Restaurant owners know that running a food establishment often means that something can go wrong at any minute, especially when you least expect it. This is why it’s extremely important to plan things carefully and devise smart design solutions. Reducing the potential safety or health risks will help you keep both your customers and staff safe and, at the same time, enhance overall workflow.
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What is a commercial restaurant floor plan?
A commercial restaurant floor plan is a map of the entire restaurant’s layout. It highlights the relationship and distance between tables, waiting and service areas, rooms, payment stations, and others. These floor plans also show the location of fixtures such as furnaces, electrical outlets, doors, and water heaters.
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Signs of a faulty commercial restaurant floor plan
The following are the most common signs that your existing floor plan might be hurting your commercial restaurant:
You’re not using wall space
Despite your restaurant’s roomy outdoor patio without walls, every restaurant space needs boundaries to serve as wall space. This is where 3D floor plan design services come in. If you have no idea how to arrange tables correctly to use this space, your floor plan may be lacking. For instance, proper table placement can prevent customers from occupying unnecessary space.
You can arrange the bigger tables towards the center and push the rest against the wall to maximize seating capacity. The tables set against the wall will continue to be useful. But rather than seating three or more, you can use them as two—or three-seaters during slow hours in your restaurant.
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There are always empty seats on your tables
Another obvious sign that your restaurant’s floor plan design doesn’t maximize your potential for more profit is if your tables have empty seats all the time. After seating customers at the tables, most of these tables will have one or more empty chairs. This may indicate that the tables are too large for your customer base and existing space. Switching your bigger tables for smaller ones will let you seat at least two times more people in just the same amount of space.
Your tables differ in size and shape
Your restaurant may host families or be a favorite destination for date nights among couples. A 2D drawings and floor plan expert can come in handy to give you a clear picture of what you need. Although it’s okay to have more of one size than the other, different varieties of table sizes can give you more choices to maximize your restaurant’s floor plan design. The tables’ shapes also matter. While round ones can seat more people and take up less space than their larger rectangular counterparts, rectangular or square tables can fit more easily in tight corners or alongside walls.
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Important considerations for commercial restaurant floor plan
The following are the most essential considerations for an effective floor plan for commercial restaurants:
Accessibility
First, it’s crucial to ensure that dining areas and workspaces are easily accessible to people with mobility concerns. For instance, the Accessible Canada Ac aims to identify, prevent, and remove barriers throughout the country by 2040. All types of seating that a restaurant provides for ambulatory people must offer an equivalent experience to those whose mobility is limited.
The bar counter is one good example of this. Many bars are intended for people to sit on high stools or stand comfortably. The 3D architectural detailing designer must design a part of the bar to meet these accessibility guidelines. All work areas and restrooms must also be accessible. Every area of the restaurant must be readily accessible for employees and customers.
Building codes and regulations
Professional floor plan services can help ensure that your commercial restaurant’s floor plan will meet the local building codes in your area. Several of these requirements might need to be more intuitive to laypeople. For example, food service facilities must have a hand-washing sink, a three-compartment sink, and drains connected to each one of them. The ice maker must also have a floor drain beside it. Restaurant building codes might also require washable surfaces, including the ceilings.
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There must be no open insulation above the areas where food is being served. Many things in mechanical and building codes should be factored into the design of your restaurant. Other legal requirements might also apply depending on your local jurisdiction. Quebec’s Charter of the French Language applies to all of the province’s businesses regardless of size. The rules apply to everything, including the name, menus, and signage of your restaurant.
Budget
Restaurant build-outs aren’t cheap, so budget issues might limit how drastically you can modify the space. Depending on your budget, you might want to limit how many walls you knock out. You can also be more efficient in how the plumbing fixtures are laid out. While you can save money if you arrange a layout around your existing plumbing fixtures, this will limit the possibilities of your layout in general.
Budgets are also affected by permitting requirements. It might take several months to go through the local planning department just to get a change of use. Expert floor plan services might help cut down surprises down the road.
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Efficiency
Do your servers bump into each other when serving meals? Do your customers at the cash register block the line of people coming inside your restaurant? Flow is key in any dining establishment. Design your 2D drawings and floor plans to prevent bottlenecks. Consider the trip a plate takes to reach a table from the kitchen. Minimizing the movement it takes for plates to pass back and forth to the kitchen from the service area is always better. The dining space must also be accessible and flexible, with enough space for parties.
Square footage per customer
Sizes of restaurant tables differ according to the preferences of the owner and the style of service. The table’s size is usually chosen based on how the chef prefers to present dishes on the table. The allocated square footage for every seated guest is also dependent on the specific type of restaurant you plan to open. The amount of square footage designated for every seated guest will depend on the service type of your restaurant.
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Sustainability
The past few years have seen significant changes in the restaurant industry. One of the newest emerging trends is the shift towards more sustainable practices that can help lower businesses’ carbon footprint and cut costs. In general, drafting services, building materials, and products must help reduce the destruction of the global environment. Sustainability can change how restaurants are run and how floor plans are designed. Several practices might be involved in adopting a more sustainable approach.
Sustainability in terms of your restaurant’s floor plan can mean using the existing space instead of changing it completely, reusing equipment or furniture when possible, and opting for sustainably sourced materials. You might also want to check if you’re qualified for energy efficiency grants. These can help offset some of the costs required to make your restaurant greener. Customers are looking for commercial restaurant esablishments to be more sustainable.
Aesthetic
After you have nailed down the main non-negotiable requirements, you can proceed to decorations. Once you have identified your service model, it’s time to discuss the style and experience that the interior décor will create. What kind of vibe do you plan for the space? Is it funky or homier? Your restaurant’s aesthetic, menu, and service model must all make sense.
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A professional floor plan expert designer will have extensive discussions with their clients during the initial planning of a commercial restaurant, café, or bar to better understand their brand, identity, and the kind of experience and image they wish to convey through their restaurant space. What kind of activities do they intend their customers to do in the space? How do they want their customers to engage in the restaurant?
These are essential discussions for floor plan experts to have definitive answers before they begin planning an establishment’s interior design. Some experts recommend that at least a portion of the service area must be visible from the outside. Where other people are, that’s where people go. Driving by a restaurant with only a few diners inside won’t make it appealing.
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On the other hand, if it is full, it is often seen as a signal of trust, and people will automatically think that it is worth trying to check out that place. For example, the bar and service area might be customer-facing, with passers-by getting a good glimpse of the interior to check out the ambiance, the food, and the clientele.
How Cad Crowd can help
Connect with some of the most trusted commercial restaurant floor plan services at Cad Crowd and make the most out of the space of your dining establishment to achieve growth and success. Get a free quote today.
