Restaurant Furniture Layout: Avoid the Clobber Effect

Ever eat at a restaurant where every time someone wanted to get to a nearby table or leave the place, you had to interrupt your meal and get up or move your chair? Or you got clobbered in the head by someone’s shoulderbag or a waiter’s tray because there’s simply not enough space to navigate between tables?

Too many restaurants crowd their furniture for all the wrong reasons—poor space planning, too eager to fit in extra tables, bad traffic patterns, restaurant chairs and tables that are scaled all wrong for the space they occupy.

Planning or re-doing your restaurant dining area? Make sure you pay attention to a few very important details. Consider your traffic pattern. Not only do your customers need to get around, but also your bus staff and waitpersons. Sure, you’ve provided comfortable chairs, stools, and tables to fit the mood and your customer base, but now where do you put them? The more elegant the venue, the more space you may need to provide. Folks spending a lot on a meal are not as likely to put up with being jostled and interrupted all the time. Do you need to be flexible—like moving a few tables together to accommodate large parties? Keep that in mind, and make sure you select table bases that facilitate doing so, to avoid having people bang their legs into table legs.