Cafe floor plan: how to maximise seating in your café

As your café or restaurant business becomes more successful, you will no doubt be looking at ways to expand and maximise its full potential. One way to do that is by optimising space for seating inside and outside your establishment, ensuring you are making the most of your available resources.

Improving space utilisation can be a game changer for small business owners and restaurant managers, helping you to increase covers and profitability, while also enhancing the customer experience. Here we look at ways you can maximise seating in your café or restaurant to give you ideas on some of the changes you could make.

What are some creative ways to maximise seating in a small cafe or restaurant?

You can maximise cafe or restaurant seating using a few different creative solutions such as:

• Making the most of your seating capacity
  The furniture selection used in your restaurant will have a big impact on how much space you have available. For example, booths can be installed in a narrow section, or you could use larger rectangle tables with communal bench seating where customers can be seated alongside each other to maximise space.
• Create a floor plan
  Sketch out a simple overhead café floor plan to see where the restaurant seating can be positioned. Table planning software can also help you do this. To get an accurate representation, measure the dimensions of the café and spend some time trying a few different layout or design ideas.
• Get customer feedback
  Ask customers about the reason they are coming and if they have any seating preferences. You can use their feedback to optimise the restaurant layout, so it meets the needs of most of your customers, enhancing their experience and their appreciation of your service.

It’s easy to become stuck in a routine, especially if your café or restaurant is busy, but try giving some thought to the ideas above to see what sort of positive change they could bring.

Can the layout and design of a cafe be optimised to accommodate more customers without sacrificing comfort or accessibility?

Optimising the layout and design of a cafe or restaurant doesn’t have to mean you have to reduce comfort and accessibility for your customers.

Understandably, you want to accommodate as many customers as possible, but you should always prioritise their experience over profit. Squeezing in less comfortable cafe seating will likely mean people only stay for the essentials, while a more comfortable environment could have encouraged them to stay and spend a little more. Of course, maximising revenue is important, so take time to find the right balance between the two wherever possible.

What are some options for compact, space-saving furniture that can be used in a cafe to increase seating capacity?

To give you an idea of some of the furniture choices you can make to save space and increase seating capacity or occupancy, you could try:

• Bistro tables
  Bistro tables are small and either round or square in shape and are ideal for seating one or two people at a time. Creating a section of these will maximise space while ensuring it remains accessible and comfortable for your customers.
• Communal seating
  Communal seating can either be an area of your establishment with shared tables to accommodate multiple groups of customers at the same time, or you can group together smaller square tables into a larger seating arrangement with less of a gap in-between each one.
• Outdoor seating
  The space in front of your café or restaurant or in the garden area (if you have one) is relatively easy to transform into an eating area (if permitted by the local authority). Even if it is only one or two extra tables, it gives you the chance to increase your weekly and monthly covers per table.

Changing your furniture type while creating a new seating plan can help you find space you never thought was available, and could even create new business opportunities to help you grow.

Are there any strategies for managing the flow of customers and maximising their use of available seating in a cafe?

Another key consideration when planning the seating layout for your café or restaurant is how it will affect customer flow and staff during service. Diners need to be able to get to their seat easily without obstruction, while also being able to move around the table to leave or go to the bathroom etc.

If you provide table service, staff will also need to be able to move through the space without having to squeeze through tight areas. Your table placement has to factor all of this in, along with a waiting area for customers before they are taken to their table.

What are some ways to encourage customers to share tables or use communal seating in a cafe to increase overall seating capacity?

There is a natural inclination for many customers to look for isolated tables, rather than being grouped together. However, lots of people are comfortable sitting close to others and even sharing tables. A prime example of this are the hundreds of cafés you’ll see dotted around Paris, with tables and chairs positioned very close to each other, with customers still feeling comfortable and relaxed. Larger communal tables are ideas for this, and you could first trial it in one small section of the café to see how it works. It can also create a more communal experience for customers and offer a boost to the ambience, something which will always appeal to new customers.

Start maximising your space today

Spaceist is an established furniture supplier that works with cafés and restaurants of all sizes. Whether you are looking to maximise the space in an existing café or moving into a new space, we can help you find the right furniture to suit your design ideas. Take a look at our website or come and visit us at our 2,5000 sq. ft. showroom. Get in touch with our team today to find out more.