Tagged Articles

The Fastlane Starts Indoors

As the pandemic raged on late last year, countless quick-service restaurants debuted shiny new prototype designs. While the menus of each concept differed somewhat, the new prototypes all share one common trait: new ways for customers to pick up their food including the addition of multiple drive-thru lanes.

Is Third-Party Delivery Working for You — Or Are You Working for It?

Technology is clearly changing the face of the restaurant industry, and operators must decide how to implement new technology to keep up. However, it is key for restaurants to learn how to do so efficiently so as to keep costs low and prevent operational complexity. One of the areas where this is the most essential is the implementation of third-party delivery technology.

Four Tips for First-Time Restaurateurs

Consultant's Take: Luxury Malls Need Destination Restaurants

America’s malls are struggling, with vacancy rates climbing to 9 percent in the third quarter of 2018. But it’s not all bad news: Luxury malls are doing better — so well, in fact, that in March, a brand-new upscale mall opened in New York City. It’s a 7-story, 720,000-square-foot shopping mall on the far west side of Manhattan — an ambitious project for a city that isn’t known for mall shopping.

Your Table Is Ready: Tips to Avoid Construction Delays

In the restaurant industry, delayed openings are a persistent concern for restaurant owners and developers. Whether it’s a venture backed by a respected restaurateur or a brand-new restaurant from a first-time owner, delays are common. And while some circumstances are unforeseeable when it comes to restaurant construction, many can be avoided with proper planning, teamwork and execution.

Consultant's Take: Stop the Creep

Have you ever noticed how, over time, a huge number of things become must-haves in a kitchen? I call this The Creep. 

Partnering for a More Successful Project

Rudy Miick is veteran restaurant and foodservice consultant who has opened hundreds of restaurants in his 30-plus-year career. Though not a designer himself, Miick has worked as a project facilitator and liaison with many designers, architects, contractors and construction managers at both the independent and chain level. Here, he talks about the benefits of a partnered approach to restaurant design and construction.

Four Key Dining Trends That Impact Design

A trend is a general direction in which something is developing or changing. Trends manifest as a reaction to larger societal movements, which are driven by shifting consumer behaviors. 

Tips for Successful Restaurant Construction

Careful planning and strong communication are two keys to ensuring a successful restaurant construction process. By planning well and making sure everyone — from architect to engineers to operators — is on the same page, owners can help ensure a smooth construction process and a successful start to their operation.

Stop Chasing a Start Date

As a senior project manager for a general contractor that specializes in restaurant projects, I’ve helped clients open restaurants in several different states. While most of these openings have gone smoothly, I’ve noticed a trend recently that has resulted in some less-than-smooth openings.

Consultant's Take: Make Technology Hospitable

While new technologies promise to make restaurants more efficient, operators should focus on using them to improve the customer experience.

Design Challenges: When Restaurants Meet Retail

The two dominant trends in retail development — lifestyle centers and mixed-use buildings —present unique challenges for restaurant designers.

Burger Fi Opens in UK

Fast-casual burger chain Burger Fi has opened its first store in London. This is the chain’s second international location; the first is located in Mexico.

C-Store Design Impacts Customer Purchases

Convenience store design impacts consumer perceptions and purchases of foodservice items, Technomic finds.

Get with the Program

Why is it that we always start on a design with extremely high expectations yet never want to spend the time in the beginning to make sure the outcome meets all those expectations?

Four Strategies for Selecting Your Site

Choosing the right site — one that is optimal for your concept, the right location for your customer base and at the right time for the place — is paramount to your success.

Get It Right the First Time: Informed Decisions about Your Flooring Installation Can Ensure Success

Informed Decisions about Your Flooring Installation Can Ensure Success

Process-Based Value Engineering Pays Off

Hospitality spaces often present a specific set of engineering challenges for contractors, requiring you to create cost savings while still delivering the client’s original design vision.

Five Things Fast-Casual Brands Need to Attract Millennials

It was 1990. I was just barely 18, and my first real job was delivering pizzas for Rocky’s Pizza Ring. This local mom-and-pop joint could have been a hot spot “back in the day.”

Have Fun (Really!) With Visionary Personalities

“You don’t know how to design anything! You need to just sit down and listen and maybe you will learn something.” This was the opening salvo in what eventually became a good relationship with the creator of two highly successful restaurant chains during our first meeting.

A Call to Action: Contemporize Casual Dining

It’s a refrain repeated too often by casual industry observers: Casual dining is dying. Yes, some big-name brands in the segment are struggling. Full-service concepts that made Technomic’s 2014 list of the Top 500 Chain Restaurants (ranked by U.S. system-wide sales) posted sales growth of 2.4 percent in 2013, compared with the 3.8 percent growth

Efficiency Blunders: Five Top Mistakes in Restaurant Design

The layout of a restaurant can have a measurable impact on its success. From the communication between the host and kitchen to the placement of walk-ins, restaurant design must do more than provide a backdrop for the dining experience — it has to facilitate efficiency. Yet, you'll be hard pressed to find a chef who doesn't have a list of design blunders that make his or her job harder, or a designer who doesn't unintentionally create them. A too-small service station. Ill-placed walk-ins.

Put the Customer Experience First

Would your spouse believe that you've changed simply because you drop a couple of hundred dollars on some expensive new denim and a designer jacket? (Well, my wife tells me that she expects more.) The trades are filled with stories of restaurants reimaging and redesigning their stores, often including quotes from the CEO or CMO about building the brand. Without question, a store's appearance is an essential component of a brand and keeping the brand relevant to customers. However, many

Take a Unified Approach to Remodels & Rebrands

Most companies waste money when doing remodels/rebrands. They don't do it consciously, they just fail to fully consider their guests and, particularly in the current economic enviroment, often put cutting costs ahead of stimluating sales.

Open Vs. Closed During A Restaurant Renovation: A Consultant's Take

Facing a redux project? Ed Doyle, president of RealFood Consulting in Boston says every project is different but there are pros and cons to consider before deciding whether to remain open and operating for the duration.