What Is Restaurant Capacity?

A Restaurant Manager's Guide

The number and size of the space you have available is one of the factors that can be used to determine your seating capacity. You should follow the regulations regarding aisle width and number of square feet allotted per guest. Measuring the dining space is what it involves.

The width and length can be used to find the square footage. If there are alcoves, measure the adjoining areas and calculate the square footage. Ensuring a sufficient amount of seating and table space without having a crowded room is a priority for a restaurant manager.

The right table size can help reduce wait times. Monitoring traffic flow is important since it can lead to accidents and slow down services. An illustrative table seating chart can help you with your design process.

The Effect of the Floor Plan on Business Income

The floor plan of a restaurant must balance two goals: squeeze in enough people to make a profit and provide enough space that your patrons feel comfortable. A big, spacious building can accommodate more people with more space, but it costs more than a cramped hole-in-the-wall. You will have to calculate seating capacity in your business plan.

It would be convenient if there was a formula that applied to all restaurants, but that is not the case. You need to figure out the factors that shape seating capacity before you can get to the seating numbers. You have to consider the effect your floor plan will have on your business income.

The more you spend on your location, the more money you need to make money. Net income left over after expenses are subtracted from gross may be inadequate. Suppose you're about to open a French bistro with top-quality food and wine.

POS Performance Analysis of Low-Cost Menu Items

CoGS fall between 20% and 40% in restaurants, usually higher on food and lower at the bar. You can order inventory more accurately and control inventory costs by calculating CoGS weekly. Full service restaurants try to keep their costs low.

If your costs are over 70% you could be in financial trouble. A number below 45% means you could be sacrificing quality. If you want to compare the top menu items and their contribution margins, you need to run a report on your mobile POS.

Menu item profitability is similar to food cost percentage in that it shows the performance of a menu item. You can use that information to compare items and highlight profitable dishes on your menu. New staff takes time, money, and resources to get up to speed.

The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell estimated staff turnover at $5,864 per employee. It could mean as much as 146,600 annually for some restaurants. Simple in theory.

Not much in reality. Your marketing expenses have to account for discounts, human resources, advertising fees, and more. A POS that tracks discounts and coupon codes can help you count new customers that come from your marketing initiatives.

The Dining Area of a Restaurant

The dining area of a restaurant is usually rectangular. To calculate the area in square feet, divide the length of each section by its width. The total floor space is found by adding the section areas together.

Next, subtract the square footage taken up by wait stations and decorative features. If you have a bar, you should subtract a strip 3.5 feet wide from the length. Divide the seating area by the square footage.

Selected Furniture suggests that fine dining should be limited to 18 to 20 square feet per customer. A fast food restaurant can hold up to 14 people. Full-service establishments that are not fine dining should have at least 12 to 15 square feet.

The Restaurant Floor Plan

The restaurant floor plans show the locations of the fixture. They will occasionally include annotations on which materials are used to build parts of the space and how it is built. Major changes to your floor plan may be necessary if you want to accommodate physical distance and new limits on capacity.

Some recommendations for how to adjust your current floor plan will make your restaurant safe to reopen. In larger kitchens, staff members are responsible for only one or two stations, which makes staff movement less important than in the previous example. The food moves while the staff stay at their stations.

The layout design above does a great job of considering accessibility by including change tables and space for wheelchair access, as well as including parents with children. The owners of Bar Raval had to make the most of a long and narrow space in the above floor plan. The bar and coffee station are located against the wall, so the server can navigate through the high-traffic areas of standing tables with plenty of room for their trays full of drinks.

Your dining room floor plan is a document that you should use to help you design your space, as it will be a map for your staff to navigate sections and table numbers. The retail area should feel different from the dining room and follow retail sales principles that encourage browsing and product matching. The entrance and waiting area of your restaurant is the most important part of your first impression.