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3 Tips for Choosing Great Restaurant Furniture for a Small Venue

Oct 09
Posted by Daniel in Restaurant, Restaurant Furniture, restaurant tips and advice

Designing a small restaurant or pub can require creative thinking to make the most of a limited space; knowing how to select the right furniture and layout is essential.

Small restaurants can have very big advantages for entrepreneurs, but can also present them with very difficult design challenges. A smaller venue brings with it lower costs and less overhead. The price of rent, as well as utilities such as heating and cooling, can be significantly lower. A much smaller wait staff and kitchen staff is also an advantage of a small restaurant or pub, and initial design costs will often be significantly lower in a smaller space.

Choosing the right layout and restaurant furniture for a small venue is essential to a customer’s impression of the establishment. A small venue done right can come across as cozy, intimate and comfortable, whereas a badly designed small venue will seem cluttered, crowded and unpleasant. The following are three tips on how to choose the right furniture and layout to make a restaurant or pub a big hit in a small package.

1) Utilize bar and counter seating

Bar and counter seating is a great way to get a lot of people seated at your establishment, while still offering wait staff and customers ample space to move around. A bar placed on one side of the room adjacent to the kitchen with seating on high bar stools is great not only for spacing – it also can establish a venue as a place to congregate in the neighborhood. Customers who might normally just be ordering food and soft drinks are much more likely to order alcohol while eating at the bar, which will definitely boost profits.

Counter seating along the restaurant’s front windows is also a great way to save some space, and offer diners who value their privacy an appropriate seating option. Seating with a street view is pleasant for diners in your restaurant and can serve to pull foot traffic in from outside. (more…)

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3 Tips to Successfully Make your Kids’ Menu Healthy

Sep 23
Posted by Daniel in Restaurant, restaurant tips and advice

Restaurants are facing the challenge of updating their kids’ menus to reflect the growing demand among parents for food that is healthier for their children.

Parents are becoming increasingly aware of the health of their children and are taking into account new factors when deciding where to take their kids out to eat. In order to stay competitive in today’s changing market, and to be more responsible in what they serve children, restaurant owners face the challenge of providing healthier menu options geared toward children.

Traditionally, whether at quick serve restaurants or traditional sit down family establishments, kids’ menus have offered simple, yet unhealthy food, loaded with sugar and salt that children have come to expect. Grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken fingers, pizza and hamburgers, served with French fries and soda, are usually on most kids’ menus, with absolutely no healthy alternatives available.

However, this lack of nutritional balance has led to growing health problems among children in North America. Unhealthy eating has led to a childhood obesity epidemic which can lead to the very early onset of diabetes. In addition, the bad eating habits and the health problems we face as children often follow us into adulthood.

Recognizing the problem of unhealthy eating among our children is the first step in resolving the issue. Child health has gotten a great deal of media exposure over the past several years, educating parents about what they should and should not be feeding their children. Fast, unhealthy food has traditionally been the cheapest and most convenient. However, as the market has begun to recognize parents’ demand for healthy food options for their children, restaurants have changed their kids’ menus accordingly.

Any restaurant owner knows that appealing to families is vital for their business. The following are some tips on how to attract families with children in these times of increased child health awareness.

1) Offer healthy options to traditional kids’ meals (more…)

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5 Tips for Picking a Restaurant Furniture Supplier You can Trust

Sep 06
Posted by Daniel in Restaurant Furniture, restaurant tips and advice

Making a big furniture purchase for a new or remodeled restaurant is an important investment; knowing what to look for is the key to finding the right vendor.

 

How can a restaurant owner seeking to buy furniture for his establishment check whether a furniture vendor can be trusted to provide high quality goods? The key to finding a good furniture vendor is asking the right questions. The following is a list of tips about asking a prospective furniture vendor the right questions to ensure you will be pleased with your restaurant furniture purchase for years to come.

1) Is your furniture made for commercial use?

Furniture that will serve you perfectly well for home use is not necessarily suited to use in a commercial environment. Furniture in a restaurant, bar or other similar establishment in the hospitality industry must be able to withstand an extremely high rate of use, well beyond the rate of use for furniture in a residential environment. In order to ensure that the furniture you are buying is built to withstand the everyday rigors of use in a restaurant, choose a vendor that specializes in making furniture for commercial use. These firms will use better materials and properly reinforce the areas of highest stress to ensure that their furniture lasts.

2) Is your furniture tested for strength and durability?

There is no better way to ensure that the furniture you are buying fits industry standards than having it tested for strength and durability. The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association (BIFMA) has a variety of tests to make sure furniture complies with industry standards. Ask your vendor if his furniture is BIFMA approved.

3) Do you provide a warranty for your furniture? (more…)

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Why do Restaurants fail? Unnoticed money pits

Aug 30
Posted by Daniel in Restaurant, restaurant tips and advice

money pits to aviodFor restaurant owners looking to avoid falling victim to money pits, here are 5 things to look out for.

Not every restaurant can be on the 50th floor of the Hilton Hotel, or on the beach in Malibu, or employ a world-renowned, five-star French chef. The majority of restaurants are fighting for their survival in decent, but not great locations, on a limited budget, without a large margin for error.

So, while the old adage “location, location, location” sounds nice and simple, good and efficient management of your restaurant will probably be more likely in determining its success or failure – just like in any business.

Good management means taking advantage of the resources you have, and above all, not being wasteful. In this way, better managing your restaurant, and being kinder to the environment, can often go hand-in-hand. A badly managed restaurant will fall victim to unnoticed and unnecessary money pits that take resources away from investing in and growing the business. What money pits, you ask? The following are five of the major ones:

1) An inefficient menu

Finding the right portion size for menu items can be a tricky proposition. Customers expect to get their money’s worth out of a meal and cannot be made to feel that you are skimping on portion size. On the other hand, if portions are too big, you will end up throwing away a lot of food, which is obviously very wasteful. Much of what determines a customer’s satisfaction with his meal is psychological, and not a matter of him being physically “full.” Monitor your customers, and have your staff take note of what dishes are resulting in a lot of food being thrown away. In addition, smaller plates can make portions appear bigger, as can plates whose color contrasts sharply with the food being served on it. These psychological factors can actually affect the level of a patron’s satisfaction with portion size. If you can reduce portion size without disappointing customers, you can reduce waste, and thusly reduce costs.

2) A wasteful kitchen

Ordering the right amount of produce and meat, and using it in a timely fashion before it spoils and has to be thrown away is essential. This may entail offering spontaneous daily specials at low prices featuring dishes that can be made from items that you have to use before they spoil. You should also strive to use every part of your produce and meat products in cooking menu items. This often involves a new level of creativity. Vegetable peelings, bones and fish heads are examples of often unused kitchen products that can be employed to make stocks or sauces. You can also freeze certain items, such as vegetable parts and herbs that you would normally throw away. Being efficient in cooking means using everything possible and throwing away as little as possible.

3) Cheap furniture and dinnerware that does not last

Restaurant owners are so concerned with food and staff that they often forget the importance of design. Restaurant furniture and dinnerware are both parts of the visual landscape that you create for your customers. Matters of taste aside, cheaply made furniture and dinnerware will end up being a money pit, costing you more in the long-term than a good investment in quality furniture will. Furniture that serves you well for home use will not stand up to the beating it will take in a restaurant. Make sure to buy furniture that is made by a vendor who specializes in making furniture for commercial use. The same goes for dinnerware. These items may cost you more initially, but they will last 10 times longer than shoddily-made products that will have to be replaced every year, continually sucking money out of your business. (more…)

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Restaurant Patio Design: The Basics

Jul 10
Posted by Daniel in Restaurant Furniture

outdoor patio furnitureThere are Hundreds of Options for Beautiful Patio Design

Much like the layout of a restaurant’s interior seating area, there are endless options to beautifully design a restaurant’s patio area. The right patio design can enhance the business of any restaurant. Small restaurants can look bigger with sprawling patio designs. Large restaurants can look even larger and grander with beautifully created patio designs. The extra seating created by a well-planned and carefully laid out patio design can help to enhance your revenues. You can do just about anything with your patio space. After all, patio designs can only be limited to the space that you have, the type of atmosphere that you want to create, and the amount of creativity you put into it.

Patio Designs and the Works

There are so many patio designs that you can choose from for your restaurant. For smaller restaurants with smaller areas, garden or sidewalk patio designs are the most popular choice. You can also opt for those charming courtyard patio designs if you have a nice little garden with a perfect spot for the sun. There are sidewalk patio designs which you can also choose to make that space in front of your restaurant come alive. If you love holding events and providing entertainment at your restaurant on a regular basis, decorative concrete patio designs will be perfect for you. They are great for hosting bands and entertainers. They can even serve as outdoor lounges to wait in with a drink or outdoor kitchens to stage elaborate public cooking exhibitions.

The Benefits

Having patio designs that work means additional and more flexible seating for your restaurant. A patio can be an extension of your interiors and double as a lounge, bar, seating area for families with children, buffet space or outdoor kitchen. Great patio designs can turn an otherwise boring exterior into an amazing pebble garden. Great patio designs can also maximize the use of an otherwise unusable and unattractive space on your property and turn it into a working and beautiful space for customers.

Some Tips

Your patio designs should not look like just a slab of concrete strategically dropped on a space outside your restaurant. It should look natural, beautiful and not overly done. The most functional patio designs should consider the amount of exposure to sun and shade. You must avoid placing your patio in a place where you get too much sun or too little shade. Otherwise, it would not be a very comfortable spot to eat in at a particular time of day. Also consider its proximity to the kitchen.

Remember, the patio is the extension of the interiors. You really do not want to walk a couple hundred feet from the kitchen to the outdoor seating area when you are trying to provide quick and efficient customer service. (more…)

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How to Choose the Right Restaurant Furniture

Jun 28
Posted by Daniel in Restaurant Chairs, Restaurant Furniture, restaurant tips and advice

Choosing the right restaurant furniture for your facility can pose a challenge. This post explains factors that influence your choice and helps you decide.

Whether you are upgrading your facility or opening a new restaurant, thoughtfully chosen restaurant furniture can lend a unique and elegant character to your establishment. Ambiance and comfort are as important as the quality of food that is served, so here are a few tips on how to choose the appropriate restaurant furniture.
1. Restaurant furniture reflects ambiance. For example, if you have a place that serves fast food and milk shakes, then you might want to opt for funky and modern styles.

2. Have something for every age. A restaurant welcomes all its clients, which means you need to own everything from a few baby high chairs, comfortable armchairs for the elderly and everything in between.

3. If your restaurant offers both indoors and outdoor dining, then you want to invest in both kinds. Outdoor patio furniture could be made from more informal materials like cane or wicker.

4. Colors matter when it comes to choosing your restaurant furniture. Light colors suit a vibrant, upbeat ambiance while more sedate colors are appropriate for an elegant dining experience.
(more…)

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