The service industry is a pretty ludicrous venture to invest in, in fact, the restaurant business alone rakes in billions in profit every year. Of course, given how we are currently in a state of Quarantine, a lot of small restaurants are currently struggling and in need of community support to stay alive. However, once quarantine ends, you can once again expect a rise in restaurant sales and overall demand.
If you happen to be interested in setting food in the restaurant industry by opening a small restaurant or food place yourself, you want to make sure that you are prepared beforehand. A lot of people end up entering the food sector without any knowledge, expertise, or research, and this usually causes them to suffer. The food sector is competitive and it can take a lot of time, creativity, and a bit of luck to make it through the teething phase and transitioning into a sustainable and profitable business.
This is why we are going to try to help make this process a little easier for you. We will walk you through the basics of getting your restaurant ready, and that too mostly in the aesthetic and planning sense. This includes a bunch of details like the type of restaurant you should open, the setup you should, the right choice of restaurant furniture for you, and so on. So, if you happen to be interested in learning about this process, you can keep on reading below:
One of the first things you need to do when deciding a restaurant is picking the type of setup you want to have, and for this purpose, you will have to consult the menu. You’re going to have to ask yourself about the type of food you want to serve, and this will decide your overall restaurant setup. For instance, if you want to specialize in bakery items or sandwiches, a bistro setup would work better for you. If you plan on going for more aesthetic and classy food, then a café setup and so on. At the end of the day, your goal is to make sure that everything is consistent and not clashing with each other. If you plan on being innovative, then a popup will work well for you.
Once you have decided the setup for your restaurant, your next goal is to decide the theme for your restaurant, and a lot of times your theme will end up affecting your target demographic as well. So, if you want to attract younger people like teenagers or young adults, you will find that a retro theme or a more chic setup will work well. You already understand the relevance of aesthetic and “Instagram friendly” cafes, so we do not need to talk to you about this. By targeting one demographic, it is important to remember that you will be excluding other people outside of it. The best thing you can do in this scenario is to do your research about different age demographics and how much they contribute to the profits of the restaurant and so on.
Now we move onto discussing furniture. When we talk about furniture for restaurants, we usually just focus on chairs and tables. When deciding your chairs and tables, you want to make sure that it meets a few basic criteria including:
- Making sure that the chair and table are sturdy. You will have dozens of customers sitting on these chairs and moving them around every week, and the last thing you want is a chair that is not able to withstand that.
- Restaurant furniture can also get dirty over time, and you should be cleaning the furniture every day, especially when food stains are present. So, you want furniture that cleans easy, and is not affected by these stains as easily, or else you are going to end up having to spend more money getting your furniture cleaned.
- The furniture needs to be comfortable. People come to restaurants and they will spend an hour or more there, and if your seating arrangements are uncomfortable, you will not be having a lot of repeat customers, and you will also run the risk of losing out on a huge chunk of people that have possible back problems or require comfortable furniture.
- Not only does your furniture need to be comfortable and durable, but it also needs to be aesthetically pleasing and should complement the theme of your setup. For instance, leather sofas work well with upscale setups, whereas stools and simple chairs work great for cafes and bistros whilst booths work great for family-style setups and so on.
At the end of the day, you want to make sure that you have a consistent theme and every aspect of your setup and layout should be complementary to said theme because you want your restaurant to exude your essence.