When considering the design, construction, or remodel of your ideal restaurant, you need to take care that everything goes according to plan. The last thing you want to do is complete the job only to find out that you’re disappointed with the work.
The goal of any restaurant is to draw in the local crowd for a mouthwatering bite and fun in a relaxed atmosphere. Whether you’re going for a family restaurant design, new bar construction, or a restaurant and bar remodel, you have much to consider.
The following list can help.
10 Important Points to Consider When Designing, Constructing, or Remodeling the Ideal Restaurant
You Must Obtain the Necessary Restaurant Permits
Whether you plan to design and construct a new restaurant or remodel a turnkey situation, you will need to acquire the proper building permits.
The permits you require will depend on the city where your restaurant will be located, along with other factors, such as when you plan to transform an office building into a restaurant, for example. Getting the proper codes and filling them out correctly can be a complex affair. Ensure you get the help of a professional so that your restaurant design, construction, or remodel remains code-compliant.
Everything Must Be Planned Carefully
Your restaurant’s design and construction or complete remodel will need to be planned from the top down. Every detail must be included, as you never want to back yourself into a corner or get to the middle of construction only to find that you have an expensive roadblock that throws your restaurant construction crew off track.
Your entire operation, from the front of the house and back of the house to your seating and even your decorations, should be planned out well in advance.
Along with restaurant design and remodel planning, you will want to tick off all the boxes that go with opening a new restaurant, including obtaining a liquor license, securing food and beverage vendors, restaurant furniture suppliers, and restaurant equipment suppliers, among others.
Failing to plan properly can lead to a halt to production, which will drown out your dreams of business ownership before your new restaurant even has a chance to open.
Open Sunlight and Ventilation
Few people want to eat a meal in a dark room. For that reason, ensure that your restaurant design blueprint includes plans for an open and spacious dining room. With lots of windows and plenty of natural sunlight, your environment will seem more open and inviting, which is always good for the restaurant business.
You should also plan to obtain the necessary ventilation systems to keep your air pure and your kitchen free of soot, smoke, and carcinogenic pollutants. With ventilation hoods, fans, HVAC, and make-up systems working together, you can ensure clean and easy breathing for your staff and customers.
Fire Safety Considerations
Whenever there are heat and grease, fire can result. This makes restaurant kitchens literal hotbeds for the breakout of a dangerous fire. To keep the fire from damaging your restaurant design or remodel, ensure that you have the proper fire prevention equipment in place.
A sprinkler system or chemical fire suppression system can be enough to eliminate most types of fire, including electrical and grease fires. Ensure that you have the proper systems in place for the types of fire your kitchen is most at risk for.
In addition, you will want to ensure that all of your staff are trained and have access to Class K fire extinguishers. You can ensure that a fire extinguisher is always close at hand by placing them at strategic points throughout your restaurant design or remodel blueprint.
In case a tragic fire does break out, you will want to ensure there are clearly-marked exits and that those exits are brightly lit so that customers and staff can always see them, even when visibility is low due to smoke and soot.
The local fire inspector can ensure your restaurant plan is code-compliant for safety and the protection of your new restaurant design or remodel.
Back of House Should Be Safe and Efficient
When designing your kitchen, ensure that your equipment works together to keep everything functional and efficient. This is going to require a lot of planning and homework on your part. The type of kitchen you design will depend on the kinds of meals you plan to prepare and the layout that you want.
When designing the ideal kitchen for a new restaurant design and construction, or restaurant remodel, make sure you have room for a cleaning and washing station, food storage and preparation areas, meal cooking appliances, and service areas for your line runners and wait staff.
To help you design or remodel a restaurant kitchen that is near intuitive for staff, it might help to borrow from a proven commercial kitchen design layout.
You can then customize the layout to fit your exact needs.
Don’t Forget About Parking
Your restaurant is not the only thing you have to consider when engaging in a new design or remodel. Your parking lot is critically important to the success of your business. Without adequate parking, customers might feel compelled to give a competitor a chance the next time they’re hungry. If you can manage to create a safe and spacious parking lot that has enough parking to accommodate your seating, you’ll contribute to the success of your business.
Your parking lot will need to be lined with the appropriate signage in order to remain legally and code compliant.
Wheelchair Accessible Parking and Seating
You are required by law to make your restaurant wheelchair accessible, both in the parking lot and at your front entrances. You will also need handicapped parking signs and the appropriate parking lot markings to ensure your restaurant is open and inviting to everyone, the able-bodied and disabled alike.
Seating That is Fire Code Compliant
Your local fire inspector can let you know how many people can be seated in your restaurant safely in order to remain fire code compliant. The number of patrons you are provided with cannot be altered and you should have enough seating to accommodate that number of people only.
Remaining fire code compliant ensures the safety of your customers and staff. Ask your local fire inspectors for other rules and acknowledgments that may apply to your business, depending on your restaurant size, type, and location.
Calculate Site Analysis, Budget, Strategy
The actual design or remodel of your restaurant gives you much to consider, but you’re not done yet; not by a long shot.
Now comes the time to calculate the cost of your restaurant construction, the timetable, and a strategy for completing your restaurant on-budget, on-time, and with no or minimal disruption to your production team.
Completing a budget and cost analysis is also going to require a lot of homework on your end. You’ll need to accommodate for the building mortgage or rent, equipment rentals and purchases to make construction possible, kitchen equipment purchases to stock your kitchen, chairs, and tables to accommodate your seating requirements, HVAC systems, gas and electrical service, lighting, ballasts, and more.
Your restaurant design or remodel construction plan will then need to keep on schedule in order to use your budget effectively. If you can, try to assess any risks to production before they occur. Examples might include weather delays, bureaucratic red tape that must be overcome, restaurant construction equipment failure, and vendor delivery delays.
Even one of these instances can cause your restaurant design or remodel to bleed money until construction can resume once more.
Ideally, you’ll want to have a construction manager on-hand to direct production and to ensure that everything goes according to plan.
For a Fast & Efficient Design/Build or Remodel, Hire the Experts
When envisioning the perfect restaurant design or remodel, you have a ton to consider, this much you now know. You have to secure the building and proper permits, draw up the proper blueprints, design your front and back of the house for maximum efficiency, plan your parking and seating, install the necessary fire suppression equipment, and set up relationships with vendors, construction materials suppliers, and more.
Instead of burning yourself out before your restaurant even opens with too many details, why not leave the restaurant design, construction, or remodel to the experts?
When you find a company that is experienced with the type of restaurant you plan to open, you know that the cards are already dealt in your favor. Every detail will be planned, including your layout, seating, kitchen efficiency, and fire suppression. When a company has an actual checklist that it works through when dealing with clients, you know that no stone will be left unturned. Your restaurant design or remodel will be constructed exactly as planned while adhering to all budget and scheduling constraints.
A company that designs, constructs, and remodels restaurants like the one you have in mind will typically already have relationships with vendors and suppliers. The organization will know how to obtain the proper building permits and how to fill them out so that your restaurant is completely covered.
The company will also have floorplans you can choose from so they can be customized for your needs. From furniture and entry doors to the construction materials used in your dining rooms, you will have total say in all that goes on.
The only difference is that the company will direct the planning and the strategy for getting your restaurant constructed or remodeled. A company like that will have planned for operational delays well in advance so that you can keep to your budget and schedule, all while designing your perfect restaurant.
If you want a restaurant you can be proud of, the best choice might be to find a local restaurant construction builder who has the methods, relationships, and manpower to get the job done.
Conclusion
Who knew that opening a new restaurant or remodeling a turnkey operation could involve so much?
Because there is so much to consider, you can see why proper restaurant design and construction require so much planning. Everything must be pre-planned far in advance to keep operations going and costs to a minimum.
By having a skilled, trained, and experienced restaurant construction team on your side through it all, you can make sure your restaurant opens its doors just in time for opening day.
Call Hood Builder for a Customized Restaurant Design Quote
Hood Builder is the restaurant design, construction, and remodeling leader in the areas throughout Denver, Colorado. When you have a vision of the perfect restaurant in mind, we can bring your crowd-pleasing new restaurant to life.
Whether you already have the building picked out or you’re starting completely from scratch, we can help you see your project through from beginning to end.
Designing and constructing a restaurant properly and according to the plan requires years of hands-on experience. Only when you can determine risks ahead of time and complete a checklist that includes all aspects of restaurant construction and design can you hope to open your restaurant exactly as planned.
From obtaining the proper codes to filling up the building with tables, chairs, and cooking equipment, as well as installing fire suppression systems so fire never rears is the ugly head, we can ensure the safest and most modern restaurant design.
When you work with Hood Builder, you can keep to a particular opening date. You can ensure that your restaurant will be completed by the time you have scheduled. All you have to do is call.
For restaurant design, construction, and remodels throughout the areas of Denver, Colorado, we want to make your vision of the perfect restaurant a stark and beautiful reality. Call Hood Builder for a free customized quote.
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