When there are financial restraints in the capital budget affordable restaurant design can be challenging to achieve. During the incubation and conceptual stages of developing the restaurant concept creative thinking must be applied to developing an affordable restaurant design strategy. With the Synergy team by your side you can achieve affordable restaurant design that will meet your budgetary needs and have impact. Clearly understanding your concept is the first step in achieving affordable restaurant design.

Affordable restaurant design is more than just cutting down on the design costs as it is also imperative that the restaurant has the right feel for the concept. Our team of restaurant designers understands the art form of creating affordable restaurant design. Affordable restaurant design should always incorporate the five sensory experiences (seeing, tasting, touching, hearing and smelling) experienced by the guest. Affordable restaurant design should incorporate all of these senses to create the total dining experience for the guest.

People go to restaurants today to be seen, heard, entertained, eat and drink. One aspect is as important as the other. This sensory restaurant design style can be affordable and achieved with the smallest of venues, be it a mall kiosk, coffee shop, or high end restaurant.

A poorly conceived and rushed restaurant design can be a nightmare to operate. If the kitchen is not well thought out it can easily drive unnecessary labor costs and negatively impact productivity. If the overall facility is poorly designed it can also become very expensive to make changes during and after construction. Good planning is the cornerstone to affordable restaurant design.

Using one person or firm to completely design your restaurant is not always a good idea. Generally speaking, there are several types of designers that may be involved in the design of a restaurant, including the architect, food service consultant/kitchen designer, graphic designer and interior designer. Affordable restaurant design can oftentimes require the support of additional designers: audio/visual, lighting and mechanical designers to name a few. Most of the restaurant designers will fall under the umbrella of the architect. The key component for affordable restaurant design is the ability to clearly understand and interpret the vision of the owner/operator. With that being said, anyone can achieve an affordable restaurant design if they have a clear understanding of their concept and vision. The following are some key points to remember.

1. Understand your concept and vision. Document your concept in detail. If you do not know what you are trying to achieve, your restaurant design team will not know. Affordable restaurant design can be achieved once you have a conceptual brief and menu in place because the kitchen design and equipment package is directly tied to the menu. In the beginning stages there are two restaurant design firms to bring on board. The first being an architectural firm and the second a food service consulting/design firm. We strongly recommend these firms be hired independently. This eliminates a conflict of interest and helps you achieve an affordable restaurant design due to multiple ideas.

2. Affordable Restaurant Design Begins with interviewing several architectural firms. The architectural firm you hire must have restaurant design experience. There are so many food service code issues to deal with that an inexperienced architect will create a nightmarish scenario for your restaurant design team and all the tradesmen. The architect that you hire will assemble or assist you in assembling the remainder of the design team other than the food service consultant.

Whether you are building from the ground up or occupying an existing space, an architect is vital and typically required by the municipality. The architect will design and allocate space according to your concept and vision. Communicate to the architect the necessity to achieve all the sensory experiences previously mentioned. Always be active in every part of the process. It is not unusual to review several drawings. Continue the drawing process until your vision has been realized.

3. Interview and hire a food service consulting firm that has experience in restaurant design. The restaurant design team will take the architectural space and makes it functional with a great layout. The restaurant design team should be involved in all decisions with the entire space, including the bar, kitchen, side stations, seating and even the restrooms.

The restaurant and kitchen design team will specify each piece of equipment according to the food served, create mechanical plans for the architect and contractors, design construction installation elevations for the equipment installers, produce bid documents that will ensure competitive pricing, complete a quality assurance punch list and participate in fully developing your concept and vision. Hiring an experienced restaurant designer is absolutely imperative to achieve an affordable restaurant design. With the exceedingly high cost of real-estate and labor, improper utilization of space can cost you your success.

4. Why hire an independent restaurant consultant/restaurant designer? Because if they have integrity their sole function is consultation and design, as opposed to those also selling equipment which can create a conflict of interest. A well designed facility will use every square foot of space strategically and efficiently.

You want a professionally laid out space to accommodate a good lean crew, not a track team running your restaurant. The whole sensory experience is affected by the quality of the restaurant design. Customer and employee friendly environments are achievable goals. Let the restaurant designer have an understanding of your budget and they will draw and specify equipment accordingly. You then can decide with whom to make your equipment and furnishing purchases through a competitive bidding process.

The combination of a great architect and food service consultant/restaurant designer will ensure that you achieve an affordable restaurant design in a very efficient space based on seeing, feeling, touching and hearing.

• Affordable restaurant design needs to be part of the initial planning process
• Experienced restaurant designers understand the art of affordable restaurant design
• Synergy provides affordable restaurant design