restaurant needs some kind of security system. Even if it's a fake camera that doesn't really work, you need to install deterrents, so that robbers go somewhere else.
