Understanding what you want is the first step towards designing your first restaurant. I can’t stress how important this is. Once in a while, I have had clients that come up to me that have no idea what they want to do. For instance, I once had a client that wanted to have a restaurant that had pizza, burgers, crepes, ice-cream & many other food items that didn’t necessarily go with one another. Additionally, the client wasn’t aware that every food item that he wanted to serve in his first restaurant will need it’s own special kitchen setup & equipment.

Once you have really dialed down on what you really want for your first restaurant, you then need to have a chat with your head chef. The head chef should tell you the kind of kitchen that your restaurant needs.

The Kitchen

Below is a list some of the most important points that you and your head chef should talk about :

• The size of the kitchen space
• Open or Closed kitchen? Or Both?
• The types of food that will be served
• A list of appropriate kitchen items that will be needed to store and cook the food. Here are some tips for you:
  • Have one reliable company that will supply most of your equipment for your restaurant’s kitchen
  • Be wary of your budget
  • Talk to a specialized restaurant consultant to have a second opinion when it comes to the list of your needed kitchen items in addition to making sure that you are getting a fair quote from the kitchen supplier.
• A chimney or a specialized exhaust fan to vent out certain food aromas.
  • Note: There are times however when it’s appropriate to let the smell of the food to seep into the dining room especially when it’s coming from a grill or a pizza oven.

The points above highlight some of the nitty-gritty details when it comes to your restaurant’s kitchen. These details will form a basis when it comes to really knowing the amount of space that’s needed for your kitchen. Therefore, you should have a clear idea of the spatial distribution of your kitchen as well as your dining. Ideally, you would want the design of the kitchen to be finalized before you even think about the look of your restaurant.

Once the kitchen set up in terms of planning and design have been finalized, you then need to decide on your restaurant’s brand identity.

The Brand Identity

I can’t stress how important this is because your restaurant’s brand identity will act as a foundation to your restaurant’s design. At the very minimum, you need to decide on the color schemes of your restaurant. You can check out this link here https://www.canva.com/create/mood-boards/ to help you decide on a particular style for your first restaurant through the use of a mood board. At the very least the link will help you to decide on a particular style that you want to go for so that the design of the restaurant can stay consistent with the brand colors. For example, let’s say based on your restaurant’s brand identity, the signage of your restaurant should be pink. Therefore, the interior decor of your restaurant should stay consistent with pink signage and not have a red or orange interior decor for instance.                

The points above include some of the most basic but important aspects when it comes to planning and designing your first restaurant in order to point you in the right direction.