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People like small restaurants and tiny dining spaces. By their very nature, they offer things that many diners value: intimacy, quiet, and personal attention. But a small restaurant is still a business and needs to maximize its profits while offering competitive value for money. How can an owner get the optimum number of diners into the premises without losing that special atmosphere?
Key Principles
Before you start to invest in tables and chairs, be clear about your priorities, both practical and aesthetic.
You need an adequate amount of space between tables. This is important to assist serving staff negotiating the room and to avoid diners bumping into each other when moving their chairs.
As a small restaurant, you will need to make a fairly high markup so you are probably aiming for a quality experience. The furniture you purchase will need to reflect that quality as well as the theme you decide on. If you want to add a touch of “cozy” to your restaurant interior, view Shabby Chic Furniture.
You cannot offer everyone the best seat in the house, so decide how you will balance things to give the less favorable positions something to make the experience feel special—perhaps an artwork or planter nearby, or sensitive lighting.
Fixed or Flexible?
By having fixed areas you can fit in more tables. Booths allow seats effectively to be placed back to back, and people do not mind shuffling in and out of booth seats. They provide a sense of privacy and personalization even when other tables are in fact very close.
Another way that divisions can allow people to be closer would be to have some high tables equipped with restaurant bar stools. Because of the vertical separation, you do not need quite so much horizontal distance, provided that the diners on the high level are not actually looking down on the lower ones.
The problem with having too much fixed-space is that it doesn’t allow you to move tables around. With a more open plan, you can easily put tables together to cater for larger groups. A particular advantage of a small restaurant is that it is often able to allow a party to take over the whole space.
The Furniture
Your furniture will reflect the theme of your restaurant, but will still need to be of high quality. One advantage of a small space is that small chairs and tables will look better proportioned than big ones, so you may be saving in capital outlay per customer.
Another decision you will have to take is the ratio of two-top to four-top tables. Four-top tables will accommodate more chairs in your space, but if you expect a significant number of your customers to come as couples, a lot of those chairs may be unoccupied. The more you can combine and divide tables, the more flexible you can be.
Making the Most
Small restaurants provide a great dining experience and only require a small number of regular customers to make them a very viable business. Having the right layout will complement your cuisine and atmosphere to encourage people to come back again and again.
