7 Key Considerations for Creating a Perfect Layout for your Restaurant, Cafe or Bar
When planning the layout for your hospitality venue there are lots of factors to consider to ensure it works practically and also creates a great experience for your customers.
Here are 7 key areas of focus:
1. Occupancy
One of the first things you need to consider when planning your restaurant or bar layout is how many customers you intend to host.
A number of statutory factors will determine your maximum occupancy, predominantly fire safety and the number of available bathroom facilities. Ensure you look into these at the beginning of your project and consult experts for advice where you need it.
Your concept type will also determine the likely occupancy. For example, fine dining restaurants accommodate fewer customers per square meter than fast-casual restaurants or bars.
As a rough rule-of-thumb you will require the following number of square meters per customer according to your concept:
Fine dining/a-la-carte 1.8 - 2sqm
Full service 1.3 - 1.5sqm
Fast food/cafe 1.1 -1.2sqm
Bar seating 1 -1.1sqm
Bar standing 0.6-0.7sqm
2. The Entrance
First impressions count and what customers see and experience when they enter your bar or restaurant is so important.
Consider how they are greeted by staff to determine whether a maitre’d stand is required at the entrance, or if the bar is the first point of contact then this should be situated close to the entrance, or in sight of it, and where your staff can easily see guests as they arrive.
Making it clear to customers where to go and what to do as they arrive will put them at ease and enhance their arrival experience. Balance this with a sense of intrigue and discovery as guests pan the space, which can be achieved through the interior detailing and how various seating zones are defined.
3. The Bar
The type of hospitality concept you’re going for, and whether a drinking occasion is your predominant offering, will determine the size, layout and positioning of your bar.
Get a good idea of your equipment requirements early on and allow enough bar length to accommodate it all.
Consider:
The number of tap beers
The fridge requirements
The number of POS stations and
The number of speed rails and ice wells
Also factor in space for:
A glass washing station
Coffee machine
Glass racks
Sinks
Bins
Storage
Dispense area
Ice machine
Another key factor is knowing whether the beer taps are fed from a separate cool room or via an ice-bank unit with the kegs positioned under the bar.
Unless purely for dispense it is often a good idea to position the bar close to the front of your venue, ideally where it can been seen from the outside. It is often the busiest most crowded area in a bar venue and a crowd attracts a crowd!
Check that services such as water and drainage can be available in the chosen bar location and if beer is being fed from a cool room, that you can run the beer lines (usually in the floor but it could be in a wall, spine wall, or overhead pipe) to the taps.
If there will be seating at the bar allow 550mm of bar length per stool.
4. The Kitchen
The design of the kitchen will depend heavily on your concept and food offer. Having a clear idea of your menu early in the design stage will allow you to plan an efficient back-of-house as well as work through your storage and equipment requirements and the number of kitchen work stations.
The back of house should ideally consist of a receiving area, storage area, prep area, production and dish-washing area.
Planning the flow patterns in between these back-of-house spaces, and to-and-from the restaurant, is vital, and you want to reduce the flow’s crossing wherever possible. Also, aim to minimize the steps each member of the kitchen team needs to take to do their work.
In deciding where to locate your kitchen, consider where water, gas and electricity are available and the cost of running these to your chosen location. Also consider air extraction requirements, this is likely to be a big part of you kitchen/mechanical costs.
Ideally you want to maintain your most prime real estate for your bar and dining areas - areas that are most visible, have the best views, or the most natural light - and situate the back-of-house in the least prime position.
If the kitchen is going to be an open kitchen then you may consider a more focal position, but still keep the less theatrical aspects out of view, such as storage, dish-washing and waste.
Also consider when and how deliveries will be received and processed and how waste will be removed.
5. Bathrooms
The number of WCs you need will be determined by the occupancy of your venue and local regulations. Check this at the beginning of the planning stage and ensure you have allowed enough space for facilities, including accessible bathrooms. You can calculate your requirements for New Zealand by clicking here.
Ideally these should be located in the least prime position making use of an area less desirable for seating, usually toward the rear of the bar or restaurant, adjacent to the back of house and where water and drainage are easily available. Make sure pathways to them are clear and wide enough and that they are clearly sign-posted. To comply with building code in New Zealand you will need a 1200mm path from your entrance to the toilets and work areas.
6. Zones
Dividing a hospitality space up, in some sort of physical and visual way, gives many advantages: it allows the provision of more edge and corner tables - most guests prefer to be seated in a corner or at the edge of a space where they can observe their surroundings. Different zones also mean that during quieter periods the space won't feel as empty - you can fill tables in specific zone and make these areas feel busy with the desired atmosphere.
Zoning also allows different furniture heights to be incorporated within different areas - for example 750mm height dining tables suit more formal dining while 900mm or 1050mm high bar leaners are suited to less formal dining and drinking. Having a physical transition between differing height furniture makes it more comfortable for guests, gives choice and creates a variation in atmosphere and occasion across the venue.
7. Table Sizes
Lastly determine the table sizes to suit your concept. Consider if your concept is suited to big groups, small groups or couples. It’s likely to be a mixture of all 3 and the ratio should be carefully thought through. Of course smaller tables that can be pushed together provide flexibility and if this is the case they will need to be rectangular not round.
It is also a good idea to position the smaller tables to the edges of a room or zone and the larger ones in the middle as big groups are more comfortable in open spaces whereas smaller groups and couples are often more comfortable next to a physical object such as a wall, partition or column.