Tagged Articles

Form + Function

  • Form + Function: The New Steakhouses 

    The steakhouse, a distinctive market segment, has been traditionally defined as a formal, somewhat dimly lit, white-tablecloth venue suitable for business meetings and celebrations. Some restaurateurs have turned that concept on its head.

  • Form + Function: Breakfast and Lunch Restaurants

    In the back of the house, layout of functions is critical to optimizing efficiency for all restaurants, but for breakfast and lunch venues even small changes to the kitchen layout are important.

  • Form + Function: Designing Pizza Restaurants

    No matter the size or type, pizza restaurant designs must focus on essentials such as accommodating takeout and delivery, creating brand distinction, implementing efficient layout and optimizing service.

  • 2025 Award Winners

    rd+d exists to share projects, examples and stories that educate and inspire. When the rd+d awards were launched nine years ago, our team wanted to highlight the projects that made readers proud and impressed our judges. This year’s winners did both! Read on to find out how.

  • Form + Function: Fanning the Flames

    Kevin Gillespie has had an open fire in every restaurant he’s opened but one, and that was only because he couldn’t get the permitting approved.

  • Form + Function: Sushi Bars

    Sushi restaurants are deviating from the script. Designers are adding flair, modernity, color, and the unexpected.

  • A Look at Airport Restaurants

    Airline travel is booming, which means a lot of eyeballs on brands within airports and lots of hungry passengers to tempt.

  • 2024 Award Winners

    Let’s take a moment and celebrate these fabulous, functional designs judged to be among the best of the best in rd+d’s annual contest.

  • Form + Function: Finishing Touches

    In an Instagram world where a few posts can catapult a restaurant’s popularity, restaurateurs worry about far more than food and service.

  • Form + Function: Coffee Bars

    Coffee is hot, even though it is sometimes served on ice. Over the past few decades, the explosion of coffee culture in the U.S. sparked rapid growth of coffee-centric outlets from local mom-and-pop establishments to multinational chains.

  • Flexible Kitchen Design

    Rapidly changing consumer tastes put pressure on restaurants to update menus frequently.

  • Form + Function: High-Volume Restaurants

    Dining establishments serving thousands a day must design and plan for maximum efficiency or risk service meltdowns that annoy customers and could lead to social media posts that harm their brands.

  • Form + Function: Outdoor Dining

    With pandemic fears receding, it turns out that patrons still love al fresco dining.

  • Form + Function: Buffet Service

    With the COVID pandemic retreating, people are more comfortable returning to normal activity, including venturing to restaurants — even in packed indoor settings. This includes indulging in buffets. 

  • Form + Function: Wayfinding

     

    For best results, it’s important that wayfinding elements clearly support their intended purpose and are in sync with your branding.

  • Form + Function: Seating

    You can tell a lot about a restaurant by observing the seating.

  • Form + Function: Juice & Smoothie Bars

    Two-and-a-half decades after the juice bar chain Juice It Up! launched, managers concluded that the store design urgently needed a reboot.

  • The New Fundamentals of Space Management

    Mandated dining room closures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic left many restaurant operators grappling with how to best utilize their space for an unexpected shift to off-premises dining.

  • Self-Service in the Pandemic’s Wake

    When the COVID-19 pandemic effectively forced a nearly nationwide shutdown of in-person dining in 2020, establishments like Pizza Inn had an existential crisis.

  • Form + Function: Expo Stations

    Like most restaurateurs during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lisabet Summa, co-owner of Big Time Restaurant Group, had to adapt expediting stations to make order fulfilment as efficient as possible.

  • Drive-Thrus Trends

    The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in drive-thru and curbside pickup, and QSRs were well-positioned to take the lead. As demand for drive-thru service spiked, car queues and wait times lengthened. As a result, many chains scrambled to find ways to make drive-thrus more efficient.

  • Private Dining

    Creating welcoming, attractive private dining spaces is essential to the business plan for many restaurateurs.

  • Form + Function: Makelines

    Makelines foster interaction between guests and staff, offering high customization, and using fresh, visually attractive fruits, vegetables and other fare to convey a healthy food vibe.

  • A/V Equipment Considerations

    For many customers, sights and sounds are important parts of a restaurant visit. Whether it’s background music, a lively pop soundtrack, TVs showing a big sporting event or a DJ laying down beats, audiovisual elements help define an establishment and can be integral to the customer experience.

  • Form + Function: Designing Restaurant Entryways

    You only get one chance to make a first impression. Typically, a patron’s first take of a restaurant centers on the entry area, both inside and outside. The entrance’s design from signage to door to hostess station gives signals about the type of food, ambience and service the establishment provides.

  • Form + Function: Wall Coverings in Restaurant Design

    Wall coverings are one of the keys to realizing the design vision. They can serve as backdrops that frame a space, provide wayfinding cues or, in the case of a feature wall or mural, make a bold statement.

  • Form + Function: Getting Graphics Right

    Of all the tools available to designers to create a distinctive appearance, none may be more powerful than graphics. Logos, posters, menu boards, photographs, wallpaper, and printed words provide a wealth of possibilities to establish a unique atmosphere, attract the attention of customers, and influence them to make purchases.

  • Form + Function: Open Kitchens in Restaurant Design

    An “open kitchen” is an imprecise term encompassing many types of designs. Depending on who you ask, an open kitchen can range from providing a view to the back of the house through a large counter-height window to positioning cooking stations next to dining tables so that customers can freely interact with chefs.

  • Form + Function: Bar Design

    Form and function are intertwined within a bar; one cannot exist without the other, but they can often be at odds,” says Alex Day, co-owner of Death & Co. 

  • Form + Function: Outdoor Dining

    The arrival of spring may bring daffodils and gentle breezes, but it also signals the arrival of restaurant patrons who want to sit outside.
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