Bartender, Cook, Future Designer
"Corner!” I shouted with a tray full of drinks as I stepped onto the dining floor from the back of house. My eyes immediately begin looking over my section to see which tables I needed to check in with while I made this next round of refreshment deliveries. Out of the corner of my eye, I see food for one of my tables getting plated and shout to the window that I’ll be right back. I deliver my drinks, take orders from new tables, then do a lap collecting dishes before returning to the back of house to do it all again.
This was just one aspect of my life before becoming an architect. Before, during, and even after college I spent nearly a decade in the restaurant industry doing everything from serving, bartending, to working the kitchen line. It taught me a great amount about sales, customer experience, organization, and urgency that always has me asking new hires if they’ve ever worked in the industry before.
If you had asked me why I got into design in school, my answer was to one day design and operate my own restaurant. Through my work in both corporate and local venues, I learned that there are only three main ingredients of a successful restaurant: food, service, and atmosphere. In realizing this, I began looking in the design world for opportunities to learn about how architecture can be an integral part of the dining experience.
Whether you’re looking for a designer or considering working in the restaurant business, here are the five most important things I learned and how they influence any design project I touch.
Details Matter
This is an obvious one, but whether it be understanding how finishes on a project come together or how to pair the right bottle of wine with the right dish, details matter. I’ve always been a fan of dining experiences where restaurants dive into the experience and carry them through to the details. So, if you're a tequila bar using straws made of agave or selecting the right light fixtures, details make a huge impact in improving the dining experience.
Know Your Routes
Did you know that the average server takes over 10,000 steps in a day? If you’ve made hundreds of laps from the kitchen to the floor, you know those steps matter. As a server, I mastered the concept of full hands and touching as many tables as possible with each lap. As a designer, ensuring that those routes are easy to identify and there isn’t much overlap (collisions are a thing) has always been critical to me. It’s amazing to see the importance of step counts on all projects be it the next restaurant or in a healthcare facility.
Write Everything Down (and then confirm it)
I used to be a server that would pride myself on memorizing orders. I later learned that doing so only exposed me to forgetting items or using a ton of brain-power on a task a simple pen stroke would have saved me time on. There’s nothing as frustrating as bringing the incorrect order to a table to know you’ve delayed the experience. On average, it takes 15 minutes to get a dish from the kitchen to the table so if you mess it up, it’s going to kill your turn times and make for an awful customer experience. In the design world, it’s just the same. With so many moving parts and things to keep track of, it’s critically important to take notes, get confirmation, and deliver excellence the first time, on time. That extra little effort upfront makes a difference on the back end.
Balance (Urgency and Focus)
I remember my first time getting stuck in the weeds. We were short-staffed, and I was new to the biz. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get to every table, losing track of things as fast as I was getting a sense of things. Thankfully I had a great mentor at the time that taught me the power of stopping, taking a breath, and then hitting everything with precision. As a project lead today, this has become a core tenant of project management. Urgency without focus is chaos. Focus without urgency guarantees that nothing gets done. We start every day at Method looking at the orders that must hit the table and then execute with great focus. It’s improved our delivery times and reduced the errors we make on drawings.
Have Fun
This is the cornerstone of any team effort. I’m sure you remember your last unhappy server; they probably gave horrible service. In learning the value of fun, and sharing fun, I realized that the best customer experience resulted when everyone, from diners to waitstaff, was having a great time. Mistakes are going to be made when it comes to any experience, but building comradery, learning to laugh, and then doing the right thing has almost always resulted in a positive experience even when things are going sour. When you make things enjoyable, the work becomes easy and everyone is eager to be involved and that is where teamwork makes the dreamwork.