For those who dream of one day designing, building, and operating their very own restaurant, there’s a lot to think about. Unfortunately, whether it seems unimportant, overwhelming, or simply flies under the radar, many people with this dream don’t give a second thought to their desired floor plan.
In reality though, the floor plan is the most basic structure of any restaurant. The configuration of your seating, bar, kitchen, and restrooms can make a huge difference in how your patrons experience the space AND how efficiently your staff can move through it on a busy night.
At DESCCO Design & Construction, we are your local restaurant construction service company! As such, we can offer significant insight into your restaurant’s design and construction process.
For example, did you know that a well-designed floor plan can increase a restaurant’s profit margins by enabling servers to turn tables more efficiently?
You see? It’s insight like this that goes to show just how important advice from the right restaurant fit out contractors can be. Read on to learn more!
Why Do Restaurants NEED a Good Floor Plan?
As we touched on earlier, a high-quality restaurant floor plan can play an important role in helping service staff like servers, hosts, bartenders, and bussers perform their jobs more efficiently.
Think of your restaurant’s floor plan as a blueprint that maps out its entire layout. It shows the distance and relationships between rooms, tables, service and waiting areas, payment stations, bars, and more. In addition, floor plans can also illustrate the location of fixtures like water heaters, doors, electrical outlets, and furnaces.
A well-designed floor plan will be able to naturally blend the look and function of a workplace in a way that is both pleasing to customers and helps your staff understand the space around them Over time, your staff will become more used to the space, allowing them to work without significant interference from elements beyond their control.
What Makes a Restaurant Floor Plan Good?
A high-quality restaurant floor plan will accommodate all your building’s essentials, including elements such as the kitchen, dining area, payment station, entrance/waiting area, bar (if applicable), and restrooms.
- Advice for the Kitchen: A truly ideal kitchen layout depends on both the type of food you are preparing and the volume of your business. For example, a steakhouse may require a larger grill area or charcoal operation, while a restaurant that offers a seasonal menu will need to have a kitchen that prioritizes flexibility and chef creativity.In addition, you should also take into account both the amount of orders you are expecting your kitchen staff to accommodate AND how this affects your staff’s ability to communicate orders between one another. Ideally, you should aim to reduce kitchen foot traffic as much as possible, setting up a separate order relay and pick-up station if possible.
- Advice for the Dining Area: Ideally, a restaurant’s dining area, bar, restrooms, and waiting area should take up approximately 60 percent of its total square footage. When calculating this, an experienced restaurant construction company like DESCCO will take local building codes into consideration, accounting for things like maximum occupancy laws and safety regulations.When designing a dining area, you should always consider how easily your staff and customers will be able to move through it. While it can be tempting to pack as many tables as possible into your space (therefore increasing revenue) it is far more important to prioritize staff efficiency and overall customer experience. After all, no one likes to feel crowded.
- Advice for the Payment Station: Your POS system is the heartbeat of your restaurant. In many modern restaurants, this device is what servers use to place orders, send them to the kitchen, take payment, check-in reservations, and much more.Ideally, your payment stations should be located near enough to the dining area to enable front-of-house staff to serve guests in a timely manner without interfering with kitchen operations. Additionally, some restaurant owners find it more aesthetically pleasing to keep the POS station slightly hidden from customer view.
- Advice for Your Entrance and Waiting Area: The entrance and waiting area of any given restaurant is typically a customer’s first impression of it. The manner in which it is configured may have more bearing on customer satisfaction than you realize.Many restaurant owners have found it beneficial to occupy patron attention by incorporating this space with a bar area, encouraging those waiting for a table to relax and have a drink to pass the time. Be careful not to overcrowd your main dining area however.
- Advice for the Bar: Not every high-quality restaurant needs to have a bar, but those that do often find it beneficial to their reputation and ability to satisfy. Often, the bar serves as a main attraction for any food service space, serving as a focal point for customers and creating a sense of identity.Bar’s that are comfortable, easy-to-access, and beautifully decorated usually see the most use, especially if they are configured in a way that allows the bartenders and chefs to become a focal point of the overall dining experience.
- Advice for Restrooms: Restrooms are a vital part of any restaurant layout, but, ideally, they should be located in an area of your space that is both hidden from the dining area and also easily accessible for patrons of all genders and ability levels. Most high-quality floor plans incorporate some form of restroom foyer that is seperate from the main seating area.A great way to save money while accomplishing this is to configure both the restrooms and the kitchen in a way that allows them to utilize the same plumbing.
Who Should You Trust to Deliver Exceptional Restaurant Construction Services?
When it comes to restaurant fit out contractors in the Greater Reading area, there’s one name that stands out from all the rest. At DESCCO, our professional staff can rely on years of experience in the field as well as a wealth of professional certifications in order to provide you with the most informed and up-to-date restaurant construction services in all of Berks County.
To get started on the restaurant floor plan, design, and construction project of your dreams, don’t hesitate to contact us today! We look forward to working alongside you to make your goals a reality.