It will take months, if not years, before we can understand the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry and the way we eat. The restaurants that survive the pandemic’s economic consequences will be transformed by the experience, but how will dining out in a post-pandemic world look and feel?
With civic leaders in St. Louis City and County announcing a target date of May 18 for reopening businesses, a new phase of the struggle against coronavirus is on the horizon. Among other stipulations, the county outlines the following protocol:
- Limiting the number of people to 25 percent or less of the "entity's authorized fire or building code occupancy" in space with less than 10,000 square feet or 10 percent or less for facilities with 10,000 square feet or more.
- Installing "physical barriers between customers and employees where possible or otherwise ensure 6 feet of distance between customers and employees, particularly in check-out lines, return lines, or any other places where there is prolonged contact between the customer and employee."
- Providing "clear markings with signage, tape, or other means that show 6 feet of distance as appropriate spacing between customers" in areas that are prone to lines or congregation.
- Posting "signage inside and outside the facility outlining social distancing requirements, limitations on crowd size, and procedures to limit crowd size."
- Prohibit outside containers.
- Arrange for "contactless payment, pickup, and delivery options."
Shortly before the county announced its guidelines, we asked local architects and designers how they’re thinking about the future of restaurant design, as well as how they’re helping restaurants find solutions for the immediate challenges.
Part & Partition
Tom Niemeier of SPACE Architecture + Design says his company has been working on a variety of design solutions to bolster confidence and enhance social-distancing practices. (In The Grove, for instance, the firm has proposed walk-up windows for both BEAST Butcher & Block and Chao Baan.) Experts agree that, in the short-term, restaurants will operate at significantly reduced diner capacity and with fewer tables, which will be spaced farther apart than normal. Below a certain capacity, many restaurants will struggle to break even. “We've been we've been trying to look for ways that you can achieve separation without necessarily cutting out half of your seating,” says Niemeier.
The Kranzberg Arts Foundation is grappling with how to guarantee safety at its venues, including such food-and-beverage venues as High Low, Sophie’s Artist Lounge, and The Dark Room, in addition to the foundation’s performing arts spaces. Niemeier says SPACE has been discussing options with the executive director Chris Hansen. The foundation anticipates needing a variety of items to ensure separation, from table dividers and dividers between bartender and customer to plexi mounts on microphone stands to help block airborne particles between singers and audiences.
One of the innovations that SPACE is working on involves movable, L-shaped partitions that can be wheeled out to provide a separation between two tables. SPACE expects its in-house workshop to have a prototype of these walls on wheels and ready to show clients in the next week or two.
Niemeier says designing such a partition is harder than it might sound. “We have to be very careful,” he says. “They have to be almost impossible to tip over. You can't have people tripping on them, so they can't have a wide base. And they have to be light, so they can be moved easily.”
Clients want glass on top of the walls to preserve an open atmosphere. Since glass is both heavy and breakable, a sturdier base is required. Niemeier says the prototype uses a heavy steel base and heavy-duty caster wheels that can absorb a a bump on the floor without tipping the partition. The handle must be user-friendly and positioned so that employees can be trained to push or pull the partition without risking injury or accidents. Finally, the partitions have to be as streamlined as possible to allow for easy storage.
Retrofitting Restaurants
SPACE is also looking at other options, including replacing freestanding tables with a run of booths separated by high dividing panels and retrofitting lower booths with a pane of glass or a wood divider to extend vertical separation.
Retrofits involve a balance between enhancing functionality while preserving the existing feel of a restaurant. “The trick for us is to try to come up with solutions that can promote safety and are, in fact, functionally safer," Niemeier says, "but they don't detract too much from the aesthetics and ambience."
The SPACE team's also been in discussions with Bulrush chef-owner Rob Connoley. One proposed idea involves installing drapery to provide a barrier between patrons at the restaurant's U-shaped counter. The divider would be made of a fabric suited to protect against the transmission of droplets from one patron to another. The drapery would hang overhead between diners, and it would be removable to allow couples to dine together.
Niemeier says the viability of the drapery concept would depend entirely on the fabric. “We don't want to do things that aren't really functional," he says. "If you're going to go to the expense to put dividers in, they need to actually work. So we're doing research on what fabrics are going to be the best at doing that."
Photos by Lori McElvain
The before and after at Sedara
Other designers also think that customers will welcome greater separation within dining spaces, at least for the near term. Lori McElvain of LoriO Interiors recently worked on a design overhaul for Sedara Sweets & Ice Cream in Affton.
“It's a small space, and we were back and forth during the planning about creating a space for large groups,” she says. “We ended up segmenting things a little bit more to create little private enclaves, and honestly it's a better thing now for numbers of people and potential social distancing in the future.”
The Rise of Carryout
With many restaurants having set up carryout menus and operations during the lockdown, many restaurateurs are expecting carryout to remain a core component of their business models beyond the pandemic. Designated carryout zones will likely become a staple of future restaurant designs, and some restaurants are retrofitting to enhance their takeout capacity immediately.
“We are concepting a new restaurant for an existing local client right now, and it's already come up,” says McElvain. “I don't think that is anything that's going to go away anytime soon. And based on the offerings that have been coming out from some of the restauranteurs, which are so creative and innovative, I don't know how we're ever going to go back.”
McElvain says pickup areas have often been an oversight, but that will need to change. “We created a standalone element at Billy G's in Kirkwood that is separate from the host stand,” she says. “That has been very good for them in terms of flow and access.”
LoriO Interiors is also preparing to announce a new project that McElvain says will feature “a very obvious GrubHub pick up or grab-and-go zone,” and she believes more restaurants will make use of dedicated parking spaces for pickups.
Helen Lee of Tao + Lee believes carryout will be a central feature of the future of restaurant design. “Going forward, I think a takeout area is going to have to be designed into every single restaurant, whether it's fast-casual or fine dining.” Streamlined kitchen processes will dovetail with the carryout-friendly design. “They're going to need to think about how to have less human touch,” Lee says. The fewer times that the food and packaging are touched, the better.
Looking ahead, Lee says she thinks the future of restaurants will be smaller spaces, with an emphasis on carryout. “I don't think anybody's going to want to open a 100-seat restaurant, because what happens when we have another pandemic or recession?,” she says. “It's much harder to survive as a larger restaurant.”
One of Lee’s clients, Nami Ramen, has been forced to move due to a real estate sale, and recent events have played into their search for a new space. “We were thinking we were going to look for larger spaces, but I think the reality is that they want to be small so they can be more nimble,” Lee says. “I think they want to focus more on their online presence and takeout—still providing a little bit of seating but maybe not a lot.”
Directing Traffic
Niemeier says his team is also thinking about interventions that could control the flow of people around a restaurant space. For example, a dining establishment could ask that customers and employees move in a clockwise direction, no matter where they’re seated. This would avoid people having to pass each other at close quarters between tables, for example.
Of course, this is already established practice in some spaces. Most customers are so attuned to the ordering process at counter-service restaurants, they don’t even think of it in terms of following a rule. But implementation would still require planning and clear communication.
“I don't know whether there would even be signs or arrows on the floor,” Niemeier says. “But it might come to that because that's been a really tricky thing: How do you keep people from coming too close when they're walking through the restaurant?”
Big Possibilities
John O’ Brien and his business partner/collaborator Christi Dietze are currently obsessing over the consequences of social-distancing requirements for larger spaces—and they're upbeat about the possibilities. O’ Brien’s Hammer Out Design created the design for the forthcoming Olive + Oak in Webster Groves. There’s no opening date at present for the 21,000-square-foot project, but if social distancing is still necessary when it does open, O’ Brien believes that owners Mark Hinkle and Greg Ortyl will find ways to adapt.
Courtesy Hammer Out Design
“I believe that it's an asset that they have a big space,” O’ Brien says. “I've told them, 'We don't know the puzzle pieces, but they're all right in front of us.'” Spacing customers out won’t be a problem, though it will require some of the restaurant’s custom-built furniture to be removed. One of the venue’s centerpieces, the 24-seat bar, will have its capacity significantly limited by the need to space out patrons. But O’ Brien is upbeat and says he's discussed countless ideas with Hinkle.
Courtesy Olive + Oak
The bar at the new Olive + Oak, under construction
“This building is big enough that we can kind of experiment,” O’ Brien says. Similarly large restaurants could serve a valuable role in their communities, at least while revenue from regular business is constrained, as venues for everything from farmers’ markets and networking events to community meetings and wine tastings—all appropriately distanced. “This space has that opportunity,” O’ Brien says. “If I could have a beer and talk to you 6 feet away, that sounds great,” he says.
Anticipating Customers' Needs
McElvain and Niemeier agree that half the battle for restaurants is not knowing future customer sentiment and expectations.
“Everybody's wringing their hands a little bit, because they don't know how soon people are going to come back to dining inside,” Niemeier says. “There's a very large proportion of people who are just not going to feel safe or will feel safer if they can see that the restaurant is being proactive and trying to do everything they can to promote safety.”
O’ Brien believes the best approach to the reopening process will be for restaurants to engage in a dialogue with customers.
“I've always been a firm believer that you watch the public, you listen to the public, and they will tell you what to do,” O’ Brien says. “The public will tell us if they’re comfortable. If I have too many tables in that area, they’ll tell us.”
