I Can See You
No one wants to see into your bathroom, dish area or other less appealing work areas. That flash of bright light from an opening door is distracting. On the flip side, display kitchens and peeks into unique prep areas – butchery, pastry, pantry – have their place and can be a design feature. The idea that exhibition cooking areas – kitchens, specialty workstations, open flame cooking – are a fading fad is a broad generalization. It is a viable design and operational element. If it fits with your concept, do it. Just do it smart.
Your design program lists all the spaces and their sizes that you need to operate your restaurant. The resultant schematic plan will show the organization of these spaces; your entry, bar, back prep kitchen, finishing kitchen or cook line, dining areas and support spaces. As you review and refine your schematic plan, think about how people move through your restaurant and what they see. While building or site conditions often dictate where some of these elements are placed, you have a blank canvas to create the overall flow of customers and staff through your space and study lines of sight. Take your time as you evaluate and shuffle the elements of this schematic plan. Once established, your restaurant design will be built upon it.
Too often, schematic plans are quickly drawn and reviewed, schedules established, and your design team moves quickly into more detailed drawings. As your design team continues to move from schematic design through design development and into construction drawings, this plan becomes rigid. Changes are discouraged, time consuming and expensive.
It is really in the schematic design phase that you will have the opportunity to challenge the way customers and servers move throughout the restaurant. It is during this phase that you can explore sight lines and understand what the customer sees as they move through the space.
Doors, where appropriate, certainly mitigate undesirable views and are often the only practical solution. Walls, architectural screens and other features can also solve the problem. If customer and service traffic or site conditions make eliminating these less desirable site lines impossible, try making them a feature. Understand that they are visible or partially visible to the public and make them appealing with higher end finishes, materials, lighting or low walls to block site lines to the floors.
There will always be trade-offs. Doors and screens may impact ease of service, creating circuitous routes to block site lines that may waste valuable space and cause blind spots. The important point here is to be aware and solve these issues during the schematic design process.
