Amid rising food costs and stagnant consumer spend in restaurants, restaurateurs need to look beyond pricing increases to optimize profitability. Design and development provide a toolkit for not only managing costs but helping venues be more resilient in the face of labor shortages. Back-of-house (BOH) design is a powerful engine for transforming restaurant operations in ways that impact both bottom-line costs and topline revenue. Working in both hotel restaurants and freestanding venues, we see operators across the board trying to balance excellence in the guest experience with cost increases that affect everything from the size of BOH itself to equipment choices and waste management. Here are some best practices: Design For Tech to Come Restaurant tech has a physical presence, whether that’s digital order displays or new automated stations. Design should not only accommodate what’s currently in use, but be optimized for effortless integration of evolving systems over the life of the restaurant. Spaces need to allow for future evolutions in how digital menus, interactive guest ordering systems and POS systems are used. It might even be worth considering mobile plug-and-play equipment rather than built-in options where possible. Electrical and low-voltage work is another key example. Pre-wire for future data and points of connection as needs change. Plan for increases in electrical loads that might come from future upgrades. Do the same for utilities. The current design of chases, walls, raised floor systems and so on has a major impact on the ease of future changes to any utilities within…
