Restaurant Furniture Blog

The question of whether or not your restaurant tables layout is formal or informal has two different approaches. You have the traditional meaning of formal; that is having your tables laid out in a particular manner. I am looking at a different interpretation for formal and informal in this post.

Some restaurant owners have a very formal layout. They sit down with a schematic of the restaurant and mark exactly where each table is going to be placed. This is a very formal layout. Other restaurant owners place their tables ‘where they fit’. There is nothing set in concrete and the layout could (and often does) change on a daily basis as tables move around during cleaning or some other activity - this is an informal layout.

If you are the kind of person who believes that ‘there is a place for everything and everything should be in its place’ then you will prefer the formal layout to your restaurant tables. Nothing will change. If a table is moved for whatever reason, it will go back exactly where it came from and the chairs will return to exactly the same place.

There is nothing wrong with a formal layout. In fact, a formal layout tells everyone where everything should be. Although the layout may be formal, the design of the layout itself can of course be informal. The casual observer may look at the arrangement and feel that tables and chairs have been scattered with no formal design in mind - you know better of course. The informal arrangement is still a part of that formal set in concrete layout.

Whether your design is formal or informal is up to you. Whether or not your restaurant tables layout is formal and set in concrete is also up to you. However, a formal layout indicates an organized mindset and in the long run, this is the mindset that you want to develop in your staff. Promote the informal, and they may well carry that through to the customer - do you really want that?