Tips for your restaurant redesign

When was the last time you had a long, hard look at your restaurant design?

While having great food and beverage is important, your restaurant design will have a great impact on attracting the right guest that you wish to target.

For loyal guest, they may be used to the design and the service of the restaurant, but you will need a stream of the new guest to become regulars to keep your restaurant buzzing.

A redesign then simply is a way of attracting a new set of people, who will hopefully be open to upselling and trying out new food, there by increasing your revenue.

Your restaurant design can also have a critical impact on few other things:

• Keeping guest in the restaurant longer
• Getting them to order more food
• Trying out new samplers
• Buying merchandise
• User-generated content on social media

A typical restaurant used to get a redesign once every 8 years. With changing customer demands, that has now become once in 5 years.

So if you have to make money on your investment within 5 years, you need to work to reduce the investment cost per cover.

Space allocation:

A typical restaurant design will work with 60 % space for the front of the house and 40% for the back of the house, like the kitchen and store. See if you can reduce the requirement on the back by outsourcing some kitchen task, buying ready to cook items and reducing inventory

Reduce CAPEX investment

The only people who turn to the plate to look at the brand are hoteliers. The rest of the world does not care about the brand. Look at everything in detail and find a way to reduce cost and recurring expenses without losing quality.

Also, look at the amount of PAR you maintain. If you walk into any kitchen stewarding store, you will find items to last for the next 4 -5 years. That is your money sitting ideal.

Design for a modern look

While trendy restauraunts featuring gadgets and gizmos will get you press coverage, it has a very short shelf life. Design based on trends that are timeless – open plan kitchen, al fresco dining, community table (though I have my doubts if it ever worked in India).

If you wish to go with a theme, a retro is preferable than a futuristic because nostalgia is something people keep coming back to.

When it is time to redesign your restaurant, remember that the investment needs to pay itself back. Work with a professional design agency who understands the restaurant business and watch your profit grow.