Need help designing cafe kitchen

Errata

I wonder how much trade a caff with 35 covers that only sells butties, buns and booze would attract?

Opinion

Errata wrote: »

I wonder how much trade a caff with 35 covers that only sells butties, buns and booze would attract?

I believe that covers a lot of peoples' breakfast, lunch and dinner, and all in one place!!

BritishBibliophile

Errata wrote: »

Where will kitchen staff wash their hands? Store their coats and bags?Where will the chiller cabinet for the bottled drinks go?

Following on from this, I was thinking about all the extra things my housemate ends up having to store during the day, both hers and other peoples. For example, pushchairs and buggies, they'll block the gaps between the tables VERY easily. My housemate has an area next to the door where 2 can be kept, all the others have to be either folded up or left outside.

Paperwork, she gets receipts from deliveries, food hygiene paperwork (i.e. monitoring the temperature of the fridge), paperwork from cashing up at the end of the day (where are you planning on storing the till's money for the next day's change BTW, or will you or your sister constantly be walking to and from work with a large amount of cash about your persons?), notes that she makes to herself during the day about things she needs to reorder or comments people have made. You can't stick it all under the tiny counter as it is because someone could nick it, and you can't really leave it in the kitchen as it could be a food hygiene problem.

If you and your sister don't have much cafe or restaurant experience then you either need to get a part time with one, or start spending a lot of time in them so you can see what works and what doesn't work. My housemate worked in catering for over 10 years and she has plenty of days where she struggles to keep everyone happy and keep everything balanced, if you have no experience then it will be a shocking learning curve for both you and could see you losing a sister and your money

EssentialParadox

Thanks for the input everyone! The critical reception is really appreciated.

There's a few questions some people had which were separate from the layout…

- There was some confusion regarding whether this was a cafe or restaurant and the alcohol selling. It's not actually a typical cafe in that sense. It's a board game cafe. We're charging a cover fee for people to come in and play (and be taught) board games with friends or family and we have a menu of sandwiches and typical cafe stuff to serve along with the games.

- We both have a little experience in cafes but by no means were they well designed cafes. I'm getting some input from very experienced staff from another board game cafe but you guys are still picking up on some things even they aren't.

- As for the reason why everything looks 'domestic', it's because I'm using software meant for house design! There's not really any commercial furnishings that I can put into the layout but I've done my best in this new version.

So I've taken everybody's feedback and tried to fit it into a second design. There's one less toilet but a bigger kitchen and a front counter. New feedback is appreciated.

phill99

You have 2 doors in the kitchen, which means you lose valuable wall space.

Thunk about bringing the first set of steps forward in inline with the book shelves. This will allow you access round the back of the kitchen to the steps to the rear access.

Close the rear kitchen door up.

Relocate the sink. You don't want a sink, which people use a lot near your main door - it's a disaster waiting to happen. Also, customers wont want to be looking right into the kitchen at a dirty pile of washing up. If you can't move the sink because of access to the drains etc, then move the door.

Where is your hand washing sink.

firefox1956

phill99 wrote: »

This is wrong. My regulsr cafe has a domestic kitchen and a 5 star hygiene rating. There are thousands of cafes with domestic units that work perfectly well.

No not wrong...
Different area Environmental Health Officers intrepret the rules different ways.
My EHO will NOT allow domestic style worktops in commercial kitchens.

EssentialParadox

phill99 wrote: »

You have 2 doors in the kitchen, which means you lose valuable wall space.

Thunk about bringing the first set of steps forward in inline with the book shelves. This will allow you access round the back of the kitchen to the steps to the rear access.

Close the rear kitchen door up.

Relocate the sink. You don't want a sink, which people use a lot near your main door - it's a disaster waiting to happen. Also, customers wont want to be looking right into the kitchen at a dirty pile of washing up. If you can't move the sink because of access to the drains etc, then move the door.

Where is your hand washing sink.

When you say 'first set of steps' are you talking about the ones leading up to the storage / rear entrance? I think it's a good suggestion to have a straight line up to them. I'm trying to fit the layout around what currently exists, and unfortunately those current steps are concrete and due to the ceiling heights I don't think I can change that part.

I actually specifically chose to put the sink at the doorway so both kitchen and counter staff have easy access to washing hands. I think I can move the sink to the top right corner and put a handwashing basin near the doorway in its place. Because it'll be narrower against the wall, it should alleviate the blocked doorway concern.

As for people seeing dirty dishes by the sink I don't think I can do much there. I've explored switching the sink position with the refrigerator but then I'm concerned how close the cooker and sink would be. I think it's important to keep those separate. At the end of the day, a lot of cafes have exposed dirty dishes somewhere within eyeline. It's not ideal, but for a small space I think it's unavoidable unless someone comes up with another idea. Although, perhaps one thing I could do is hide it somewhat by putting saloon doors between the kitchen and front counter.

paddyrg

Can you push the backwall of the kitchen to make more use of that space on the way to the garage? I can see the level isn't level, but even recessed shelves will help with kitchen space.

Also, you might want to think of some way to the garage that doesn't go through the kitchen, for when you have to move a broken table/oversize buggy/whatever

paddyrg

Have you asked an architect, or even asked a local college with architecture students? They may have some great ideas with a grip on what can actually be done too?

phill99

firefox1956 wrote: »

No not wrong...
Different area Environmental Health Officers intrepret the rules different ways.
My EHO will NOT allow domestic style worktops in commercial kitchens.

Ok, acknowledged.