What to consider when opening a restaurant

Question: What factors do I need to consider when opening a restaurant?

Answer: Furniture supplier Inside Out Contracts

Finance, Venue, Licenses including music licenses, planning permission, designer or architect, disabled access, fire safety, staffing, suppliers…

In the inevitable furore that accompanies trying to organise all of these factors it is quite often that considerations (and budget !) for furniture gets left until the very last minute.

Inside Out Contracts are quite used to receiving phone calls from Restaurateurs requesting furniture for their entire restaurant 'next week'. It's a deadline we always try to meet, but the choice is usually severely limited, and the decision as to which furniture to use made under stressful circumstances and often hurried.

As soon as you have a set of architects plans, Inside Outs' in-house design team can produce a space plan of the venue, advising immediately on the quantity of furniture required and a rough budget figure.

Subsequently a perusal of the brochures accompanied by a phone call or two to source samples cards and swatches enables measured decisions about the colour scheme and overall aesthetic of the venue to be decided. Further decisions can be made easier by visits to furniture showrooms to try out the myriad of different chairs and tables on the market.

So what type of factors should you be considering?

Well, the venue could be split into various areas, reflecting different menus (such as a bar menu and restaurant menu) or the necessity for an out door area or lounge area.

Different furniture styles are a perfect way to delineate different regions of your venue, with a common fabric or wood finish used throughout to ensure an overall cohesive appearance.

Banquette, booth or fixed seating is also a great way to 'soften' regions of a restaurant. If one of four blank walls has a series of comfy looking booths, the room can be transformed from a 'classroom' into an inviting dining area. Similarly, a well considered lounge area can allow customers to wait for tables without feeling like a delivery driver waiting for a signature!!

Tablecloths? Despite being a strict 'silver service' restaurant it's no longer essential to use tablecloths. A smart realwood laminate tabletop in a tropical hardwood (from sustainable sources of course) with a silver trim such as the Silverline from Inside Out Contracts Ltd can be used, and save you a small fortune in laundry costs.

Tablebases? Not the most visible piece of furniture, so compromises are often made. But be warned this can be a mistake. Large legs or high legs on bases can intrude into the diner's foot space causing discomfort. Stability is often an issue with cheaper tablebases. A good tablebase will usually be heavy! Cast-iron has been popular for centuries with good reason. they last !! An attractive alternative is a cast iron base with a stainless steel cover plate such as Inside Outs 'Ice Cube' base.

Chairs? This is where a good quality contract furniture supplier will come into their own. It is said that more people have designed a chair than any other item on the planet, so there are thousands and thousands of models to choose from. There are so many factors to consider that professional advice is a good idea.

Timber framed chairs with a 'clean' uncluttered design and a dark stain are popular, often twinned with a contrasting shade of faux suede. You may be pleasantly surprised by the attractive vinyls ) and faux leathers now available, so different to many peoples perception of vinyl (rooted firmly in the 'high gloss 70's. All of the fabrics supplied by Inside Out Contracts are stain resistant and hardwearing, and obviously Crib 5 compliant.

Fabric technology is improving rapidly with the main fabric producers bringing out new ranges and types of fabric regularly. A good contract furniture supplier will work closely with their suppliers to provide the latest designs, and fabric types. Recently, patterned and textured fabrics are becoming popular for people looking to explore outside the prevalent minimal aesthetic. As a direct response to this exciting new approach to restaurant furniture design, Inside Out are launching their new 'Decadent Dining' range of furniture, which harks back to the more opulent designs of the past, using modern materials and finishes.

Beware of  'the absolute cheapest chairs on the market' (£25 for an upholstered timber framed chair anyone) as the adage 'you get what you pay for' could have been written for contract furniture.

If a chair is being supplied at those prices ask yourself 'where is the wood sourced ?', 'how poor quality is the wood and build quality', 'where is the furniture being manufactured ?' and finally, and maybe most importantly 'how long will it last?' and 'what does it say about my restaurant?'. As Restaurants' own customers are becoming more design conscious cheap furniture will create the wrong first impression.

You can source a good quality attractive and hard wearing chair for a reasonable price which will last for years, as your restaurant goes from strength to strength.

One final note, which needs reiterating but which should be obvious to you by now. Don't buy your contract furniture from a retail outlet, if for no other reason than that it will almost certainly cost you more money (for the same model of chair) and none of the furniture will be guaranteed in a contract environment.

www.insideoutcontracts.com