2011-11-15 
An ugly restaurant is a failing restaurant. The restaurant industry is infamously competitive. Price, value, location, service and, of course, the food are all areas which restaurateurs must optimise if they are to make back their (often considerable) investment. There isn%u2019t a restaurant owner in the land who doesn%u2019t work carefully to ensure that the quality of their food matches the price tag on the menu . They wouldn%u2019t dream of opening their doors if they didn%u2019t think their service was suitable for the area in which they were situated. It%u2019s surprising, then, the number for whom restaurant interior design is a low priority. The food must be good and the price right, but it won%u2019t matter if people don%u2019t want to be IN your restaurant. Worse still is if the layout of your restaurant is such that it is not practical for an efficient operation. It won't be a pleasant place to be if waiting staff are constantly having to squeeze past diners or if one table has to put up with people queuing up next to them for the toilet. The first thing a restaurant interior designer will do when hired to design or redesign your restaurant is to consider the ergonomics of the place. They will ensure that the layout of your space is optimised for efficient operation. Most restaurants rely to a large degree on passing trade and for this reason are generally to be found in prime retail locations. Renting or buying such space is inevitably expensive and so the size of the restaurant is limited. Failure to adapt to this limited space can be disastrous. If waiting staff have to squeeze between tables or if they have to pass through the same gap in order to reach a number of tables, accidents are likely to happen. Staff could collide, guests might shift their chairs out suddenly, etc. Good, ergonomic restaurant interior design will ensure that the distance a waiter or waitress has to carry plates is as small as possible. In multi-layered restaurants, a good old fashioned dumb waiter prevents staff having to carry trays up and down stairs. Many restaurants are designed to ensure there are multiple paths for waiting staff to take to most tables, so the chances of collisions or staff have to queue are reduced Even if you already have an existing property, it's worth considering how restaurant interior design can help you. Are there any small, but niggly problems that you have noticed with the operation of your restaurant's layout? Perhaps it just needs a spruce up: something to give it a new lease of life. It is the design that makes a great restaurant as much as the area in which you have to work; the Ivy is down a relatively minor side street and yet is one of London%u2019s most exclusive places to dine. People like to feel they're eating somewhere special. Unless you want your restaurant to look like a McBurger outlet, then its interior design has to have somethingt that marks it out as unique. In extreme cases, one can end up with restaurants such as New York%u2019s famous BED (now closed), where diners ate reclined on four poster beds. More commonly, this can mean carefully thought out design choices which reflect some internally consistent thought. However large or small your restaurant, it has to be attractive. Food tastes better when people are enjoying themselves. Great design means yours isn%u2019t just a great restaurant; it%u2019s a destination. 2011-10-28 
There are hundreds of bars, clubs and pubs out there and each one will be subtly different in its design. Although we often take the presence of the bar for granted, great thought goes into its design. This article looks at the different requirements of a good bar.Bars are an integral component to an enormous amount of events and places. Temporary bars are required for marquee parties, for weddings and even for village fetes, whilst more permanent fixtures are required for bars pubs and clubs across the UK and actually the world. Whilst many of us take the presence of a bar in any one of these locations for granted, the reality is that a lot of thought and effort goes into bar design in order to ensure it does a great job. But it's not just as simple as putting a few bottles behind a bar. How do you actually go about designing a bar? In addressing this problem the old conflict between those who pine for somewhere that's beautiful and a joy to be in and those who want to maximise bar productivity and operations rears its head. This article considers how you can balance function and aesthetics when it comes to deciding what makes a good bar. Aesthetics One of the most important aspects of bar design is the aesthetics of the bar i.e. how it looks. In some places design is obvious; clubs in high competition sites such as London, New York and Paris have to create some particularly outre "wow!" factor in order to win consumers. That's how you end up with fish tanks under the floor and a tree in the middle of the place. Whilst great looking bars in clubs often make it into our papers and magazines, a good looking bar is equally important in other contexts too. A seedy old pub with worn, stained carpet, for example, will not attract customers and neither will it encourage repeat business. If a customer is going to enter your pub or bar you don't want them to immediately comment on how unattractive the place is. Whilst how the bar looks is important this does not mean it needs to be anything wildly out of the ordinary. It just needs to be clean and contextually attractive. By this I mean that the bar must look good in relation to the type of establishment in question. If it is an old pub the bar should look traditional and wooden, for example, whilst in a modern champagne bar this would look rather odd. In this environment perhaps a stainless steel bar may look more attractive. We must remember then that the bar must fit in as well as look good, so it doesn't put off people and therefore lose business. Functionality For every person who argues visual appearance should be a design team%u2019s dominant concern, there is another who would argue its functionality should have more significance. The barman%u2019s tools, the drinks and the glasses all need to be within easy reach of the user in order to operate as efficiently as possible. Get this wrong and over the course of an evening fewer people could end up getting served as a result, which means less money and even less repeat business if people have to queue for a long time to wait to get served and might even end up going somewhere else. Along with thinking about the barman%u2019s requirements it is also necessary to think about how the customer will use the bar. Is it going to be a sitting bar, or a serving only bar? If it is the latter then make sure equipment is spaced evenly along the bar so there are as many "order points". Ideally the bar will draw them to an order point rather than have people waiting in a horizontal line which is always problematic for the barman. Finally, a useful piece of bar design which is very functional indeed is a mirror. It not only allows the barman to see what is going on behind him when he is preparing the drinks, such as the arrival of new customers, but it also allows those ordering their drinks to see what is going on in the rest of the room and therefore not have their back to the bar which makes it difficult for the barman. Conclusion Ideally therefore a great bar would look good and operate well. This is actually often achieved by bars and clubs who employ competent bar design teams. Often you will see pictures of great looking bars with wonderful colouring and shapes yet with plenty of shelving for glasses and an abundance of display and access points for the various bottles of spirits. In this way the bar looks great, the drinks on display look great, the barman can get to the drinks easily, and therefore the whole operation runs more smoothly and will generate more business. 2011-10-23 You can add items from the left menu by dragging them here.
2011-10-23 Start blogging by clicking in this area. Then simply type whatever you wish. You can also drag an object from the left hand column into this area. This will allow you to add pictures, videos, etc. to your blog posts.
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