A restaurant prepares and serves food, drink and dessert to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of the main chef's cuisines and service models.

While inns and taverns were known from antiquity, these were establishments aimed at travellers, and in general locals would rarely eat there. Modern restaurants are dedicated to the serving of food, where specific dishes are ordered by guests and are prepared to their request. The modern restaurant originated in 18th century France, although precursors can be traced back to Roman times.

A restaurant owner is called a restaurateur; both words derive from the French verb restaurer, meaning "to restore". Professional artisans of cooking are called chefs, while preparation staff and line cooks prepare food items in a more systematic and less artistic fashion.

History

In Ancient Rome Thermopolia (singular thermopolium) were small restaurant-bars which offered food and drinks to the customer. A typical thermopolia had L-shaped counters into which large storage vessels were sunk, which would contain either hot or cold food. They are linked to the absence of kitchens in many dwellings and the ease with which people could purchase prepared foods. Besides, eating out was also considered an important aspect of socialising.

In Pompeii, 158 thermopolia with a service counter have been identified across the whole town area. They were concentrated along the main axes of the town and the public spaces where they were frequented by the local.

Food catering establishments which may be described as restaurants were known since the 11th century in Kaifeng, China’s northern capital during the first half of the Song Dynasty (960–1279). With a population of over 1,000,000 people, a culture of hospitality and a paper currency, Kaifeng was ripe for the development of restaurants. Probably growing out of the tea houses and taverns that catered to travellers, Kaifeng's restaurants blossomed into an industry catering to locals as well as people from other regions of China. Stephen H. West argues that there is a direct correlation between the growth of the restaurant businesses and institutions of theatrical stage drama, gambling and prostitution which served the burgeoning merchant middle class during the Song Dynasty.

Restaurants catered to different styles of cuisine, price brackets, and religious requirements. Even within a single restaurant much choice was available, and people ordered the entree they wanted from written menus. An account from 1275 writes of Hangzhou, the capital city for the last half of the dynasty:

"The people of Hangzhou are very difficult to please. Hundreds of orders are given on all sides: this person wants something hot, another something cold, a third something tepid, a fourth something chilled; one wants cooked food, another raw, another chooses roast, another grill".

The restaurants in Hangzhou also catered to many northern Chinese who had fled south from Kaifeng during the Jurchen invasion of the 1120s, while it is also known that many restaurants were run by families formerly from Kaifeng.

Types of restaurants

Restaurants range from unpretentious lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with simple food served in simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and wines in a formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear casual clothing. In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal, or even in rare cases formal wear.

Typically, customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is ready, and the customers pay the bill before leaving. In finer restaurants there will be a host or hostess or even a maître d'hôtel to welcome customers and to seat them. Other staffs’ waiting on customers includes busboys and sommeliers.

Restaurants often specialize in certain types of food or present a certain unifying, and often entertaining, theme. For example, there are seafood restaurants,

vegetarian restaurants or ethnic restaurants. Generally speaking, restaurants selling food characteristic of the local culture are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of foreign cultural origin are called accordingly.

Restaurant regulations

Restaurant guides review restaurants, often ranking them or providing information for consumer decisions (type of food, handicap accessibility, facilities, etc.). In 12th century Hangzhou (mentioned above as the location of the first restaurant), signs could often be found posted in the city square listing the restaurants in the area and local customer's opinions of the quality of their food. This was an occasion for bribery and even violence. One of the most famous contemporary guides, in Western Europe, is the Michelin series of guides which accord from 1 to 3 stars to restaurants they perceive to be of high culinary merit. Restaurants with stars in the Michelin guide are formal, expensive establishments; in general the more stars awarded, the higher the prices. The main competitor to the Michelin guide in Europe is the guidebook series published by Gault Millau. Unlike the Michelin guide which takes the restaurant décor and service into consideration with its rating, Gault Millau only judges the quality of the food. Its ratings are on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest.

In the United States, the Forbes Travel Guide (previously the Mobil travel guide’s) and the AAA rate restaurants on a similar 1 to 5 star (Forbes) or diamond (AAA) scale. Three, four, and five star/diamond ratings are roughly equivalent to the Michelin one, two, and three star ratings while one and two star ratings typically indicate more casual places to eat. In 2005, Michelin released a New York City guide, its first for the United States. The popular Zagat Survey compiles individuals' comments about restaurants but does not pass an "official" critical assessment. In the United States Gault Millau is published as the Gayot guide, after founder Andre Gayot. Its restaurant ratings use the same 20 point system, and are all published online.

The Good Food Guide, published by the Fairfax Newspaper Group in Australia, is the Australian guide listing the best places to eat. Chefs Hats are awarded for outstanding restaurants and range from one hat through three hats. The Good Food Guide also incorporates guides to bars, cafes and providers. The Good Restaurant Guide is another Australian restaurant guide that has reviews on the restaurants as experienced by the public and provides information on locations and contact details. Any member of the public can submit a review.

Nearly all major American newspapers employ food critics and publish online dining guides for the cities they serve. A few papers maintain a reputation for thorough and thoughtful review of restaurants to the standard of the good published guides, but others provide more of a listings service.

More recently Internet sites have started up that publish both food critic reviews and popular reviews by the general public. Their major competition comes from bloggers, particularly publishers of food blogs, also called foodies. These writers and publishers represent the common dining aficionado rather than the gourmet, and thus do not provide "official" reviews, but nonetheless are capable of garnering large, loyal followings.

The restaurant industry is fast-paced and ever changing...

Top Ten Facts in 2011

$1.7 trillion: Overall economic impact of the restaurant industry.

1.3 million: Number of positions the restaurant industry will add in the next decade.

34 jobs are generated from every additional million dollars in restaurant sales.

$1.7 billion: Restaurant-industry sales on a typical day in 2011.

80 percent of restaurant owners started their industry careers at entry-level positions.

46 percent of restaurant employees say they would like to own their own restaurant some day.

88 percent of adults say they enjoy going to restaurants.

71 percent of adults say they try to eat healthier now at restaurants than they did two years ago.

69 percent of adults say they are more likely to visit a restaurant that offers food grown or raised in an organic or environmentally-friendly way.

Cutlery

Though Indian cooking uses an extensive array of specialized utensils for various purposes, Indians traditionally do not use cutlery for eating, as many foods - such as Indian breads and curry - are best enjoyed when eating with the hand.

Eating with one's hands is a technique that can be quite clean when done correctly, but may require a degree of practice. First, the hands must be thoroughly washed, with particular attention paid to the fingernails. Having long fingernails in India is considered unhygienic.

Using the fingers, the food should be scooped onto the flatbread (naan, roti, etc.) and quickly brought to the mouth. In North India, when eating curry, the gravy must not be allowed to stain your fingers—only the fingertips are used. When flatbreads such as chapatti, roti, or naan are served with the meal, it is acceptable to use pieces of them to gather food and sop up gravies and curries. In South India, it is considered ill mannered to let your food stain the outside of your fingers or palm while eating and food is to be eaten only with the tip of the fingers, though popular belief is to think it is okay use more of your hand. In South India, the plate is not to be touched or held by the left hand while eating.

Not all Indian foods should be eaten with the hands, however. If the food is soupy, such as many daals, spoons can be used.[3] Additionally, foods such as rice may be eaten with spoons in both North and South India, more so in case of formal occasions as in a restaurant or a buffet where food is not served on banana leaf.

Traditional Indian cutlery does not recognize the use of forks and knives while eating, limiting their use to the kitchen only. Spoons were made of wood in ancient times, evolving into metallic spoons during the advent of the use of the thali, the traditional dish on which Indian food is served. Additionally, spoons (usually two used in a clasping motion) and forks are commonly used to distribute foods from a communal dish, as it is considered rude to touch the foods of others.

Right hand

The cardinal rule of dining is to always use the right hand when eating or receiving food and not the left. The left hand is not used to eat so that it can be used for serving food from the serving dish onto your plate using serving spoons, tongs etc. However, for left - hander’s its vice-versa. It must be also noted that these etiquettes are applicable only while eating Indian food. For other cuisines (Chinese, Italian, Continental etc.), especially in urban areas, most Indians use fork and spoons to eat.

Types of Restaurants

There are various types of restaurants. Restaurants fall into several industry classifications based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing. Additionally, how the food is served to the customer helps to determine the classification.

Historically, restaurant referred only to places that provided tables where one sat down to eat the meal, typically served by a waiter. Following the rise of fast food and take-out restaurants, a retronym for the older "standard" restaurant was created, sit-down restaurant. Most commonly, "sit-down restaurant" refers to a casual dining restaurant with table service, rather than a fast food restaurant, where one orders food at a counter. Sit-down restaurants are often further categorized as "family-style" or "formal".

In British English, the term restaurant almost always means an eating establishment with table service, so the "sit-down" qualification is not usually necessary. Fast food and takeaway (take-out) outlets with counter service are not normally referred to as restaurants. Outside of North-America, the terms fast casual dining restaurants, family style, and casual dining are not used. Junk food establishments would also not often be referred to as a 'restaurant'

Types of Restaurants

Traditional restaurants: - Should ideally have space for a display table and flambé work. The tables should be arranged with generous spacing and seating.

In specialty restaurants the space requirements vary widely. Display cooking, a grill, a dance floor and special decorative effects may be required. A separate bar might also need to be included within the restaurant.

Ethnic restaurants are generally considered to specialize in non-European food, particularly Asian and Oriental. Depending on the market, traditional foods and methods of preparation may be modified to suit Western tastes. Character is often expressed in the design of the premises and rituals of food presentation and service.

Every public house has a different pattern of trade depending on location, catering facilities and time of year. Drinking is often concentrated at certain times. Which are usually after 20.00 and particularly on Fridays and at weekends. Depending on its origin, a pub may emphasize its historical rustic character or the Victorian-Edwardian sophistication of later town houses. Pub designs often follow

themes to recreate foreign characteristics (e.g. Irish pubs and Belgian or American bars).

Casual dining

A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere. Except for buffet-style restaurants, casual dining restaurants typically provide table service. Casual dining comprises a market segment between fast food establishments and fine dining restaurants.[1]

Casual dining restaurants usually have a full bar with separate bar staff, a larger beer menu and a limited wine menu. They are frequently, but not necessarily, part of a wider chain, particularly in the United States.

Entrepreneur Norman Brinker was the "father" of casual dining.

Family style

Family style restaurants are restaurants that have a fixed menu and fixed price, usually with diners seated at a communal table such as on bench seats. True to their name, these restaurants tend to be single-family businesses.

Fast food

Fast food restaurants emphasize speed of service. Operations range from small-scale street vendors with carts to franchised mega-corporations like McDonald's.

Fast Casual

Fast casual restaurants do not offer table service, but may offer non-disposable plates and cutlery. The quality of food, and price point, are higher than those of a conventional fast food restaurant.

Snack-bar layouts: - Can be suitable for up to 60 seats in eating houses with fast turn-around times (five or six seating changes at lunchtime; two in the evenings). In between meal times, coffee, cakes and sandwiches can be served. The kitchen mainly makes use of ready-made items, and daily deliveries mean that stores do not need to be particularly large.

A restaurant kitchen in a large hotel: - caters for one or more large restaurants with adjoining rooms, and sometimes supplies external locations or businesses. May have to feed 800 - 1000 people. The waiters' walkway may be in the

centre, with special serving counters in the garden, or possibly of the bowling alley type with direct access to adjoining rooms. The kitchen is arranged in a cellular system, with large appliance blocks.

A restaurant with a buffet and vending machines: - provides a fast luncheon service for working people in restaurants, canteens, department stores and motorway service stations. Their capacity is about 500 people per hour. The kitchen only completes ready-prepared meals, except for salads and ice cream.

Self-service restaurants: - are suitable for department stores or in office blocks. Nothing is made on the premises. All supplies are ready-made and deep frozen.

Fine dining

Fine dining restaurants are full service restaurants with specific dedicated meal courses. Décor of such restaurants feature higher quality materials with an eye towards the "atmosphere" desired by the restaurateur. The wait staff is usually highly trained and often wears more formal attire. Fine-dining restaurants are almost always small businesses and are generally either single-location operations or have just a few locations. Food portions are smaller but more visually appealing. Fine dining restaurants have certain rules of dining which must be followed by visitors.

Variations

Most of these establishments can be considered subtypes of fast casual dining restaurants or casual dining restaurants.

Bistro and brassiereIn France, a brassiere is a café doubling as a restaurant and serving single

dishes and other meals in a relaxed setting. A bistro is a familiar name for a café serving moderately priced simple meals in an unpretentious setting, especially in Paris; bistros have become increasingly popular with tourists. When used in English, the term bistro usually indicates either a fast casual dining restaurant with a European-influenced menu or a cafés with a larger menu of food.

With 40 - 60 seats are classified as small operations. Small to medium units with 70-100 seats, on the other hand, require carefully zoned and fully fitted kitchen systems. Large restaurants (motorway service stations, fast restaurants, large hotel operations) often achieve considerably higher place numbers, frequently with integrated meal bar or self-service areas.

Aisle widths in storage, preparation and production areas are different according to whether they are purely traffic routes, or if they also lead to service areas. Working aisle widths should be 0.90-1.20m, local traffic routes with (occasional) additional usage 1.50-1.80m and main traffic routes (transport and two-way through traffic) 2.10-3.30 m. Aisle widths of 1.00-1.50 m should be sufficient for small to medium-sized restaurant kitchen areas.

Buffet and smorgasbord

Buffets and smorgasbord offer patrons a selection of food at a fixed price. Food is served on trays around bars, from which customers with plates serve themselves. The selection can be modest or very extensive, with the more elaborate menus divided into categories such as salad, soup, appetizers, hot entrées, cold entrées, and dessert and fruit. Often the range of cuisine can be eclectic, while other restaurants focus on a specific type, such as home-cooking, Chinese, Indian, or Swedish. The role of the waiter or waitress in this case is relegated to removal of finished plates, and sometimes the ordering and refill of drinks.

In the United States, Buffets, Inc., is a large buffet chain corporation which owns Old Country Buffet, Country Buffet, and Hometown Buffet. Hometown Buffet popularized the "scatter buffet", which refers to the layout of separate food pavilions. Other American restaurant chains well-known for their buffets include Golden Corral, which features food products presented in pans, Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes (known in particular for its soups and salads), Gatti's Pizza, CiCi's Pizza, Fresh Choice (a smaller competitor of Souplantation), Poncho’s Mexican Buffet, Ryan's and Ponderosa Steakhouse. Sizzler is another prominent restaurant offering a buffet.

Café

Cafés are informal restaurants offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. It is important to note that coffee shops, while similar to cafés, are not restaurants due to the fact that they primarily serve beverages and derive the majority of their revenue thusly. Many cafés are open for breakfast and serve full hot breakfasts. In some areas cafés offer outdoor seating.

The major difference with a café and most other casual dining establishments is how the guest orders and pays. A café can offer table service, but many times the guest orders at the front, and the food is brought out to the table. Then, while at most casual dining restaurants the guest pays with the server, at a café the guest most often times pays with a single cashier.

CafeteriaA cafeteria is a restaurant serving ready-cooked food arranged behind a food-

serving counter. There is little or no table service. Typically, a patron takes a tray and pushes it along a track in front of the counter. Depending on the establishment, servings may be ordered from attendants, selected as ready-made portions already on plates, or self-serve their own portions.

With a tea room is usually a town centre business located in a busy area. A cafe does not serve alcoholic drinks except for premium bottled beers; liqueurs etc., and specialize in hot and cold patisserie and snacks. Tea rooms serve alcohol-free drinks, patisserie and sandwiches, and have capacity for about 150 seats. They normally open from 11.00 to 17.30 p.m. They serve mainly pre-made meals, and therefore need little storage space.

In the UK, a cafeteria may also offer a large selection of hot food similar to the American fast casual restaurant, and the use of the term cafeteria is deprecated in favour of self-service restaurant.

Coffeehouse

Coffeehouses are casual restaurants without table service that emphasize coffee and other beverages; typically a limited selection of cold foods such as pastries and perhaps sandwiches are offered as well. Their distinguishing feature is that they allow patrons to relax and socialize on their premises for long periods of time without pressure to leave promptly after eating, and are thus frequently chosen as sites for meetings.

Destination restaurant

A destination restaurant is one that has a strong enough appeal to draw customers from beyond its community.

Mongolian barbeque

Despite the name, this form of restaurant is not Mongolian, actually derived from Taiwan and inspired by Japanese teppanyaki. Customers create a bowl from an assortment of ingredients displayed in a buffet fashion. The bowl is then handed to the cook, who stir-fries the food on a large griddle and returns it on a plate or in a bowl to the consumer.

Pub

Mainly in the UK and other countries influenced by British culture, a pub (short for public house) is a bar that serves simple food fare. Traditionally, pubs were primarily drinking establishments with food in a decidedly secondary position, whereas the modern pub business relies on food as well, to the point where gastro pubs are often essentially fine-dining establishments, known for their high-quality pub food and concomitantly high prices. A typical pub has a large selection of beers and ales on tap.

Teppanyaki-style

In North America, many restaurants specializing in Japanese cuisine offer the teppanyaki grill, which is more accurately based on a type of charcoal stove that is called shichirin in Japan. Diners, often in multiple, unrelated parties, sit around the grill while a chef prepares their food orders in front of them. Often the chef is trained in entertaining the guests with special techniques, including cracking a spinning egg in the air, forming a volcano out of differently-sized onion slices, and flipping grilled shrimp pieces into patrons' mouths, in addition to various props.

The basic components of any restaurant interior are the chair and the table. Depending upon restaurant type, menu, service, table setting, furniture selection, and degree of intimacy required, table size and overall chair space requirements can, and should, vary greatly. A restaurant that encourages rapid turnover of customers will normally provide smaller table top and chair sizes. On the other hand, those restaurants that encourage limited turnover and emphasize the winning and dining experience will typically provide larger table top sizes and larger, more comfortable chairs, with greater distance between table groupings.

Restaurant Design Guide Lines: Space Requirement

To be able to eat comfortably, one person requires a table area of around 60m wide by 40 cm deep. This provides sufficient clearance between adjacent diners. Although an additional 20 cm of space in the centre for dishes and tureens is sometimes desirable, an overall width of 80-85cm is suitable for a dining table. Round tables or tables with six or eight sides, with a diameter of 90-120cm are ideal for four people and can also take one or two more diners.

The minimum spaces for thorough fares or between a table and a wall are shown in a. Note that round tables require somewhat more floor area.

Breakfast setting:-

Tea or coffee pot, Milk jug, Jam or butter dish, Sugar basin, Fork, Knife, Teaspoon, Plate, Serviette, Saucers, Tea or coffee cup

Simple lunch setting:-

Dinner fork, Dinner knife, Soup spoon, Dessert spoon, Tumblers, Wine glasses, Soup dish, Dinner plate, Serviette.

Banquet setting:-

Entree fork, Fish fork, Dinner fork, Soup spoon, Dessert spoon, Dinner knife, Fish knife, Entree knife, Soup dish, Dinner plate, Serviette, Tumbler, Wine glass, Liqueur glass.

There is no agreement among even the most experienced restaurateurs and restaurant designers as to what the optimal table and chair dimensions should be. In addition, many other design factors will influence the final decision, including circulation and egress, accessibility standards, methods of service, and the overall dimensions of any given space. Figures 1 to 19 provide the designer with restaurant planning standards that have been developed by many experienced architects and interior designers. These drawings not only show the various individual tables and chair arrangements, but provide the designer with groupings of these arrangements, as well as an indication of overall size, floor area, and number of persons accommodated. These arrangements, however, should only be utilized for preliminary planning information.

Before any restaurant or inn is built, the organizational sequence should be carefully planned. It is essential to establish what meals will be offered, and at what quality and quantity. It is necessary to decide whether it will be a-la-carte with fixed or changing daily menus, plate or table service, self-service or a mixed system. Before deciding on the layout, it is important to know the anticipated numbers and type of clientele and the customer mix.

Bring in planning specialists in kitchen and cold store design, as well as in electrical, heating and ventilation systems and washing/toilet facilities. The position of the site will suggest what type of inn or restaurant is likely to be suitable. The main room of a restaurant IS the customers' dining room, and the facilities should correspond with the type of operation. A number of additional tables and chairs should be available for flexible table groupings. If appropriate, provide special tables

for regular customers. Any function or conference rooms should have movable furniture to allow flexibility of use. A food bar may be installed for customers who are in a hurry.

Large dining rooms can be divided into zones. The kitchen, storerooms, delivery points, toilets and other service areas should be grouped around the dining room, although toilets can be on another floor + e. Structural columns in a dining room are best in the middle of a group of tables or at the corner of a table + @. The ceiling height of a dining room should relate to the floor area: <50m2, 2.50m; >50m2, 2.75m; >100m2, 23.00m; above or below galleries, 22.50m.

Guidelines for toilet requirements in inns or restaurants are shown in. The minimum width of escape routes is 1.0m per 150 people. General walkways should be at least 1.10m -@,with clearance heights 2.1 m. The window area should be 1/10 of the room area of the restaurant.

These drawings highlight several critical dimensions that the designer must consider. Aisle circulation must be adequate in width; other clearances to consider include chair depth from edge of table and clearances between chairs. While laying out chair and table arrangements, a designer must anticipate the potential conflict between a patron leaving a seat and a tray carrying waiter.

Restaurant and Dining Room Seating

Dispersed seating suitable for guests with restricted mobility should be available in restaurants, coffee shops, and dining facilities. As a guide, the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS) require a minimum of 5 percent of restaurant seating to be accessible. Accessible aisles should connect the entrance to these seating locations, public restrooms, and self-service areas such as salad bars, condiment stands, or buffet tables. Comfortable seating for waiting should be available to customers near the entrance. A variety of accessible seating should be available, suitable for large and small dining groups. Small tables may not be accessible to guests in wheelchairs because of the restricted knees space. Therefore, a party of one or two may require a table usually setup for four.

Restaurants or coffee shops with built-in seating, such as booths or banquettes, should also provide some chairs for guests who have difficulty getting into and out of bench seating. These chairs can be removed to seat guests in wheelchairs. Where seating areas are raised on platforms, accessible seating and similar services should be available on the main-floor level or a ramp to the upper level should be provided. Aisles serving accessible seating should be at least 3'0" wide, which typically requires a 6'0" clearance between parallel tables, or 4'6" between rotated tables. (See Fig. 21.)

Aisle widths should also provide room for customers to be seated at tables. At least a 2'6" clear space should be available behind each seating location. This space allows chairs to be withdrawn from the table and staff to assist guests reposition chairs close to the table. For wheelchair seating, a 3'0" to 3'6" aisle is necessary, depending on the width of the knees space. (See Fig. 25.)

Wheelchairs positioned at tables project approximately 5" further into aisles than most chairs. To allow guests with restricted mobility to turn around, seating arrangements should also include a 5'0" diameter circle or T shaped clear area at dead-end aisles.

Dining Tables and Chairs

Accessible seating locations should allow guests with restricted mobility to dine with ambulatory customers. Tables should provide knees space for customers in wheelchairs, and dining chairs should be coordinated to provide comfortable seating at the same table height. Dining room chairs should be stable to maintain balance as guests seat themselves, and comfortable to sit in during dinner.

Chairs should be light and easy to reposition. The seat should have a slight slant to the rear to transfer body weight to the back of the chair. However, an exaggerated incline makes it difficult to rise. The seat should be approximately 16" deep and at least 16" wide to allow space for customers to reposition themselves during the meal. Padding or cushions on the chair seat should be firm, and the chair back should also be slightly inclined to the rear. To help guests sit and rise, dining chairs should have armrests 7" to 8" above the front edge of the seat. (See Fig. 22.)

Supports or cross-bracing should not -interfere with kick space below the seat, so one feet can be positioned to rise. The front edge of the chair seat should be low enough to allow the feet to rest on the floor, but not so low that it is difficult to rise. This is determined by the lower leg length (popliteal height) which varies between 15" and 20" for most adults.

The height of the chair seat should be 10 ½” to 11 ½ " below the top of the table. Common seat heights vary between 14" and 18". Because the height of wheelchair seats is typically 19", a relatively high chair seat is necessary to coordinate with the table height. A chair with an 18" high seat is comfortable for most ambulatory guests and closely approximates the height of a wheelchair seat.

Dining room tables should have a stable surface at a convenient height and knees space and legroom below the tabletop for customers in wheelchairs. Narrow table configurations allow face-to-face seating, which reduces the distance between diners, making conversation easier and table lighting more effective. For safety, the corners and edges of the top should be rounded. Full-height wheelchair knees space is 2'6", which requires tabletops to be at least 2'7" above the floor, too high for most seating.

Many wheelchairs now provide adjustable or two-tier armrests, which allow customers to sit close to tables in a knees space only 2'3" high. To provide this knees space, the tabletop (without an apron) should be 2'4 ½” to 2’ 5” above the floor. This is 11" to 1 ½” above the chair seat, 10 ½” to 11" above the seat of wheelchairs, and convenient for both. This knees space also permits the armrests of chairs to pass below the tabletop so seated customers can draw close. This combination of tables and chairs is suitable for the majority of wheelchair users and most ambulatory guests.

Foot room is important for customers with wheelchairs or leg braces. The footrests of wheelchairs are 2 ½” to 3" above the ground and angled slightly forward, which requires 1'7" of foot room, measured from the edge of the tabletop. The outside width of footrests is only 1'6", but 2'6" of side-to-side clearance is necessary to manoeuvre into position beneath the table. To provide knee space, table legs should be at least 2'6" apart, and the tabletop, for face-to-face seating, should be 3'6" wide. Pedestal base tables should have low, tapered bases and a minimum diameter of 3'6", although 4'0" is preferred.

A portable raised leaf should be available to modify tables for customers in wheelchairs with high armrests. The leaf should be approximately the size of a place setting, 1'4" by 2'0", and secured to the underside of an accessible table with clamps. The raised leaf should project 6" beyond the edge of the table and provide 2'6"

clearance above the floor. (See Fig. 24.)

Design Criteria

Figure 27 shows the basic dimensions for the design of banquette seating. The lack of armrests makes it difficult to define seat boundaries. The user, therefore, tends to establish a territory by assuming a desired sitting posture and placing personal articles next to him or her, such as a briefcase, purse, or package. Since the nature of this type of seating can permit some form of body contact, hidden dimensions and personal space also play an important part in how close the users sharing the banquette will sit. Because of the many hidden psychological factors involved, the actual efficiency of this seating type in terms of capacity is questionable.

Figure 27 indicates two possible seating situations, each dictated by the anthropometrics involved. One arrangement is based on the premise that the user's elbows will be extended, possibly in conjunction with some activity, such as reading, or simply as an attempt to stake out additional territory, as would be the case in the strategic positioning of some personal article on the seat. In this situation it would be reasonable to assume that each user would take up about 30 in, or 76 .2 cm, of space. The other diagram shows a more compact seating arrangement. Figure 26 shows a section through a typical banquette.

Inches CM.A 18 – 24 45.7 - 61B 15.5 – 16 39.4 – 40.6C 16 – 17 40.6 – 43.2D 30 76.2E 24 61.0

Banquette seating provides the designer with one of the few opportunities to custom design restaurant seating. While there can be a great variety of aesthetic solutions achieved through use of various materials, ergonomic considerations must be analyzed carefully. Specific attention should be given to depth of seat, slope of seat and back, height of back, and relationship of seat height to table height.

RESTAURANT KITCHENS

The trend away from conventional restaurants to those offering a wide range of gastronomy not only affects the planning of dining rooms but also of kitchens. Small and medium-sized restaurant kitchens play a very important cold room waste role here, and the following details are primarily aimed at such restaurants.

In the 'Gastro norm' system, the dimensions of containers, tables, shelves, equipment and crockery, as well as built-in units, are all based on a 530mm x 325mm module.

The function and organisation of the restaurant kitchen is summarised. The capacity of the kitchen is primarily dependent on the number of customer seats, customer expectations (type, extent and quality of the meals offered), and the proportion of raw materials which have to be freshly prepared (as opposed to ready prepared food), as well as the frequency of customer changes over the whole day or at busy periods (consumer frequency).

In fast restaurants about three seat changes per hour can be expected; in conventional restaurants only about two. In specialty and evening restaurants customers stay on average 1.3-2 hours. The percentage of the whole floor area required for each section and the detailed requirements for special purposes can be calculated in relation to small, medium and large kitchens.

'Hot kitchens' contain finishing zones and some or all of the following equipment depending on their main function: cooker (two to eight rings), extractor hood, water boiler, automatic cooker, steamer, automatic steamer, pressurised steamer, convection ovens, water bath (bain-marie), baking and roasting oven, frying and grilling plates, frying pans, double-decker roasting oven, deep fryer, salamander, air circulation equipment (for deep-frozen goods), microwave oven and automatic through flow frying and baking oven.

Large automatic units are only found in very large kitchens. The main units should be arranged in a block in kitchens serving more than 100-200 meals or with more than 30m2 of space available. In even larger kitchens, over 50m2, finishing groups can be arranged as double blocks. Storage space and working surfaces should be conveniently placed between the units at the end of blocks.

In the 'cold kitchen', the layout should be logically planned in parallel with the hot kitchen and convenient for the (common) server and bread area. The main fittings for a cold kitchen are a day refrigerator undercover the cold table, diverse cutting machines (bread, meats and cheese), mixing machine, scales, cutting boards, salad table with a lower cold cabinet, toaster or salamander, microwave, and sufficient working and storage surfaces.

The meal servery for a restaurant kitchen with a counter or bar serving point is best located between the preparation area and the dining room. There should be an adequate storage surface, a hot cabinet with heated table plates, and a cool zone for cold meals. A crockery shelf or attachment, a cutlery container, and basket and plate dispensers are also necessary for large restaurants.

It is important to separate pot washers and dishwashers. With waiter service, crockery is returned via the servery in the waiter's own area + - 6.Th ere should be one or two rinsing sinks with draining surfaces, storage surfaces and shelves for pot washers. All other items should go into automatic dishwashers of suitable capacities fitted below the work surfaces. Rules should be laid down for loading and operating the dishwashers. Through-flow and circulation units are also necessary. Provide side storage and working surfaces for returns, and sorting, soaking and locating surfaces for crockery.

About 10-15% of the kitchen area should be reserved for offices and staff rooms. Kitchen staff must be provided with changing rooms, a washroom and toilets. If more than ten staff is employed, rest and break rooms are required. Changing and social rooms should be close to the kitchen to avoid the staff having to cross unheated rooms or corridors (there is an increased risk of draughts in hot workplaces). More than 6m2 should be provided for the changing room, with four to SIX air changes per hour as well as visual screening. Provide a well ventilated, lockable cupboard for each worker. In large kitchens there may be cupboards for street and working clothes. The minimum requirements of local workplace regulations should be used for the dimensions and fittings of the washing and toilet areas. Other guideline values for toilet systems are 5 – 6 m2 per WC seat and wash

basin unit, and about 5.5m2 per wash basin and shower unit, for five or more male or female workers.

Large kitchens must be equipped with a mechanical ventilation system according to current guidelines. Waste air must be extracted at each cooking point, with extraction pipes to the outside via a ducting system. Fresh air must be drawn in, i.e. Re-circulated air is not permitted.