How much do you notice when you walk into a bar or restaurant? Think about your favourite place or the one you go into every morning for your coffee. How well could you describe it to someone? Your could probably tell them the layout, maybe a bit about the decor. You could talk about the atmosphere, and what's on the menu - that seems pretty comprehensive right?
I thought so anyway. Then I went to talk to this company that sells equipment to hospitality businesses and helps them with fitouts. The guy I met with asked me what kind of place we were thinking of, and I showed him a sketch of the layout we had in mind. He said cool, and what kind of flooring were you thinking of? Just like concrete or something? I said uh, yeah, maybe just concrete.
What about the bar? Stone? Marble? Wood?
Um... wood I think?
Ok. And how thick would you want it to be? And what about the sides of the bar? How many fridges will you need?
Ummmmmmm...
It turns out there's more you don't notice than what you do notice. Now we're trying to think through all those things that go into fitting out a venue - from obvious stuff like kitchen equipment, furniture and the bar itself, to less visible stuff like the point of sale system, shelving and so on. The list is getting pretty long already, and I'm sure there's plenty we still haven't thought of. We've set up all these boards on Pinterest where we're collecting photos of stuff that has the look we want, and the fitout guy I spoke to has offered to look through our list and give us some advice on what's missing and how much things are likely to cost. It's also starting to give us an eye for detail when we go out - now when I go into a venue the first thing I look at is what material the sides of the bar are made from. Then I look at the floors. I haven't quite gotten to the stage of pulling out the measuring tape, but only because I don't want to attract weird looks from other patrons.
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