How Many Service Stations Does A Restaurant Need

Designing and Positioning Server Stations for Efficiency

Server stations nowadays a puzzler for many restaurateurs and restaurant designers. The stations are essential for waiters and other service staff to provide efficient service. But they can too impede service and become an eyesore in an otherwise well-designed space. Rather than avoiding planning these stations until the last moment in the layout process, paying attention to their design and position from the beginning of the planning process becomes imperative in order to achieve desired results.

How Many Service Stations?

Server stations should improve the speed and efficiency of service and provide backup for the quick resetting of tables during meridian demand periods. Designers generally agree that a single service station is sufficient for every 22 seats.

"It is essential to brand sure that enough stations are provided depending on the size of the restaurant," says Wendy Lambert, a foodservice designer with Nutrient Service Design Grouping in San Diego. "They should be evenly distributed throughout the space so servers don't have to travel too far out of the way to access the stations. Each station must be stocked with equipment so servers tin can exist in and out apace, giving them more time to take care of their guests and serving them in a timely matter."

Which Supplies Are Necessary?

In more formal tabletop restaurants, stations might include plates, serviceware, glasses, napkins, a h2o station with a glass filler, water pitchers, table crumbers, servery trays and tray stands, check holders and tip trays, an ice bin, a roll warmer, coffee and tea makers and burners, cappuccino machines, soda machines, menus, server aprons, sinks and condiments. Many service stations also feature undercounter refrigerators for juices and milk.

In some restaurants, a soda handbag-in-box may sit underneath the server station counter, requiring a carbonator and a CO2 tank. "We attempt to avert this if possible if the service station is visible to the guests because changing the boxes out when they are empty is non something you typically desire to do in view of your guests, especially at a fine-dining establishment," says Lambert.

In casual and fast-coincidental restaurants, towels, spray cleaner and extra trash numberless may exist sufficient. The number of supplies at any server station depends on the altitude from the kitchen or back-of-house supply room and the service speed and efficiency that are desired.

Whether or not to place POS equipment at server stations is an important question. Some designers prefer to separate the POS stations from the server stations that act every bit busser reset consoles because they have unlike uses, says Philip Mott, assistant professor, Kendall College, Schoolhouse of Hospitality Management, in Chicago.

Location, Location, Location

The number and location of server stations depends on how designers select the flow of service over and beyond nutrient coming in and out of the kitchen, bar areas, seating and principal thoroughfares throughout the restaurant. A expert design allows for the placement of server stations relative to traffic patterns and access to both the kitchen and tables.

"Location is fundamental," says Lambert. "Server stations must be conveniently located within shut proximity to dining areas while keeping them out of the public view equally much every bit possible. These stations can be a little unsightly, especially during busy hours. They tin can also be loud since virtually servers gather hither in betwixt running to the kitchen and the dining tables or in downtime. Ordinarily we see them located nearly restrooms or kitchen entrances where noise and unsightliness does not interfere with the diner's overall eatery experience."

Indeed, managing volume around server stations tin can become important when trying to maintain the restaurant'south ambiance. "Typically the biggest problem we see is the noise level," Lambert says. "If there aren't enough stations throughout the restaurant, the corporeality of traffic in the area can disrupt guests. Often if there is likewise much traffic in the area and the server station is designed too close to dining tables, servers will have to inconvenience the guests while getting in and out of the station."

In some eating house designs, the footprint does non allow for positioning server stations in a skilful and unobtrusive location. "I'm seeing more designers placing service stations where they're not exactly hidden, but rather they're disguised," Mott says. "Instead of placing stations that are easily seen by diners along the perimeter of a dining room, some designers are hiding stations behind four ½- to 5-feet-walls. Servers can run into over them to canvass the dining room, simply the server stations are unobtrusive to customers."

"Some restaurants demand server stations to also hold items such every bit loftier chairs and booster seats," says Gary Zechmeister, retired founder and COO, Premier Eating house Equipment & Blueprint in Minneapolis. "Otherwise, they simply float effectually in a space."

Design Elements

What bothers Lambert, Mott and Zechmeister almost server stations in general is that they're often dumping grounds. "Admittedly, information technology'southward rare that a diner will say that they noticed the server station in the middle of the restaurant," Mott says. "Only server stations may touch on customers on a subconscious level. They might be in the middle of the dining room, and when they look chaotic and messy, it tells me that something else virtually the operation is cluttered and messy."

"In many restaurants, interior designers select attractive furniture for server stations and so they wait like an intentionally designed part of the decor," Zechmeister says. "For case, you don't desire a server station to exist made of plastic laminate unless it goes with the decor in a fast-casual eating house. If it is in such a restaurant, it should be high-quality laminate that can exist trimmed with stainless steel and topped with quartz or a durable stone material."

Depending on the number of items the server stations require, storage often includes drawers or wall-mounted shelves. Fine-dining establishments frequently use drawers for silverware storage. Unless there'southward a specific item such as silverware to hold in drawers, Zechmeister advises designers to minimize the use of drawers. Drawers often become storage places for stuff that no one knows what to do with and is rarely used." he says.

"When nosotros blueprint dining rooms, we look at the tables that are producing revenue and don't integrate the support space to consider them likewise as nosotros should," Mott says. "We need to spend more time designing server stations equally part of the overall design, and focus more on where they're situated and how they touch the bottom line."

Choosing POS Systems

Recognizing that POS stations can be pricey, Mott recommends one POS machine for each three to four servers.

"If servers or waiters accept to wait to employ a POS, orders accept longer and guests get upset," says Lambert. "While servers or waiters are waiting to use the POS, their guests become unattended, and it also postpones other guests' requests they are working on. It becomes a concatenation reaction. Wait for a POS is very frustrating for servers/waiters. It disrupts their timing and workflow, and in the restaurant industry every second counts."

"Server stations often don't have plenty POS machines, and so servers and waiters oftentimes have to walk across the dining room to access them," says Mott. "As a result, many waiters will filibuster putting in an order to avoid taking the long walk. Or they'll take a second order and await to put them both in. This practise increases the adventure of order errors."

Many restaurateurs now use wall-mounted POS systems, which save infinite, or mobile POS technology, which allows a reduction in the size of server stations. "Most portable POS systems are pretty good and not too expensive," Mott says. "More restaurants are just beginning to implement portable payment stations in the form of handheld command centers that managers carry with them and contain up-to-the minute sales and labor data. I don't see widespread use of such systems in smaller independently owned mom-and-pop restaurants for a couple of years considering of operator resistance to it due to expense and fright of reliability. Notwithstanding, large multiunit companies are embracing such systems in guild to ensure better client service because they take backup support by IT departments."

"Sometimes we have to make sure the hardware catches up with the technology providing the Internet connexion," Mott adds. "I visited a restaurant this summertime where portable POS units served the patio section, but the server had to walk from i end of the patio to the other to utilise information technology because my table was out of range of the base unit."

How Many Service Stations Does A Restaurant Need,

Source: https://rddmag.com/design/675-server-stations#:~:text=How%20Many%20Service%20Stations%3F,sufficient%20for%20every%2022%20seats.

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