Is Your Restaurant Designed for Success?
Laying out the design of a restaurant is usually done by architects or consultants if you are building or re-constructing a new space. The professional you choose should act as an advisor, but remember, only you know how you envision your workflow in both the customer and kitchen areas.
Old or new, restaurant designs need to have efficiency as the ultimate purpose. Without the ability to serve guests quickly and consistently, your great food and concept won’t survive the customer’s scrutiny.
When designing or remodeling your kitchen, keep these pointers at hand;
- Workflow needs to work down your production line. What is plated first, second and third should match the general location of the piece of equipment used to produce the item.
- Don’t have staff walking more than a step for anything. You can’t go from one end of a 14 foot line to the other and back to produce a single plate of food.
- Big, opulent and roomy kitchens are every operator’s dream, but in reality the smaller the space in the production area within safety limitations, the more efficient you are forced to be.
- Pots, pans, utensils and common ingredients need to be within the personal space of each employee on the line. It makes no difference if you have one cook or five chefs. Every step is time stolen from the customer and your ability to turn tables.
Front of the house work areas need to be as efficient as your kitchen. It doesn’t make sense to get food to your server station if servers can’t get to it on a timely basis. Food delivery to the server should be ideally located in the center of your operation if you have the luxury of choosing in a total build out. In other circumstance when you have regulatory or functional problems in designing the optimum, there are other tips that can save server steps to your guest. A few tips include:
- Beverages are normally accessed more than any other single item. Centralizing the location(s) will reduce delivery times.
- Condiments such as sauces, ketchup and serving containers need to be close at hand.
- Servers need to stay out of your kitchen as much as possible. Keep everything the guest may request, other than food, in the server station. That includes items such as extra silverware, napkins, to go containers and items necessary to handle small spills and clean up.
- Check table holders for things like sugars, jellies, salt, pepper, creamers and other items you may keep on the table. Are the containers large enough? Re-filling anything in the middle of your peak rush is not an option.
It makes little difference if you have 50 seats or 500 seats, the principles are the same. Each step is a tick of the clock to a waiting diner. Every wasted or repeated motion reduces your ability to turn tables and increase profits.
To run a more efficient operation here are a couple of recommendations;
- During your peak rush, become your own customer. Sit down in the middle of your operation and watch everything. How far and how long is your server pulled away from your guest. Where could you reduce those steps?
- Spend time on your food production line. Are plates passed back and forth? Do cooks walk more than a step or two for anything? Can a simple move of one key ingredient shorten production time? Is any plate handled more than once by any single person?
- Your staff is a valuable resource for eliminating unnecessary steps. Meet with your servers and then your kitchen staff. Ask what they would change if they could to make the food delivery system quicker and easier.
Interviews with people who frequent restaurants say that waiting for anything is their pet peeve. There will be times when you can’t help certain time delays due to facility or seating limitations, but don’t build in customer problems by poor design.
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