Restaurant Furniture Blog

When you’re opening a restaurant or you’re remodeling a place that you’ve had open for a while, it’s important to make sure that your restaurant furniture layout creates space that will really suit your customers.

Think about it this way: when you walk into a coffee shop or a retail store, things are setup so that people can get in and get out or so that customers can browse the merchandise, find what they are looking for and check out easily. When it comes to your restaurant furniture layout, you’ll want to focus on how the waitstaff will negotiate the dining area, but you also want to ensure that your customers are comfortable.

One thing that you’ll want to consider is what sort of food service you’re offering: restaurants that offer multiple courses - and, as a result, larger place settings - are not going to do as well with small tables as a restaurant that focuses on quick soups and sandwiches. If your customers are going to be sitting at a table for a short time, smaller tables and less padded chairs are okay; if your meals are designed to last longer than an hour, you’ll want to give the diners more space to stretch out.

Other points to consider include how close the tables are; some people are comfortable walking into a family style restaurant, others are going to go out with an expectation of privacy and tables that have enough distance between them that they aren’t listening to other conversations. Similarly, in many cases your clients aren’t going to want to be “squished” into their tables; they want to have breathing room.

When you’re choosing tables, chairs and booths for your restaurant, you’ll want to make sure that you’re focusing on the comfort of your customers: the more comfortable they are, the more likely they are to keep coming back, staying longer and recommending your restaurant to their friends and family members.