Shop Drawings

Last Chance to get it right!

Why spend all that money and not get what you thought you ordered? In a restaurant, replacing the side salad on an entrée with potatoes is an easy fix. When you realize the pass shelf is too narrow or too high or you forgot the space for the trash can at the beverage station, that fix, if possible, is expensive!

Design moves from the general to specific, from loose schematics to comprehensive construction documents. As part of the construction process, detailed fabrication drawings, manufacturer’s specification sheets and similar submittals on specific product selections are presented by the general contractor to the architect and design team for review and approval. These items – booths, cabinets and millwork, bespoke light fixtures, custom fabricated stainless-steel kitchen and bar equipment and standard equipment that has custom features – need to be “approved” before the contractor will release them for fabrication and purchase.

While many of these items are quickly reviewed and approved by your architect or engineers (plumbing fixtures, electrical components, etc.) anything that affects your design aesthetic or operational functionality should be reviewed by you and the appropriate members of your culinary and operational team.

Checking shop drawings and submittals for correct dimensions is the responsibility of your design team.  Your concern and responsibility are to review for design and functionality.

It is in your best interest to review all shop drawings for custom fabricated kitchen and bar equipment with your supplier.  While they are responsible for verifying dimensions and correct utilities, you will want to review the functional details. Refrigeration, water stations, ice wells and similar equipment are often integral with millwork or stainless-steel server stations.  Confirming that these items are properly located and accounted for in the millwork drawings. Correct cut-outs for drop-in equipment or clearances for undercounter equipment, while the responsibility of the architect and millwork contractor, should be reviewed by your team as well.

Custom chef counters, often used in high volume restaurants, are designed with cold wells, remote refrigeration, spoon wells, plating and expediting areas, undercounter heated compartments or roll in equipment, drop in warmers, overshelves with heat lamps and POS printers/screens.  They  are complicated and expensive. Taking the time to review these details and how they align with the hood line often results in minor refinements.

Even the simple items warrant review. Having your culinary team or chef take a final look at these drawings may result in a sink bowl being relocated, an undershelf added or deleted, a marine edge added to a prep sink or sheet pan slides added to a worktable.  These are small corrections that may have a significant impact on your operation.  It is worth the time and effort to assemble your culinary team to review these drawings. Many shops provide 3D views or even animated visuals of this equipment.  However they are presented, have your team review the details – plating space, height and depth of over shelves, placement of POS monitors or printers.

Bar equipment is typically an assembly of small components – sinks, ice wells, drain boards, rinser stations – each with four legs. The factory can, if requested, combine units in the shop to eliminate excessive legs, making it far easier to clean under bars and take advantage of the storage space below.  Many equipment manufacturers will, if asked, provide layout drawing for review (plan and elevation view) so you can see where legs fall and if they can be minimized.

Your architect and food service designer should proactively involve you or your project manager  in the review process. They in turn should enlist your operation team in the review process before equipment and furnishings are fabricated.  Too often, the culinary team will arrive on site during installation and question why equipment is placed where it is, why there are no shelves in a particular area or express frustration with various aspects of the design and equipment selection.  You can tell them to “make it work” , spend time and money making changes or do the smart thing and make them active participants in the process.

This phase of the construction process is your last opportunity to review your design and the details of your operation. Get it right!