Good restaurant designers listen to your ideas... FIRST

Designing a new restaurant can be an exciting experience. Most new restaurants are designed from (1) of (3) distinctly different perspectives. Although each may have some great ideas, focusing on only one aspect, can quickly lead to problems during the renovation and on into the day to day operations.

We listen carefully to your restaurant concept, goals and objectives BEFORE we offer any design suggestions. Every restaurant has a personality that needs to reflect what the owner wants their restaurant to portray. The technical details to accomplish this, are frequently unknown early in the design concept stage.

Back to the important design perspectives: The back of the house, front of the house and a commercial interior (restaurant) designer, each have a different agenda in the design and planning process.

A good restaurant designer will design a restaurant by the functional components

Have you ever noticed glaring restaurant design mistakes?

You can always tell when a commercial interior designer designed the restaurant or a real restaurant person handled the design layout. When bus and coffee station placement, forces the staff to disturb the guests every time they need to do their jobs, you've obviously made a design layout mistake.

We understand the various building system components, you understand restaurant operations components. Working together, we can produce functional, attractive, cost-effective and efficient restaurant design solutions.

The components you need to consider in your pre-design planning are:

A Restaurant Entrance area designed for a Great First Impression

Every new customer will form opinions about your restaurant, before they even get in the door. With this in mind, the design of your entrance area will convey a lot of information about your customer service attitude, (whether you intend to or not). Providing a warm reception is a must. If you make this area too large, it can appear impersonal. Too small and it can send the wrong message too. Your entrance area is the first stage build up for the rest of their experience. A comfortable flow into the bar area and/or dining room, will create an inviting atmosphere. Your guests can never feel like they're being herded into a holding area, if you want them to feel like valued guests.

A holding bar area to remember.

If your guest feels comfortable in your holding bar area, they'll be in no rush to get to a table. Their experience as well as kitchen and serving staff efficiency depends on how often you slam servers with too many demands. In turn, the relaxing atmosphere of your holding area, will give your guest an opportunity to appreciate all the thought and effort you will put into their dining experience. Squeezing too many seats into your holding bar, can quickly destroy the mood you're trying to set. If you design this area to be a little more impressive than your entry, you're building the anticipation and creating a great restaurant theme. Although this area could consume a large portion of your budget, doing it right can pay huge financial dividends.

Designing a restaurant washroom to impress

When people describe a restaurant experience, they frequently talk about the food first. The service may be second (or even third), depending on the impressiveness of the washrooms. When guests are impressed with your washrooms, they will tell everyone to go, just to see them. Size matters. A washroom that is too small, isn't comfortable. Since every square foot of floor space will be expensive to renovate, finding the balance between big enough, attractive enough and cost-effective, isn't always easy. Providing a clean washroom used to be good enough. Today, all five senses need to be considered in your washroom planning. Lighting, music and sound control, temperature and air change controls are obvious. The tactile value of floor, wall and counter materials can also enhance or destroy a design effect. Vinyl flooring should be avoided at any cost! Carpet says unsanitary to many people. Ceramic tile, marble or a synthetic flooring can be good choices, but only if they are professionally installed. Trying to save money by having the flooring installed by a friend could be a big mistake. A pretty good job won't impress your guests. Mirrors can help to create the illusion of more space. Don't over-do-it! Covering the walls with mirrors can overwhelm some people. The tasteful use of smoke or bronze tinted mirrors can portray elegance on a budget. The basins, faucets, toilets, etc. should be as elegant as your budget will allow. Economy plumbing and light fixtures should be avoided.

The kitchen is a chef's kingdom

Many restaurant kitchens are designed to fit into the leftover space after the dining room and washrooms are taken out of the available floor space. Although this may be necessary to some degree, an efficient and productive kitchen, requires input from your chef. Your menu range will determine both equipment and staffing requirements. Ensuring that your kitchen staff and serving staff can each do their jobs without tripping over each other, requires careful space planning. Separating hot side and cold side preparation and pick-up areas, can reduce staff costs and stress for everyone. Dish-pit staff need to be able to their jobs without moving through the prep and cooking areas. We always request lots of input from your chef, wherever possible. We also use the planning services of an experienced executive chef (if your chef can't be available). Since controlling meal preparation cost is critical to your profitability, creating efficiency in your kitchen flow can't be overlooked. Trying to squeeze a kitchen into too small a space, could create a long-term traffic flow and a financial nightmare.

Making your kitchen and chef visible to your guests, can be a great marketing concept. The casual dining public, likes to see who is preparing their meal. This concept also gets the chef, out of the kitchen. If you have a famous chef, let your customers see why. People generally enjoy doing business with the people they already know and like. Casual dining restaurants are creating interior designs that make people feel like they belong there. With the hectic pace of life, customers are relying on their dining experience to be both relaxing and entertaining. Giving your guests, that home-away-from-home experience.

The building layout can alter your design plans

We help our restaurant clients to understand what happens inside the walls! The design you chose, can quickly become totally cost-prohibitive if you ignore potential problems with the existing structure. Understanding how the electrical, plumbing, ventilation and existing load-bearing structures inter-relate, can produce huge renovation cost savings. Since we design each system component of your renovation project to make your restaurant both functional and cost-effective, we can save you from a renovation nightmare. The easiest problems to solve, are the ones you don't create! Local zoning and by-law restrictions are just the tip of the iceberg!

Related Restaurant designer and restaurant planning information

• Important planning steps
• Restaurant legal responsibilities
• Good restaurant design
• Renovating a restaurant
• Common Renovation Myths
• Leasing a good restaurant space

---

We provide restaurant renovation project plan and design services to lease space clients in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Delta, Richmond, Surrey, White Rock, Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, BC.

---

Find more information about good restaurant designers, by pressing any of the search engine names listed below.

Find Multiple Search Engines including: Google . Ask.com . Yahoo.com . Yahoo.ca . Msn.com . Msn.ca . Alta Vista

with a Gigablast search for Restaurant designers in Vancouver ...