7.5: Spatial Aspects of Restaurant

There are two major considerations in deciding on an appropriate amount of space for a foodservice facility, which should be constant guides for decision-making:

• The exact purpose and use of the space.
• The cost of building and/or renting the space.

Upon surveying customers, Restaurants and Institutions found that most customers would prefer bigger dining areas so they would not have to wait for a table, or more restroom stalls so they would not have to wait there, either.

Where to start?

Decide what your end product will be: (1) the quantities of food you will turn out, (2) the number of meals, sizes of portions, amount of seat turnover, and type of service, (3) and to a lesser degree, the surroundings – kitchen and dining area – what do you have to work with?

Decide on your method of food preparation. Why is this important? You have to decide on which pieces of equipment your space must accommodate. Rule of thumb: 30% of the kitchen space goes to equipment.

• Equipment takes up a lot of space – you need to know (1) how many pieces will meet your volume needs as well as (2) what times of day each piece will be in service.
• Consider other space needs such as storage, serving areas, and general utility space available.
• For each piece of equipment you think is needed, draw a rough sketch of the work center (where a group of closely related tasks are done) where it will sit.

When it comes to space planning, it is not as simple as deciding on the number of guests you will serve and making certain there is enough room for them. Space planning initiates in examining all parts of the foodservice facility, including beyond the front and the back of the house. As such, the allocation of space begins with the 'customers view' from the front of the restaurant to the working space they do not see beyond the dining area, the space that must facilitates the food and service delivery and accomplish the goal of the operation in terms of guest expectation, cost control, and efficiency.

Exterior of the facility

This area included the parking lot, any public area that surrounds the business, patio seating, and sidewalk tables. The exterior of the facility is where initial customer experience impressions form. Restaurants located in malls or large office buildings will typically have to account for food-court-style seating will generally have to account for any seating or public area surrounding the facility.

Front of the house interior

This area includes the entryway into the facility, the dining area, wait stations, beverage service area, and restrooms. The customers' comfort should be very high on your list of space-priorities.

Back of the house interior

This space includes the hot-food preparation area, the cold-food preparation area, a serving and plating area, a bakery if one is included, and ware-washing area(s).

Kitchen auxiliary space

This space includes the receiving area, dry storage area(s), cold (refrigerated) storage, freezer, employee staging or break room, and office space.

American Disabilities Act

All spacing configurations and elevations must accommodate those patrons with disabilities. The act generally concerns, but is not limited to, the facility's entrance and exit areas and walkways, restroom accommodations, and aisle spacing for patrons with disabilities.

Planning Public Spaces

It is important to follow the thought process of the potential guest as they approach a restaurant. Many of the reasons for choosing a particular place may be spur of the moment but they require some serious judgments on the part of the potential guest. They are hungry - but they do not want to drive too far. These judgments might include:

Convenient location

Many of a restaurant's potential clientele prefer to dine close to work or home. The typical driving range is two to three miles in distance.

Outside signage

The restaurant's sign clearly indicates the type of cuisine the restaurant offers. The diner loves this type of food. An additional lunch special sign indicates a bargain or sale price. This form of outdoor signage also speaks to the customers’ spending ability. Customer friendly includes pricing among other things.

Parking

An empty space right up front; on the convenient side of the street; does not look too crowded – maybe this diner is looking for a quick meal. Lunch diners seldom want to spend time searching for a parking place. Carryout parking is becoming quite popular and answers the parking need.

Architecture

Resembles other types of restaurants that the diner already like; the building and grounds look clean and inviting. This must be a good place – I think we will try them! The facility must look inviting but not raise the ‘affordability’ issue for the customer.

The Importance of a First Impression

Both quick service and table-service chain restaurants rely heavily on exterior appearance as marketing tools. McDonald's golden arches provide instant recognition. Casual restaurants like Macaroni-grill and T.G.I. Friday's, although not all alike, have similar exteriors that make it impossible to confuse them with other chain operations.

For an independent restaurant, it is important to state that it is often difficult to inherit a once well-known location and mask its former identity without costly reconstruction. Simply repainting the distinctive, pointed roof of an International House of Pancakes, for example, and opening a Chinese restaurant there is probably not a wise decision.

The diner approaches the front door. Remember, he or she already has plenty of impressions from what they have seen in the parking lot, the other customers’ cars, the front signage, the landscaping, and whether the lot is clean or littered. The diner has not decided to eat here- just still checking it out. The next thing encountered is the door itself. Is it heavy wood with beveled glass insets? Clean, clear glass? A sleek colorful laminate? Even the doorknob or handle is a key to what awaits inside. Whatever the case, the door should be easy to open. Now the customer enters the restaurant. You should think through your customers' movements as design considerations.

Parking Areas

Consider the question of sufficient parking very early in the planning process for three critical reasons:

• Whether your operation is a freestanding restaurant or in the middle of a strip mall, ease of entry, exit, and of the greatest importance, availability are critical issues that can make or break a restaurant.
• The parking area may be both the first, and last, impression the guest has of your operation.
• Safety is a critical concern with many restaurant patrons. IF they do not feel safe in leaving their vehicles - they will frequent a competitor who provides a safe parking environment.

There are generally city laws that dictate public parking requirements. In most cases, local ordinances clearly indicate the space needs for restaurant parking. For freestanding buildings, the widely accepted standard is the need for one parking space for every 100 square feet of space covered by roof. This included patio dining covered by permanent awnings, for example, but excluded umbrellas used. The space 'under roof' includes all space: hallways, closets, kitchens, bathrooms, dining rooms, and so on. Thus, if you have a total of say 3000 square feet of space under a roof, you would need 30 parking spaces.

Cities generally spell out how much space to allocate per car. Most ordinances specify a single parking space must measure 7.5 to 10 feet in width, and 16 to 18 feet in length. The shorter dimensions are for compact cars, and a parking lot may generally allocate up to 35 percent of its space for compacts. Roughly, this means that you need a space 40 feet wide to park a car at a 90-degree angle to the building and to provide a traffic lane; you need slightly less space if the car is park at an angle. Because parking requirements are quite technical, consult your city zoning authorities to be sure there is adequate space for parking.

If there is not adequate parking space on the property, other options do exist. Most cities allow off-premise parking, but only with a signed parking agreement with owners of space adjacent to the restaurant. Valet parking is another option if the valet lot is located near the restaurant. If you are located in a historic district or a busy downtown area, there are often different, less stringent standards that require fewer spaces - as few as one parking space per 2000 square feet under roof.

The appearance of the parking lot should be consistent with the image you wish to create. The parking area may also serve as a buffer between your business and the neighbors. It is important to keep parking lots free of litter, and someone on your staff should be in charge of checking it on a daily basis. Large cities like businesses to landscape parking areas to reduce the heat that radiates from large, flat stretches of cement and asphalt.

A parking lot should also convey a sense of safety, keeping criminals out as it draws customers in. From a legal perspective, good security lighting is a positive attempt on the part of a business to provide a safe environment.

• Lighting in the lot should provide a specific intensity throughout the lot.
• The lighting should also provide good visibility (with minimal glare) for customers and employees
• The first two goals should be accomplished without annoying the neighbors

When making lighting decisions for exterior areas such as parking lots and garages, operators often find themselves dealing with two competing forces: local energy-use codes and the recommended lighting levels from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA). Occasionally the two sets of recommendations differ significantly. There is, however, general agreement that, because of their light color temperature and a superior color rendition index, metal halide fixtures are the preferred sources of parking lot illumination. Efficiency is measureable on a Color Rendering Index (CRI) a measurement of how a light source makes the colors of objects appear to the eye. High-pressure sodium lamps have a CRI of 25, while metal halides have a CRI of 65 - 85.

Possibly the biggest challenge in lighting a parking area is the corridors created by the parked cars. To minimize these corridors, experts recommend locating illumination from at least two, and preferably four, light poles that are at least 20 feet tall. The optimum light level for an open parking lot is 3 or 4 foot-candles. To gain an idea of how much light that is, a supermarket parking lots average 3.5 to 5 foot candles of light. For the entrances and exits, the lanes within the lot, and any loading zones, the illumination level should be twice the level of either the lot itself or the adjacent street, whichever is greater.

While everyone wants a well-lit parking facility, too much lighting creates another problem. The intensely illuminated parking lots of quick service restaurants’ and the like have prompted some nasty neighborhood battles. Too much light, although meant to create a safe environment, may actually result in a hazard as drivers' eyes adjust from nighttime conditions to the intense glare. These are sufficient reasons to get bids from outdoor lighting specialists to handle the task correctly.

There is one final point regarding how to utilize a parking facility. Depending on your service style and clientele, one of today's parking tends is to reserve (and specially mark) several close-in spaces for specialty use such as to-go pickups, senior citizens, and for guests with small children.

For entrances and exits, the lanes within the lot, and any loading zones, the illumination level should be twice the level of either the lot itself or the adjacent street – whichever is greater.

The Restaurant Entrance

With reference to the positive psychological impact of a pleasant environment, design the entryway to show potential guests exactly what to expect when they arrive. Keep in mind that not everyone who enters the space has already committed to eating there, so the entryway is where the customers will decide whether they are comfortable enough to stay. If your concept includes a lively bar, or an open kitchen, make sure it is visible from the waiting area or the host/hostess station. Offer a view of some of the dining tables too, and seal those tables first so the restaurant looks busy.

Although some restaurants have eliminated reception areas and waiting rooms as a way to same space and money, others use them for a variety of purposes.

• Free local publications
• Cash register and/or host/hostess stand
• In quick-service restaurants, the front counter is here
• Menus and daily specials are displayed here
• Waiting diners sit or stand here
• Wines or prepared desserts are displayed here
• Raw foods and/or prepared items are displayed, perhaps in glass cases
• If a waiting or serving line is the norm, make it very clear where this line begins and ends, with signs, railings, and partitions.

Whether the entrance is the prelude to an elegant dining experience or the start of a fast-food line, the waiting area should be very clean, properly lit, and temperature-controlled for the guests' comfort - and there are the diners waiting (sometimes impatiently) for a table. They say they want the "best table in the house." Then again, is that not what every diner wants?

Entrance space

The space allocated to an entryway is a function of the type of restaurant and the owner's overall feeling about the need for this space. For fast food, the entrance space is large for guests lining up, placing and paying for orders, and picking up food. On the other hand, table service restaurants have entryways that vary widely. All reflect the concept of the facility and provide a small waiting area for overflow crowds. For a casual dining restaurant allow 3 square feet for each dining room seat, and scale upscale restaurant entranceways to provide 5 to 6 square feet per seat.

• Take out space. Design a restaurant's take out space to keep customers moving and busy. Customers should order, pay, wait a bit, and they receive their food and leave.
• Speed. The faster you service "in" and "out" customers the better. Drive thru service is now the norm to the majority and requires a different design altogether.
• Space. How many people will be lining up at one time? Do you have room for two ordering, payment, and pickup stations for busy times? What can you do to guide people into lines?
• Menu. Offer only those items on a "to-go" menu that can be easily packaged and transported. Consider ways the guest can help themselves, such as soft drink and condiment selection, or reach-in refrigerators of pre-wrapped salads and desserts.

Dining Area

In terms of basic environmental psychology, most people would rather sit with some type of architectural fixture on at least one side of them - a wall or window or column - which helps them to define the space. Another design rule is to mix tables of different shapes and sizes to create visual harmony. How ‘close’ is ‘too close’ when determining table positions? The following tables provides spacing guidelines by restaurant segment.

The quick service restaurant does a large portion of it business via carry out orders. Thus guests ordering space is important. Diners typically do not linger in the facility for long periods thus; the space for ding is generally smaller than a casual restaurant.

During a normal visit to a restaurant, customers spend 25 percent of the time waiting. They wait to order, they wait for food to arrive, and so forth. They do not feel comfortable if the space is too crowded, and customers are equally uncomfortable if the space is too empty. In addition to the customers' need for space, for the purpose of safety, provide a 3 feet corridor for travel and access to fire exits. In larger spaces, separate your dining areas into smaller spaces (or spaces that appear smaller when things are slow).

Quick Service Restaurant Dining Spacing
(Space Range 10 - 12 square feet (.93 - 1.12 square meters)

Number of Seats	Space per Seat 10sq. ft. (square feet/meters)	Space per Seat 12 sq. ft. (square feet/meters)
Under 50	100 (9.3)	600 (55.8)
50 - 100	1000 (92.9)	1200 (111.5)
100 -150	1500 (139.4)	1800 (167.3)
150 - 200	2000 (185.9)	2400 (223.1)
201 - 250	2500 (371.8)	3000 (278.8)
251 - 300	3000 (278.8)	3600 (334.6)

**All figures assume the highest number within the range.

Casual restaurants are generally a step up from the quick service restaurants with the addition of table service and other amenities. Because the diners expect to enjoy their meal within the facility, there is more space in the dining room area of the restaurant. The various casual restaurant concepts consider themselves a cut above quick service and a viable alternative to the more expensive luxury operations.

Casual Restaurant Dining Room Spacing
(Space Range 13 -15 square feet ((1.21 - 1.39 square meters)

Number of Seats	Space per Seat 13 sq. ft. (square feet/meters)	Space per Seat 15 sq. ft. (square feet/meters)
Under 50	650 (60.8)	750 (69.7)
50 - 100	1300 (120.8)	1500 (139.4)
100 -150	1950 (181.2)	2250 (209.1)
150 - 200	2600 (241.6)	3000 (278.8)
201 - 250	3250 (302.04)	3750 (348.5)
251 - 300	3900 (362.5)	4500 (418.2)

Restaurateurs like to think that every seat is the 'best' of course. When designing the dining area, a well-planned scheme carefully shapes the customers' perception with these components.

• Table shapes, sizes, and positions
• The number of seats at each table
• Multiple floors plans, steps, elevated areas of seating
• Paintings, posters, murals
• Type and intensity of lighting
• Planters, partitions, or screens
• Attention to sight lines, to block any undesirable view (restroom, kitchen, service way)
• Muffling distracting noises (clattering dishes, outside traffic, or construction)
• Placement of service areas (coffee stations, dirty dish bins, and so forth)

Each of the preceding considerations plays a role in creating the flow pattern of the restaurant, the process of delivering food and beverages to customers. These are the logistics, the methods and routes used to transfer items from the kitchen, to the dining tables, and finally to the dishwasher. How well can the waiters manage full trays of food? What is the distance from the kitchen to the dining room? Where are the guest checks prepared for delivery to tables, and where do customers pay for the food?

The dimensions of a luxury dining room are more spacious than a casual dining operation allowing guests more space, greater privacy, and more aisle space for service personnel and guests alike.

Luxury Restaurant Dining Room Spacing
(Space Range 16 -20 square feet ((1.49 - 1.86 square meters)

Number of Seats	Space per Seat 16 sq. ft. (square feet/meters)	Space per Seat 20 sq. ft. (square feet/meters)
Under 50	800 (74.4)	1000 (92.9)
50 - 100	1600 (148.7)	2000 (185.9)
100 - 150	2400 (223.1)	3000 (278.8)
150 - 200	3200 (297.4)	4000 (371.8)
201 - 250	4000 (371.8)	5000 (464.7)
251 - 300	4800 (446.1)	6000 (557.6)

**All figures assume the highest number within the range.

In a “see and be seen” restaurant, the best spots will be quite different from those in a small, romantic bistro or a busy family-friendly café.

1. Assign the “best” or most convenient area to tables and chairs. “Best” means different things in different settings: Proximity to the parking lot, the best views, the least noise, the most foot traffic
2. People usually eat at mealtimes.
3. Most restaurants are busy only 20 to 25% of the hours they are open.
4. Provide ample aisle space and a comfortable number of square feet per guest so, no matter how crowded it gets, you do not want to annoy guests by bumping into them or forcing them to bump into each other.
5. In planning your seating area, be aware that your guest have some predetermined dining-out habits that influence the efficiency of various table sizes and groupings.
6. Especially at lunch, half of your customers will arrive as twosomes, another 30% will be singles or parties of three, and the remaining 20% will be parties of 4 or more.
7. Make adequate provisions in your layout so a waiting line will not interfere with other guests or the wait staff. Also, make plans to control the waiting line, so customers cannot ignore it and wander into the dining area to seat themselves at a table that cleared of dirty dishes and properly cleaned.

Does anyone have to move up or down stairs? How hard is it for customers to negotiate a path to their table during a busy meal periods? Is the host seating guests, or functioning more as a traffic director? Remember the following basic space recommendations by restaurant segment to address space and service concerns:

• Luxury or table service - 15 to 20 square feet per guest
• Coffee shops and casual dining – 12 to 17 square feet per guest
• Cafeterias – 10 to 12 square feet per guest
• Counter service – 18 to 26 inches per stool

Even though other facets of design can be out of the ordinary, when it comes to flow patterns, the simpler the better. Customer and employee safety should be a top concern. Remember that most of us tend to walk to the right of other oncoming people. Think of the room as a neighborhood and the flow as the major streets in that neighborhood. If you avoid traffic congestion, everyone will like living there. Consider the maximum number of seats allowed in the space as well as the average time you want customers to spend at a table. Generally speaking, the faster the turnover, the greater the need for clear flow patterns that do not cross. Conversely, if dining is to be leisurely, design the flow to make the wait staff seem as unobtrusive as possible.

Turnover

When determining the amount of seats to have, consider the seat turnover, or seat turn, which is the number of times customers’ occupy a seat during a mealtime. The amount of turnover depends on the restaurants’ type of menu, atmosphere, and even the availability and type of alcoholic beverages you will serve. The menu must lend itself to quick preparation. With regard to atmosphere, you want the customer to relax but not sit for hours. Many European large city restaurants will specify the amount of time for your reservation. “Yes Mr. Jones, we have your reservation set from 7:30pm until 9:00pm and we look forward to seeing you then.” They, of course, will not ask you to leave, but now you understand how long the meal period should be.

A more practical approach to turning the table occurs with good service. As the appetizer is finished, the entrée arrives at the table. When the entrée is finished, the dessert arrives when the dinner plate leaves, and dessert is generally accompanied by the check unless after-dinner drinks are on order. In short, the restaurant sets the pace.

Slower Periods

Most of the planning goes into handling crowds, but in larger spaces, you might want to consider how to separate your dining area into smaller spaces (or spaces that appear smaller) when things are slow. A good guideline is to allow 15 square feet per seat. This figure includes aisles and wait stations – but not entryways and restrooms.

Seating and Tables

The successful layout of a dining area includes balancing multiple components: safety of guests, and employees, efficiency of service, aesthetics, and financial implications. The typical first thought of the operator would place the cost per square foot, and the potential revenue generated by each seat as the dominant considerations. In general, lower check averages require a greater density of seating, and higher check averages can translate into few seats, greater guest comfort, and slower turnover. However, the goal is not to fill an empty space with as many seats as possible. The true goal is to achieve balance between customer comfort and bottom-line profit, in a style that best suits the restaurant's concept and image. Create seating options for your guests, and give them a choice regarding seating preference.

Popular types of seating include chairs, stools, booths, and banquettes. Booths offer a certain feeling of privacy or intimacy, but tables and chairs are more adaptable since they can move around as needed. A banquette is an upholstered couch fixed to the wall, with a table placed in front of it. Banquettes are a hybrid of booth and table - more adaptable than a booth, but they still must hug a wall. Banquettes are fashionable, can be upholstered in any number of stylish fabrics, and maximize seating by filling up corners and allowing more guests to be seated than would fit at individual tables and chairs. Bar stools used for bars or at taller cocktail-style tables, are the most casual seating option.

Another important consideration when considering tables and seating for a restaurant involve financial implications. Can the restaurant be full with no available customer seating when, in fact, many of the seats in the dining area are empty? The answer is unfortunately 'yes.' Restaurateurs often fail to consider how guests arrive at the restaurant. The follow figures are restaurant industry averages of guest arrivals.

• 40 to 50% of all table-service restaurant customers arrive in pairs
• 30% of the customers come alone or in parties of 3
• 20% of the customers arrive in groups of 4 or more

When one considers such arrival patterns, the need to consider 'who' your customers are and how they will arrive at your facility becomes important not only in terms of dining area and table placement, but equally in terms of the number of customers a table can accommodate. From the data on ‘customer arrival’ it would be clear that most restaurants should provide an equal balance of two-top and 4- top tables, and appropriately configured booths or banquette areas to allow as many customers into the dining area at any given time. Operators must remember that customers typically patronize restaurants during lunch.

Banquet Space

To calculate banquet seating with standard rectangular tables, divide the square footage of the room by 8 to find out how many seats the area will accommodate. For example, a 500 square foot area will seat 62 to 63 people. When using round tables, divide by 10. You may decide it prudent to have an adjacent ‘finishing’ kitchen to the banquet dining area to ease the stress on your main kitchen. Banquets will generally occur when your restaurant patrons are dining.

Service Area

Small wait station (20 to 30 inches square or rectangle, for every 20 to 30 seats. Large wait station (8 to 10 feet long and 24 to 30 inches wide) for every 50 to 75 seats. One of the prime considerations for this space entails the type of service you intend to offer, as well as the kitchen functions such as plating dessert, drink service, or other functions of the wait staff that may require electricity or refrigeration, or simply tray space.

• The need for a large wait station depends mostly on how far away it is from the kitchen and food pickup area.
• Placement of wait stations also depends on the availability of utilities, since they need electricity and water

Service Space For Basic Table Service- Limited Menu

Number of Seats	Meals per Day	Service Area Square Feet Square Feet (Meters)
Under 50	300	75 (6.9)
50 - 100	500	100 (9.3)
100 - 175	750	140 (12.9)
176 - 250	1,000	160 (14.7)
251 - 500	1,600	175 (16.1)
More than 500	2,400	200 (18.4)

**Included pass-through window

Beverage and General Areas

The space allocated to the bar depends on the importance of beverage sales to the total restaurant income.

• A single bar may serve both the dining area and a separate bar or lounge.
• Separate bars – one for dining and one with lounge seating.
• A full-fledged lounge with tables and chairs will take up a little less than 5% of the total restaurant square footage. Each seat will require 10 square feet of lounge space. Another consideration is the service of food. An additional amount of space and table sizes may be required to extend the bar into potential restaurant seating. It is also a good idea to provide an external entrance away from the dining room for bars of this nature. Remember that keeping the bar separate from the dining room maintains the ambience of both, but dong so in a way that allows the ‘see and be seen’ factor to exist is generally a wise idea to incorporate.

Restrooms

From the customers' perspective, a clean restroom consists of clean toilets, no stick floors, a clean area around the toilet, and no trash. Although customers do not spend more than a few minutes in the restroom, this short amount of time impacts the rest of their dining experience - after all, a clean restroom means a clean kitchen as the saying goes. Your guests’ expectations are simple: cleanliness, privacy, and comfort. You should pay attention to restroom decor in a similar way as the dining area. You can utilize plants or attractive wallpaper or artwork, or music reflecting your theme. Temperature control and lighting are critical as well. Select warm incandescent lighting or color-corrected fluorescents that are bright without being too harsh.

The restaurant operator should pay attention to amenities such as exhaust fans when the toilets are occupied, soap and handwashing and drying materials, diaper-changing areas in family establishments with wipes, and so forth. These extra touches go a long way in establishing your position in the minds of consumers. Attention to details normally transfer to all areas of the operation from the consumer perspective.

The size of the restroom will depend on the seating capacity of the restaurant. Some experts feel that they should be located near the entrance so that guests can freshen up before dining. Others think they should be nestled discreetly at the back of the dining area. This is a judgment call on the part of the restaurant operator. Situating restrooms in both locations is always an option. The location of restrooms directly relates to the location of plumbing lines, and these are generally located near the bar and/or the kitchen.

Restroom Facilities

Fixture	Male Guests	Female Guests
Toliet	1 for every 100	2 for every 100
Urinal	1 for every 25
Wash basin	1 for every toilet or 1 for every 5 urinals	1 for every toilet

In the western United States, most local or state codes follow the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC); in the eastern United States, they are more likely to follow the International Plumbing Code (IPC). You can find a current list of codes adopted by the various states on the Web site of the American Restroom Association (www.americanrestroom.org). The following table is a guideline for the number of restroom facilities needed per guest.

Two additional legal requirements govern restroom space. One is that, in most cities, places that serve alcoholic beverages must provide separate restroom facilities for men and women; typically, there is generally no allowance for unisex toilets where alcohol sales exceed 30 percent of total sales. The other, which is the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, which mandates accessibility measures and space requirements to accommodate guests with physical limitations.

Two additional legal requirements govern restroom space. One is that, in most cities, places that serve alcoholic beverages must provide separate restroom facilities for men and women; typically, there is generally no allowance for unisex toilets where alcohol sales exceed 30 percent of total sales. The other, which is the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, which mandates accessibility measures and space requirements to accommodate guests with physical limitations.

Storage Space

Depending on the amount of space available at a prime location, space available for dry and refrigeration storage can be a vital issue for consideration from the beginning. The next table deals with dry storage space allocation. For refrigeration, consider the menu, case sizes and items to be stored to arrive at a proper storage size.

Dry Storage Space Requirements

Type of Operation	Space in Square Feet (square meters)
Fast Food	50-125 (4.65-11.63)
Small Restaurant (75 seats)	100-150 (9.30-13.95)
Medium Restaurant (75-150 seats)	200-300 (18.60-27.90)
Large Restaurant (150-400 seats)	400-1000 (37.20-93.00)

Storage may have to occur on another floor or even at a different location if the prime location cost do not feasibly justify space usage in a way that does not contribute to bottom line profits. With regard to regard to coolers and freezers, one of the first steps involves your suppliers. How often will they deliver product to you? If the delivery schedule is once a week, then you must allow suitable space for product on hand for that period. However, if your suppliers deliver daily, or twice weekly, then you can reduce the amount of space allocated for storage because replenishment can occur at a faster rate.