How to design a restaurant for a smaller team

This modest design adjustment cleverly uses the hotel's personnel by streamlining its operational efficiency, which is extremely welcome in the midst of a staffing crisis. Such a focus on design to help ease the personnel problem is becoming a feature of the hospitality industry, according to Mark Bithrey, founder of B3 Designers, who says: "There is an ongoing demand from our clients to do things that allow for the most efficient use of staff."

He acknowledges that design is invariably driven from an aesthetic point of view, and that industry awards are always given for "amazing spaces", but it is the operational elements that are ultimately key to achieving high service standards and profits. Creating a space that works in the most efficient way possible with the number of people available is very much on the agenda of his clients.

Versatile venues

One increasingly common theme involves using a restaurant bar area as a multi-functional space. They are morphing into reception points for guests and, in the case of Taka in London's Marylebone (pictured above), the role is even broader as it also incorporates the kitchen's dumb waiter. "The bar is in the middle of the room and the bar person manages everything, including meeting and greeting, serving, and managing the dumb waiter to notify the waiters when required," explains Bithrey.

B3 Designers also placed the bar in a central location at the Brasserie Dubillot in Paris in addition to positioning the waiter stations – that incorporate the bread stations – close by in order that the serving staff can better manage the space. The ground floor has also been divided into two zones, with the first located nearer the kitchen to ensure there is some buzz, and also enable the space to be more efficiently run with fewer staff during quieter times.

The idea is to place customers in specific areas during off-peak times. To this end B3 is using a combination of screens (often including fretwork), cleverly located booths and focused lighting to create smaller, contained spaces that are easier to manage with fewer waiting staff while maintaining service standards.

In the zone

Zoning is particularly important to Holly Hallam, managing director of DesignLSM, as she says there are moves by a growing number of her clients to place all their tables on a single, larger dining floor. She explains: "With fewer wait staff you need to put the customers all in one room. Taking out a kitchen from the ground floor and swapping it with a secondary dining room upstairs would not have been looked at before, but it is now."

She is also finding that her clients are moving away from squeezing as many covers as possible into dining rooms. Not only has this helped overcome the shortage of front of house staff, but the more "luxurious" experience it has created is enjoyed by customers. "Clients can see where the covers were crammed in and it's not happening now. With fewer staff numbers they have found they can deliver the same experience," she says, adding that they would prefer to elongate the service hours along with turning tables, and also increase prices, rather than return to cramming their dining spaces with tables.

There has also been an assessment of other functions that were handled by the front of house staff, such as the cloakroom. "They are no longer a key factor and we're less pressured to include them. People are now saying, let's make the guests more independent," says Hallam.

The right tech

Technology helps give guests this autonomy, and though its unlikely that self-order kiosks will ever find a place in a fine dining environment, they are proving very beneficial to a growing number of more casual operators, including Leon restaurants. Self-service kiosks are integral components of its newly designed venues and are being retro-fitted to existing units. In restaurants that are fully live with kiosks, more than 85% of transactions are now processed through them.

Glenn Edwards, managing director of Leon restaurants, says: "The biggest benefit is the increased customer experience. In a way, making Leon a less stressful place at peak has freed the team from the very transactional element of service and allowed more time to interact with guests. In a world of increasing labour costs and challenges around recruitment there's certainly been no cost savings, yet the kiosks have helped us mitigate some of the inflationary costs and avoided having to pass on too much to our guests."

Light work

For all restaurants the challenge is balancing the extra tasks handed over from staff to the diners with the need to ensure customers are given a rich experience that fits the brand. David Chenery, founder of Object Space Place (OSP), suggests there are other, more low-key tasks that can also be taken away from the restaurant team, such as unnecessary cleaning and maintenance.

"Restaurants can be designed to look after themselves and not involve the use of delicate materials, which makes it easier to turn tables. Chantelle Nicholson says one of the big aspects at Apricity restaurant that fits this ethos is the crockery – she has gone for a matt finish that does not need polishing," he says. He adds that he is also aware of the move away from classic fine dining to spaces that have a more natural, lived-in element, without tablecloths, that are more inviting to guests and limit the processes involved for the front of house team.

This more efficient use of employees extends into the kitchen, where Claire Smith, director of ABDA Design, says there is a move to create smaller, flexible spaces that can adjust to changes in employee numbers and their skill-sets.

"There is now much more multi-functional kit around and also equipment that the less skilled in the kitchen can use. This is particularly useful in the foodservice sector and in hotels where people can be moved around to different parts of the kitchen," she says. Reduced space also enables a better flow in the kitchen, according to Bithrey, who says the prep to cook-line to the pass being connected more closely will increase efficiency. This should also extend to the pot-wash and the kitchen porter who is invariably remote from the rest of the team. "They need to be more connected, which removes the churn rate if they are involved. They last a lot longer," he suggests.

This flow is vitally important in the work ABDA Design is undertaking with the Brothers Pub Company where it is building greater synergy between the front of house and the kitchen, introducing a semi-open kitchen to one site.

"When you are dealing with fewer staff you need these interactions. Such operational aspects always lead our designs," says Smith.

This is now extending into the delivery aspect of restaurants where the company is considering incorporating dedicated delivery hatches or other specific design elements that service this growing revenue stream for its clients.

"We've discussed it with Brothers and we're also looking at it for a new pizza concept client where it is could be integrated into the kitchen operations in order to increase the efficiency of deliveries. One person can service it. It's about maximising your personnel resources for these new channels," says Smith.

If the staffing crisis continues to bite as predicted it is inevitable that further changes will need to be made to the design of all parts of the industry as operators seek to leverage greater value from their assets – the most valuable of which will always be their people.