Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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W Design & Layout Services, says a general layout rule is that a shop should take its total square footage and divide it in half. "I'm going to ascribe half of that space toward the backroom kitchen, storage, service counters and restrooms," he says, "and the other half to seating." Palm says a shop should then divide the remaining seating square footage by 20, and the resulting number should be the amount of seats in the shop. For R C EU m o f fe S E a ad e D: ne e an Th ar ou d e b y t o Pa ta ne f a str ble i g fa y i s a hb lle n t or n Po Wo ho re rt o od dw lan dla . oo d wn d we tr re ee fr om hen café owners envision the way a new café space is going to look, they probably daydream about exciting elements like the shiny espresso machine and the hand-carved wooden bar. Quite a bit further down the list—if it even makes the list—is the collection of chairs and tables at which your customers will make themselves comfortable and enjoy your drinks. Chairs and tables are somewhat undervalued players in the café world, but their supporting roles are not to be discounted: If your furniture is inviting and comfortable, it can go a long way toward bring customers back. For Gary Chau, procuring tables and chairs for the three Caffe Luxxe shops he owns in West Los Angeles was a matter of pursuing his passion. A constant patron of cafés while living in London, Chau opted to furnish his own shops with European-inspired wood chairs and tables. Chau says the idea is to connect with customers through all their senses, and furniture plays an integral role in that process. "When they first walk in, I'm hoping they connect with the look, and then I want them to smell the coffee and hear the music, which is usually European-inspired," he says. "But then the furniture is key because sitting down on it is the 'touch' element of what we're trying to create." The chairs, tables and other furniture within a shop go a long way toward establishing the ambiance, and owners often choose pieces that are extensions of themselves to cultivate an atmosphere they'd like to spend time in. But those furniture items of course must appeal, first and foremost, to your visitors. Where can you place these items for maximum function in your shop? And how do you decide what types of tables and chairs to go with? Knowing the answers to these questions could help you furnish and design your store in a way that most efficiently communicates your vision and, in turn, connects with your customers. WHERE TO PLACE IT While the look of your furniture plays a huge role in your shop's ambiance, the number of seats and where they're placed also contribute to the overall feel. So how do you decide how many seats your shop should have? Tom Palm, president of Minnesota-based example, a 2,000-square-foot space will have 1,000 square feet for seating with a total of 50 seats. But how should that seating be arranged? Palm says unique placement is a hallmark of high-end cafés. "When I see a floor plan that's full of 30- or 36-inch square tables with four seats at them, there's something wrong there," he says. "That looks like a banquet center, not a coffee shop." And what's more, if a single patron comes in and takes up a table with chairs for four, those are valuable spaces going unused. To remedy that scenario, Palm recommends a variety of individual chairs and tables of different sizes that can be moved around to accommodate parties of continued on page 38 freshcup.com September 2013 37