Regardless of the size of your building, primary spaces play a significant role in your restaurant floor plan and its overall feel, look and function.
When developing a restaurant floor plan, the conventional method allots 60% to customer space and 40% to the kitchen. Doing so maximizes the seating area to serve the most guests. However, the shift to off-premise dining is changing how we view restaurant layouts.
Josh Broehl, senior vice president and managing director of design firm Big Red Rooster, told trade website Restaurant Dive that dining in accounts for about 15% of a typical restaurant’s sales compared with roughly 40% several years ago.
Cafe Floor Plan
Before using a restaurant floor plan maker, it’s essential to consider how you’ll incorporate your guests and future needs into the design. Start by analyzing your primary spaces to get a feel for what restaurant layout design will work best for you.
Restaurant floor plans include 4 primary spaces: kitchen, restrooms, dining room and entry. How you configure these locations depends on a combination of factors, including local and state regulations.
While online restaurant floor plan creators help you visualize your layout, your first step is to review how your primary areas function. After all, your kitchen may require extra space to handle carry-out and delivery prep. Or your entry might double as a pick-up area for customers and third-party delivery drivers.
Small Cafe Kitchen Layout Strategy
In most cases, start with basic restaurant layout examples and consider how each concept fits your business model. But, “today’s kitchen will need to be built with tomorrow in mind, ” according to QSR Magazine. So, a modern restaurant floor plan should consider future opportunities. Consider these 3 standard commercial kitchen floor plans, then pick (and perhaps) tweak the best fit for your needs.
This open design places the main cooking equipment in the kitchen center with storage and food preparation along the outer edges. While this plan works best in a large square kitchen, a commercial kitchen designer can help you modify this style to fit your kitchen dimensions.
With a zone-style plan, the major components (such as cleaning and food prep stations) line the outside walls in blocks. The center is left open for natural movement from one area to another. This plan allows for excellent communication but might prove impractical if you operate with a small crew.
Reasons Your Commercial Kitchen Layout Matters
This kitchen floor plan is often used in quick-service restaurants, although it can be adapted for various eateries. As the name suggests, the plan flows across your kitchen. At one end, you might have a food preparation area that shifts to a service space at the other end. Restaurateurs often place storage and dishwashing sections behind the assembly line.
As a cost-saving measure, restaurateurs often place the restrooms as close to the kitchen as possible. Why? Doing so reduces the amount of piping required and lowers the overall design cost.
Consult with experts to ensure that your plan satisfies building codes and ADA requirements. For example, there are specific space guidelines for single-user and multiple-user restrooms. Other considerations include:
Cafe Kitchen Floor Plan
The dining area is a fun space to manipulate when using an online restaurant floor plan creator. With an online restaurant layout design tool, you can change your table shapes and sizes a bit for flexibility. While many restaurant owners want to get maximum seating, also consider that your guests and staff must easily move through the area. This space also must meet ADA requirements; the website Total Food Service supplies these general seating guidelines:
It’s crucial to account for more than tables and chairs. Consider how each of these small restaurant design ideas fits into your dining space.
If you’re using a restaurant floor plan maker, it’s easy to shift tables against walls and adjust your design. Yet, your dining room layout must make room for other elements, such as:
Small Restaurant Kitchen Solutions To Maximize Your Space
While the entry and waiting area is often an afterthought, modern restaurant floor plans emphasize the importance of this space. Not only is it the first section that guests experience, but it also impacts off-premise service. Such areas may include:
Consider adding a bar or countertop area so customers can get a drink or a quick appetizer while they wait to be seated (or wait for to-go orders). A bar space helps open up your entrance. It also gives you the ability to serve more people. However, adding a bar or countertop area may increase your design costs as health department guidelines might require additional sink or sanitation requirements.
Jessica is a business-to-business content strategist and consultant with 24 years of experience in the restaurant and hospitality industry. She writes about technology, marketing and finance.
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