Restaurant Design & COVID-19
We met with a restaurant owner this morning who had originally approached us to remodel his facility just before the March pandemic shut down. Of course the project went directly to the back burner as we all waited to see if there was going to be a world after COVID. In the ensuing weeks, the client, like many restaurant owners, established an effective take out service which kept his customers happy, most of his staff employed and, despite the darkened dining room, his business viable. Now, faced with pending relaxation of restrictions, the owner has once again decided to proceed with his renovation, however this time with a completely new set of criteria: make the new dining room as COVID safe for both customer and staff as it can possibly be, and at the same time make it pleasant; nobody wants to dine in a plastic box.
This is an amazing time we are in when we see how, out of adversity comes positive change, generated by necessity and forcing creative thinking, and the food industry is no exception. Good restaurants discovered the very real business to be had simply from take out and combined menu streamlining, and now it’s time to open the doors.
In discussion with this new client we presented four main areas of focus for the restaurant remodel, based on our four new rules for applied COVID responsive design:
Separation and distancing with efficiency and effectiveness.
Air flow management and air quality control.
Reduction of fomites in construction and finishing.
Maintenance and cleaning, cleaning efficacy.
Creating separation between diners without making the room look like a vacant furniture store or a room full of ticket booths and creating seating positioning to allow the server to deliver the food without the need to lean in or get unnecessarily close to the customer will be the goal. As well, in the pick-up line and POS station, creating flow and separation for those functions to with safe distancing. We will review traffic flow to washrooms to make them accessible with minimal loss of physical distancing, and as well, eliminate any cross traffic with kitchen traffic flows. Lastly, if possible, we’ll look to separate the in and out process for the customers, eliminating that now dangerous cross traffic flow at the entrances. On top of the changes to the entrance/exit process, our client has realised that the take out portion of his business is too valuable to discontinue after re-opening the dining room, and so we will be designing an efficient and separated pick up location well away from the arriving and departing guests.
Air flow management: Since we are remodelling anyhow, we can take a few lessons from medical facilities with respect to reducing viral spread through the use of air flow management. Typically in restaurants, the HVAC in the dining room is simply dumped in and then exhausted through return air, and the kitchen relies on its own air supply to accommodate the exhaust hoods. In the new model, the effective supply of constant, non-mixed fresh, tempered air can be established simply by changing the air flow model. People are generally unaware of the direction of air-flow within a space unless it is excessively draughty by poor design. In the post-COVID world, we can increase the safety of both diners and staff by changing from the old general air mixing to a down flow air pattern with the return air removed near the floor. This ensures that any possible contaminated air is not re-circulated among the people in the dining room.
Easy to clean surfaces that do not support the growth of pathogens. Pretty logical, but now we should consider finishes other than just table tops such as seat cushions, carpets, flooring and wall finishes which are specifically formulated to be anti-microbial. Combine this into our new “no-touch world” and washroom specifications will now be committed to no-touch faucets, toilet flush vales and even door operators with washable wall finishes.
As well, I expect the restaurant industry to be lobbying the various city governments to relax the application process for the construction of outdoor seating areas where space permits. With a loss of seating capacity inside due to spacing, outdoor areas now become essential to the survival of the restaurant. In the past, many cities made the permitting of patios an onerous process, however now it would be in both the City’s as well as the restaurant’s best interests to make the process easier in support of this important social industry.
So as we go forward with the restaurant renovation currently on our computer screen, we will be applying many of the new ideas that are coming out to address COVID’s dangers, but always with the best interests in creating an end result that will make the dining experience pleasant and enjoyable for the customer. We’ll be posting images in the near future.
