There are many things that make a restaurant, café, event space or chain restaurant successful and good food, good service and good design would be top of the list. While we can’t give you too much advice on redoing your menu or improving your service, we can help you achieve great design when updating your restaurant fit out.
Whether you’re looking at implementing a few small changes or completely remodeling your café or restaurant fit out, a change to your hospitality furniture design can make your venue feel completely new. You’ll be able to attract new customers, wow old customers and give your diners and whole new experience.
But before diving in and ordering your new furniture, there are a few things to consider to achieve success…
Think About Your Turnover
How often you’re turning over tables throughout the night will have a big impact on the hospitality fit out furniture you choose for your venue. If you tend to offer longer seatings and turn your tables less, choose seating that’s comfortable for longer sittings, such as cushioned armchairs. For venues that require a faster turnover of tables, you’ll need something comfortable but not so comfortable that guests settle in and overstay their welcome. And you’ll want to choose a really durable option such as an industrial style chair.
Consider the Dining Experience You Offer
Dining comfort doesn’t just come down to the chair guests are sitting on but the table size as well. If your menu offers a bunch of small plates designed to share, you need to choose tables large enough that diners have plenty of space to layout and move around their dishes. If your experience is more low key, you can get away with a more intimate table size. If you offer a fine dining experience, think about the space guests will need for all of their glasses, a wine bucket, their side plates and mains.
Get Your Team Involved
Nobody will know your space better than the staff members who have to use it and they’ll have some valuable insight into what’s currently working and what isn’t. You can use their feedback to improve your current layout, add facilities that might be missing or give more space to waiter stations to make it easier for staff to clear and reset tables.
Talk to Your Customers
Loyal customers will have big opinions on what they love and don’t like about your venue. And at the end of the day, they’re the people you want to be encouraging to come back so take their feedback on board. If you have booth seating and they’re always being filled first, you don’t want to take those away. If you find that guests are always requesting an extra setting added to their table, consider adding a few larger tables to your design or flexible options that allow you to bring tables together.
Consider Current Dining Trends
The hospitality industry, like any other, goes through trends where one style of dining takes favour over another. Some examples of this include social dining tables where multiple parties are sat at shared tables, bar or window seating where guests are sat next to each other rather than across from each other. We’ve also seen a big shift toward mixing types of seating at tables. Being on-trend is important but the right fit out design will strike a balance between what’s hot right now, and what’s practical long-term. Diving too deep into a trend can leave your venue looking tired when the trend passes.
Seek Expert Advice
Advice from experts that have an outside perspective on your space can help you make both practical and stylish choices. An experienced furniture supplier, such as Have A Seat, can help you take advantage of hidden opportunities, maximise your space to be getting the best return per sqm, and offer valuable design advice to bring your vision and your space to life. They’ll also be able to help you utilise your current fit out as much as possible and blend that with new options.
Our team at Have A Seat have decades of experience helping hospitality venues update their restaurant fit out. Get in touch to take advantage of our expertise, seek advice, inspiration or have your questions answered.
Thanks for reading,
Have a Seat
1300 715 937