Bringing customers into (and back to) your café, coffee stop, sandwich shop or dessert restaurant might seem straightforward - create great food, hire great staff and serve great drinks.
But it’s not just about what’s on the plate or in the cup - or how they’re given to you - there’s another fundamental piece of the success jigsaw, and that’s exceptional design.
And yes, we said “design” and not “interior design” - why?
Because the outside of your space is just as important as the interior when it comes to enticing passers by, the ones who are new to your brand and don’t already know how good you are.
Design helps to shape customer experience. From the choice of materials to the choice of colours; the flow of people to the comfort of the acoustics, every detail contributes to your brand identity and your customers’ satisfaction.
So, with your dine/drink offering and your people in place, how do you go about crafting an out-of-this-world eatery that people will want to spend time in, whether they grab and go or linger over a leisurely tea or coffee and cake?
Here’s our guide to the art of designing eatery interiors as delicious as the food (or drink) they serve.
Design Tonic X Things in Bread
Bring in the Brand
The food and beverage sector is one competitive place to be, and it’s a clear alignment between your offering and your brand that will lift you above the competition.
In design terms, this means creating a strong, consistent brand presence across your whole space that will help to shape your identity and personality, help customers recognise and remember you and reinforce the quality of your food and drink with memorable visual and sensory vibes.
How? Think colour schemes, materials, logos, typography, furniture, fixtures and lighting - all of which come together to tell your own unique brand story.
At the incredible Leeds sandwich shop Things in Bread, we took their food concept - to take something familiar and give you the best possible version of it - and applied it with true Design Tonic flair to their new space.
An ex-retail shop in a fantastic location, our talented team embarked on a complete strip-out and reinvention job that resulted in a classy, contemporary look filled to the brim with easy cool.
Things in Bread’s branding is clean, crisp and tasty, and the interior look reflects just that, with a fresh, neutral palette across textural plaster-finish walls and on-trend encaustic tiles contrasting with bolder accents and the building’s industrial skin.
In Harrogate, the scheme theme for Pink Door Café was never in any doubt!
But it wouldn't be a Design Tonic project if we didn’t do the pink pop properly - without it all getting too candy sweet.
So we teamed a spectacular, bespoke counter in a vibrant, hot hue with subtler shaded walls for warmth, we created an Instagrammable floral bench (a hot social media marketing spot!) and we paired the lot with touches of marble and bold, black accents for a modern look that ticks the pink brand brief without feeling too feminine.
Catching the eye of passers-by
Not everyone will know who you are, and even those who do will have the tone for their experience set from the second they spot your space - not after they’re inside.
And that’s why it’s so important to put the same careful thought into your exterior as your interior design.
A well-designed exterior works like a beacon, drawing people in and helping you stand out from the crowd.
For Meet Fresh, whose unbelievably tasty Taiwanese desserts were new to Leeds, it was crucial that we created an eye-catching facade that would bring in foot traffic and establish a strong brand presence within their busy central mall location.
The fresh frontage does just this, working with their simple but effective branding and using lit signage, eye-catching logos, prominent menu screens and eye-catching lanterns in bold, bright colours to capture attention and entice new customers through the doors.
Design Tonic X Things in Bread
Back outside Things in Bread, we were super-lucky on two fronts - one, the building is blessed with the most beautifully detailed, ornate Victorian facade and two, the surrounding businesses had all opted for darker windows.
Using Things in Bread’s modern off-white palette, we were easily able to create an attention-grabbing frontage with stunning contrast against its neighbours - a stand-out look that’s the perfect reflection of their truly special sandwich offerings.
Inviting customers to stay a while…
It goes without saying that you want your space to feel warm, comfortable and inviting - even if your clientele will only be with you for a short time.
The obvious thing to turn to first when you’re looking to make things snug is the materials you choose.
From tactile timbers to sleek marbles, plush fabrics to squashy seating, there are endless options to help you evoke the right ambience and encourage your customers to kick back and unwind.
Lighting design plays a transformative role for any eatery.
For spaces lucky enough to benefit from plenty of natural light, you can keep things soft with lots of gentle wall lighting and pendants that diffuse their glow across a wider space.
For those without any outside light, we love the flexibility that LED track lighting offers.
At Meet Fresh, the fabulous exposed ceilings gave us the opportunity to install smart LED tracks which work not only to create a mood and enhance the industrial vibes, but also provide versatile illumination options for each different zone within the space.
And, as with restaurant and bar design, sound comfort is also key - and there’s one key to creating good acoustic balance; it’s to counter the hard surfaces in your premises.
Shown to bounce as much as 95% of the sound that hits them back into your space, there are a few ways to break up and absorb noise:
- Use soft materials like plush fabrics, planting, cork walls and curtains.
- Divide your space with booth seating, planting, partitions or display dividers.
- Introduce some acoustic solutions, like the stylish wall coverings, pendant lights and even acoustic art offered by our friends at AllSfär.
Design Tonic X Things in Bread and Meet Fresh
Feel the Flow
And lastly, the layout of your space is fundamental both to customer comfort and your own functionality and profitability as a business.
Efficient space planning means you can get more bums on seats, without affecting your staff’s ability to give the great service you employed them for.
What you’re looking to create is a flow that’s clear from the minute people enter - one that customers can instinctively move around without awkwardness, shuffling or jostling.
At Things in Bread (above), where the primary action is generally more grab and go, we created a simple, stressless floor plan that expedites ins, outs and movement between counter and fridge spaces without feeling crowded, even at peak times.
And we didn’t forget those who want to sit in and enjoy their delicious sandwiches - wall tables and high stools offer comfort without encroaching on the queuing room.
In places where you want people to linger, cosy corners for intimate conversations, communal tables for a sense of community and window seats for those who want to watch the world go by are all great options to cater to a diverse range of customer preferences.
And if you’re looking to make the most of your space, banquette seating is a brilliantly versatile and space-saving option that you can configure cleverly to keep that all-important flow.
At Meet Fresh (above), a choice of central and wall banquettes create lots of comfy seats to maximise covers, each section finished in on-brand tones for a pop of colour.
Want help to design your out-of-this-world eatery? The DesignTonic team would love to help - get in touch and let’s chat through your ideas, inspirations and goals.
