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Restaurant Layout is of the Essence

To begin the year, this marketing department will focus on some of the subtle but very important aspects of marketing for the foodservice industry. The department will present articles on restaurant layout, restaurant design, plus table and plate presentation.

Marketing is more than just advertising and promotion. Marketing involves every aspect of a customer's interaction with your restaurant from the advertising and promotion which brings them in to their dining experience. This experience is a function of a variety of things, including decor, atmosphere, service, food quality, price, value and intrinsic factors. The restaurant's physical layout is one of those intrinsic factors.

Some of the typical layout concerns which are frequently not given much importance by restaurant designers and operators include:

Air Circulation

Customers should not have to bear the brunt of a poor heating system. In many restaurants some seats are directly under the heating/cooling vents while others are in "dead air" space which is cold in winter or warm in the summer. A proper heating/cooling system should radiate heat from the middle of the ceiling and blow the air across the ceiling and down the walls so that the entire room is heated or cooled evenly. This will provide complete and unobtrusive comfort for all customers and will prevent the wind storm which others must occasionally endure.

There should also be two heating/cooling systems in each restaurant. One for the dining room and the second for the kitchen in order to provide the staff with a reasonably comfortable environment in which to work.

Customer Service

Customer services such as washrooms and telephones should be easily accessible and convenient. For example, bathrooms should not be buried in the basement and pay phones should not be placed as an afterthought in a remote nook or cranny. The pay phone or customer service phone should be placed in a convenient area that provides the customer with the necessary comforts (e.g., an ashtray, a chair or stool, a note pad and a private area).

Service Access

Each table in a restaurant should be placed so that service staff are able to perform their job effectively. Ideally, the service staff should be able to directly serve each guest without having to serve around, or over, the other guests at the table. This is tacky and is noticed by all. It negatively affects the overall appeal a of a restaurant.

Servers should also have a clear access to the bar and to the kitchen without having to interfere with customers. For example, in most restaurants the bar area is congested and the servers need to elbow their to the bar to place orders. The service staff should have a separate area (not simply a bar rail) to separate them from the customers. This division will make the server's job easier, increase the speed of service and will eliminate the inconvenience to bar customers.

Front Doors

Additional physical layout concerns should also be examined. All restaurants should have a double exterior door system in order to reduce the air exchange with outside air. The double doors should help reduce the cost of utilities and increase customer comfort.

Lighting

Lighting should be placed to reduce glare. It should be tilted and directed in such a manner so that it does not blind the customers. The dining room lights should be placed over the tables, highlighting their presence and de-emphasizing the aisles and public area.

Servers Stations

Server stations should be strategically located throughout the restaurant in order to serve customers better. There should be no more than three servers using one server station and all the server items (e.g., coffee, tea, table setups, water, P.O.S. machine, credit card imprinter) necessary should be at hand. The perfect server station should eliminate the need for the server to go anywhere but the bar and kitchen while servicing a table. This should result in more server time for selling and servicing guests and, thus, improve service quality.

Atmosphere

The layout of the room will also create the restaurant's statement. Will it be a grand open and bold room that is noisy with lots of hustle or should the atmosphere be romantic and intimate with minimal noise and small spaces? The layout (not the design) of the restaurant will be instrumental in setting the mood of the operation.Marketing clearly encompasses the entire spectrum of the customer experience. Therefore, as much effort , if not more, should go into the planning of the restaurant layout. If an advertising campaign does not work, it can always be changed. Once the restaurant is laid out and constructed, changes are very costly. Therefore, at a very early stage a restaurateur should create a layout which clearly reflects the final product that is to be delivered.

Reprinted from Canadian Hotel & Restaurant Magazine, January 1992.

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