Perhaps you just leased space in a new location, expanded your dining room or added a heated patio or outdoor dining area, and the space left for your kitchen is woefully too small. You need to find a way to serve your guests while maintaining a productive work area for your staff.
Restaurants in urban areas like New York are famous for miniaturized kitchens that fit into seemingly impossible spaces. The kitchens on long-distance trains, wide-body jets and food trucks are amazing exercises in space utilization and miniaturization.
What are some ways you can reduce space and still get food and drinks to the table?
Consider moving all nonessential offices and storage to a separate site, or consolidate with another operation that has more back-of-the-house space. Find off-site storage for back stock and items used only weekly or monthly. The back-room areas of many older facilities are full of seasonal decor and spare or broken equipment. Generally, only 20 percent of those items need to be available on an immediate basis. The remaining 80 percent can be moved off-site, where they can be requisitioned on a day’s notice.
Items in this category include:
• back-stock items like new china, seasonal supplies, branded or logo items that need to be ordered in bulk, and extra materials and finishes, such as special light bulbs;
• outdoor furniture and props for seasonal parties and decor;
• special service and buffet pieces, which can be stored in well-marked plastic totes or boxes that can be found easily and transferred to the restaurant as required;
• archives of business and accounting records.
In urban locations, waste holding is a big space robber. Review all possible means for reducing the waste stream, including combination compactors and bailers, or shredders for paper and cardboard, and crushers for cans and bottles. Use disposers in all kitchen areas. Consider adding a digester or mechanical composter for organic food waste that can’t enter the disposer. These units are available in sizes to fit most operations and have great cost recovery versus trash-hauling fees.
Replace traditional metal lockers with locker bags that can be stored on a rail or small conveyor system — staff members take their bags into a shared changing room, change clothes and return the bags to the conveyor.
Reconsider the need for a traditional chef’s office. Consider a wall-mounted workstation or angled warehouse desk that can hold a computer.
Replace vertical, floor-mounted air-handling units with ceiling-hung equipment to add additional storage space on the floor. Replace vertical storage-tank water heaters with instantaneous heaters where hot water is required.
For a really tight kitchen, consider re-engineering menus to reduce extra product that must be stored. Locate wine storage in the front of the house as part of the decor.
Other space savers
Use concentrated products that require less storage space. Use on-site filtered water carafes and bottle fillers instead of storing cases of bottled water. Draft beer and concentrated soda/juice syrups require much less space than bottles and cans. Concentrated chemicals/cleaning supplies can hang on a wall and be mixed as needed. The combined savings in space is huge.
New walk-in coolers have ceiling panels that can support the weight of dry storage and paper goods. They do require a safe means of access and ceiling panels rated for a 100-pounds-per-square-foot load.
Use high-density rolling storage shelving where possible to reduce empty aisle space, and cantilevered shelving in small walk-in coolers. Those two solutions can add 20 percent to 25 percent more storage. For dry storage add high wall shelving above work areas. When installed over aisles, make sure shelves are at least 78 inches high for safety.
Take advantage of the miniaturized and multipurpose versions of larger equipment that have become available over the past few years. Speed ovens, miniature combis, high-production under-counter ice makers and countertop blast chillers are all good choices.
Make use of as much vertical space as possible using adjustable wall-storage systems with baskets, hooks and clip-on containers. Mount receipt printers and toasters on angled shelves suspended from overshelves to keep them off countertops and away from heat lamps.
If you just can’t make the space work, consider using part of your dining room as a prep kitchen. A number of successful New York restaurants with tight kitchens have done this. Large communal tables make great prep areas. Some operators even build work sinks and hand sinks into the counters. During service hours, cover them with linen or fold down quartz tops, and they become wait stations.
As you plan your new micro-facilities, be sure to factor in health-department regulations that may require specific soiled- and clean-dish zones, clearances for cleaning services and compliance related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which can push space requirements.
Foster Frable is a founding partner of Clevenger Frable LaVallee Inc., a foodservice consulting and design firm in White Plains, N.Y. He has designed more than 400 foodservice projects, including restaurants and operations in hotels, colleges and more. He can be reached at [email protected].