dining rooms

Website design By BotEap.comDid you know that inside a sit-down restaurant, customers spend up to 25 percent of their time waiting? They wait to order, they wait for the food to arrive, etc. They are not comfortable if the space is too full, and they are not comfortable if the space is too empty. The question of how many seats can fit in a particular dining space largely defines the experience a guest will have in the restaurant. The trend in major metropolitan areas seems to be to squeeze in just 1 or 2 more tables, even if this means the difference between pleasant and catastrophic.

Website design By BotEap.comNew Yorkers, for example, are accustomed to tiny apartments and crowded subways, so perhaps they tolerate jostling and closeness much better than others. It’s true that filling a restaurant with diners contributes to a general air of excitement, which designers notice and sometimes exploit in their designs. It’s possibly exciting… but is it safe? Whenever we mention New York City, the fire codes here do not specify or limit the number of seats based on total square footage. Instead, the codes require restaurants to maintain clear aisles, three feet wide, leading to emergency exits. Restaurants with 74 seats or much more are needed to have two emergency exits; those with fewer than 74 seats should still have clear aisles but may lead to only one exit.

Website design By BotEap.comMost people think about how to accommodate crowds; But in larger spaces, you can also consider ways to separate your dining area into smaller spaces (or spaces that seem smaller) when things are slow. Many restaurants sit in just 1 of two or three dining rooms during off-peak hours. A good guideline is to allow 15 square feet per seat. This figure includes hallways and waiter support positions, but typically excludes the entrance and restrooms. Of course, your figures can be modified by the shape or size of the dining room and the sizes of the tables and chairs.

Website design By BotEap.comVarious types of facilities have industry-accepted standards for dining room allocations, as shown in the “Space and Size Guidelines” discussion. Typically, the lowest seat allocation is in a school cafeteria, with 8 to 10 feet; tallest in restaurants with an average check height, 15 to 18 feet. One factor to consider may be seat turnover, or seat turn, which can be the number of times a seat is filled during a meal. The amount of billing you have depends on the method of service, the time or day, the type of customer, the type of menu and atmosphere, and even the availability of alcoholic beverages in the restaurant.

Website design By BotEap.comArrangement of tables and booths: After agreeing on the general space of the dining room, you need to consider how the tables or booths will be arranged within that room. On paper, drawing the chairs, not just the tables, helps you remember to leave enough room to pull them out and seat people comfortably. You can find infinite variables in the arrangement of the tables. Note that the diagrams do not take into account elements such as columns, doorways, and architectural features (unusual wall placement) that frequently exist. Another reality of seating rotation is that even when your dining room is “full,” all seats may not be. A party of two can occupy a table that seats four, and so on.

Website design By BotEap.comThis partial vacancy rate can be as high as 20 percent in sit-down restaurants or 10 to 12 percent in cafeterias or cafeteria counters. Vacancy rates do not apply to facilities where all meals are eaten at exactly the same time, for example, prisons and military canteens. However, for most restaurants, the size of the tables can help control the vacancy rate. Arrange tables for two (deuces or twotops) so they can be easily pushed together to create larger tables if needed. Quick-service establishments may also try stools and counters or classroom-style seating with tablet arms to accommodate solo eaters.

Website design By BotEap.comMeeting/Banquet Rooms: Flexible space plans and style statements can rejuvenate meeting and banquet spaces. What sells these days is really a combination of exclusive style and market-driven features. What makes meeting and banquet spaces more attractive to potential guests? Convenience. Outdated AVs, inadequate lighting, and run-of-the-mill banquet chairs make private spaces go out of style. Make sure you have diffused lighting to reduce eye strain, and select chairs that are comfortable for those long corporate meetings (8+ hours). Use rolling tables (on lockable wheels) so you can customize the space for each event with minimal staff time. Easy to use. Incorporate audiovisual (A/V) equipment into the room design.

Website design By BotEap.comAvoid the unsightly and unsafe practice of taping wires and cables along meeting room floors. Allocate space for the people running the meeting, and make sure you have enough space in the back of the room to load and unload dedicated A/V equipment for individual users. customization Minimize built-in furniture/accessories to allow for maximum flexibility. Include provision for electronic locks to ensure each guest can have a personalized key to their room, if needed. Consider making the main walls of meeting rooms with tack boards covered in rich textiles so that presenters can put up flipcharts very easily. Flexible lighting controls allow customers to individually determine the correct level of lighting for their events. Technical knowledge. Customers using meeting rooms travel with their own conveniences today, carrying laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, iPods and individual DVD players.

Website design By BotEap.comThese devices have become ubiquitous. Your meeting area guests have quickly grown accustomed to constant connectivity and expect facilities to accommodate them. These days, the baseline for high-tech meeting rooms is wired or wireless high-speed Internet access. In fact, Internet access has become a substitute for many other technologies, such as videoconferencing and, in some cases, teleconferencing, which can be done over the Web. Essentially, meeting planners and associations are looking for a simple plug-and-play capability in a meeting area. This requires access to the web, a large screen and LCD projector, and simple setup and/or an A/V professional on call to help when needed.

Website design By BotEap.comOrganization of spaces for banquets/meetings. An important decision to make early on is whether to offer round or rectangular tables for seating at a banquet. When planning this room, it’s especially important to have enough space for the aisles, as the servers will be really boisterous (with full trays) in this environment. With the right tables and large paper plans, the same space can take on multiple personalities for every occasion. There’s a helpful formula for calculating banquet seating: If you’re using standard rectangular tables, divide the square footage of the room by 8 to find out how many seats will fit in the area.

Website design By BotEap.comFor example, a 500 square foot area, divided by 8, will seat 62 or 63 people. When using round tables (of any standard circumference), divide the square footage of the area by 10. A 500 square foot area with round tables will seat 50 people. This formula also allows for chair space as aisle space. Its use is limited only by columns, entrances or service doors that would need fewer people sitting in particular areas.