When you think about it, there isn’t much else that can ruin a trip to a restaurant like bad food. Well, bad food and bad service. Alright, bad food, bad service, and bad furniture. While the first two things are definitely potential deal breakers for your customers, they might be a little bit more difficult for you to correct than the third.
Commercial dining furniture is something that can make or break a guest’s visit to your restaurant and that is why you should take it seriously. You might not think you have a theme to your place, but you do. People look to a restaurant not only for the great food but for the atmosphere they can be a part of when they go there. Otherwise, why not just open a strictly takeout joint?
Investing in quality commercial dining furniture that customers can enjoy and be comfortable in can set your dining establishment apart from the competition and set you apart as the best place to go for the cuisine you serve. Here are three tips for buying the best restaurant furniture for your business.
1.) Outside or inside
When you are buying furniture, decide where it is going to go before you complete the sale. Are you shopping for your indoor space or for your outdoor patio sections? This might seem like a no brainer but you might be surprised home many people buy something they think will work indoors only to find it doesn’t once they get it back to the restaurant.
You might want people to be comfortable if they sit outside and that’s great, but, in the end, you want your furniture to last. In the same way, your Adirondack chairs might not be the look you want in the main dining room. Let the outside be for the outside and the inside for the inside.
2.) Make sure you get commercial grade
You might shop many different stores in order to find the furniture that looks good to you. You might think you have found the best deal at one of several wholesale furniture suppliers out there, but make sure you are getting commercial dining furniture. Sometimes, the quality of furniture you see might not hold up to the constant use in your restaurant if it is not commercial dining furniture.
Make sure that the joinery is designed for heavy use and that the finish will hold up to the type of commercial cleaning products you might use. Also, make certain that the quality will hold up to all of the different uses a guest will give it over time. If a piece of furniture fails, you do not want to have all the liability because you used furniture that wasn’t intended to be used commercially.
Consider the impact of your floor
When it comes to commercial dining furniture, your floor is as important as the furniture you buy to put on top of it. Thomas Lee invented the Adirondack chair in 1903 and it is still one of the most popular chairs for outdoor dining use. The reason is that it is a stable chair that is comfortable as well as durable. It can work on many floor types.
The furniture industry brings in $120 million in revenue every year. They are designing new things all the time, for commercial and residential use. One of the more interesting ideas in commercial furniture is the swivel chair. Accounting for 8% of furniture sales in 2009, people are liking the style of the piece, using it at home and liking it while out. This could be the perfect solution to the outdoor bars that many restaurants have open during the summer or warm weather seasons.
No matter what type of furniture you decide to go with, know where it is going to go, know your flooring, and make sure it is commercial grade.
