Monday, December 15, 2008
Bigger better?: Size of restaurant
In relation to human scale, are smaller sized restaurants more comfortable for patrons, or are larger restaurants that can accommodate more customers more successful businesses?
Chili’s and Training Table are both housed in their own building and both restaurants are fairly large in size. Paradise Bakery is part of a larger strip mall, and is smaller than the other two restaurants we studied. Interestingly, all three restaurants had about the same amount of tables and chairs, and all three could accommodate about the same number of customers. The seating area in Paradise Bakery was much more crowded, with each of the tables sitting very close to another. Chili’s and Training Table had mostly booth seating, and the overall size and layout of the space were much more predetermined. Based on observing traces in all three of the restaurants, the tables and chairs in Paradise Bakery were moved around much more than in the other two restaurants. This maneuverability allowed patrons of the Bakery to customize their seating arrangement, and made the relatively small space feel a lot larger.
Therefore:
The overall size of a restaurant does not determine how successful it will be. Smaller restaurants, however, would probably not be as successful with a fixed seating arrangement, and larger restaurants would become too chaotic if there was not some predetermined order to its interior spatial arrangement.
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