rox
Veteran Member
Eddie,
you can't put in the utilites until you design the kitchen I wouldn't think. There are things like steam tables that need drains, just the whole diswaser area is really quite complex. Depending on what type fo restaurant, you might run water over top of the stove, so that pots can be filled from the stove. Most likely you will want gas stoves, most chefs hate electic, there you go gas connections. And I already mentioned the stove hood.
You just can't draw air out fo the kitchen and pump it outside, you get something like negative pressure, you have to bring air in also. Are you going to air condition the Kitchen, then you need a hood with different specifications. Then there are the data lines. You want to have the waitstaff be able to put in their orders in a good area, and have the tickets print up at different stations. You always have the broiler station, the cold pantry station, the desert sataion (I'm talking here in the kitchen), you get a system that has printers at these various stations so that when the waitstaff enters and order it prints out on many different printers. My hsuband had old fashioned time card punch clocks. The waitstaff will put int he order, then when the cooks were finished and put it ont he rack to be picked up by the waitstaff they punched the cooks copy. In this way if there was ever slow service if a customer complained, the waitstaff can't blame it on the cooks, because the cooked time punched it and the fault was with the waitstaff for leaving it under the heatlamps and not picking it up. So you need to have the datalinks to connect your ordering and payment system.
Just off the top of my head I would say you might consider, determing what type of restauratn you want, get a design, put in the kitchen equipment, tables and chairs and then lease out the restaurant operation to someone who is in the trade. Don't buy the pots and pans nor the dishes. And they lease it under a net lease, if the equipment breaks they repair it at their cost. Kitchen equipment always breadk, my husband got to be pretty good at air conditioning, compressors for refridgerators and even some plumbing knowledge. not that he ever did the work. But when you have to pay to fix things often enough, you learn about them.
You and Stef really should be getting your restaurant education now, asking to look at kitchens of local establishments becuase it is goign to take the two of yu a good long time to start to feel that you can operate form a knowledge base. One thing might be to start getting some restauratn trade magazines and reading restaurant industry websites. I ahve been to the food show numerous times in Chicago at McCormic place and saw and learned a lot. I am sure there must be Food Shows in Texas becasue there were even smaller Food Shows in Milwaukee. Start going to Food Shows if you can find out where they are. The higher end chefs, particularly those at Private Country Clubs will know all about the Food Shows in you area.
There is just all kinds of stuff, linnen storage, not using table cloths you say? Well you still need kitchen towels and bar towels and you have to have a place to store them. Oh and also dirty linnen need a spot for that. Once you start visiting kitchens and listening to Chefs complain about their kitchens what they dont' like about their kitchen, you will really learn a lot. You have to design doorways so that the guests don't see into the kitchen yet the layout provides easy movement for waitstaff.
I just thought of another thing, have you ever heard of a grease trap? Restaurants have them, and it is part of the pluming and drain systems. Yu have to ahve a grease trap, now way around that. The more I think about this, the more I am sure that really, you have to have a kitchen design meaning exactly what size stove, how many BTU's, what size broiler, how many fryers etc. before you can dig the hole.
In a house, you can say I'll put a toilet here, a shwoer there and a sink here, and not build it out and put in the rough plumbing. You really can't do that with a commercial restaurant. The approach is much much different.
Of course there is a mulit mllion dollar golf club that I am aware of who built a beautiful club house and just had a blank square for the kitchen, figuring they would build that out later becuse they didn't ahve the experience, and they left absolutly no way to put in the kitchen hood! They had to re-do the roof and it cost a fortune to re-do. That blank square called kitchen, they lost their whole enterprise, it broke them. They went bankrupt. They had a glorious clubhouse but it was worthless without any dining, they never imagined how much it costs to build out a kitchen and then they didn't have the money to do it and overcome the structural obsticles. I just remembered my husband tellign me that story. He thought the owners were complete idiots.
you can't put in the utilites until you design the kitchen I wouldn't think. There are things like steam tables that need drains, just the whole diswaser area is really quite complex. Depending on what type fo restaurant, you might run water over top of the stove, so that pots can be filled from the stove. Most likely you will want gas stoves, most chefs hate electic, there you go gas connections. And I already mentioned the stove hood.
You just can't draw air out fo the kitchen and pump it outside, you get something like negative pressure, you have to bring air in also. Are you going to air condition the Kitchen, then you need a hood with different specifications. Then there are the data lines. You want to have the waitstaff be able to put in their orders in a good area, and have the tickets print up at different stations. You always have the broiler station, the cold pantry station, the desert sataion (I'm talking here in the kitchen), you get a system that has printers at these various stations so that when the waitstaff enters and order it prints out on many different printers. My hsuband had old fashioned time card punch clocks. The waitstaff will put int he order, then when the cooks were finished and put it ont he rack to be picked up by the waitstaff they punched the cooks copy. In this way if there was ever slow service if a customer complained, the waitstaff can't blame it on the cooks, because the cooked time punched it and the fault was with the waitstaff for leaving it under the heatlamps and not picking it up. So you need to have the datalinks to connect your ordering and payment system.
Just off the top of my head I would say you might consider, determing what type of restauratn you want, get a design, put in the kitchen equipment, tables and chairs and then lease out the restaurant operation to someone who is in the trade. Don't buy the pots and pans nor the dishes. And they lease it under a net lease, if the equipment breaks they repair it at their cost. Kitchen equipment always breadk, my husband got to be pretty good at air conditioning, compressors for refridgerators and even some plumbing knowledge. not that he ever did the work. But when you have to pay to fix things often enough, you learn about them.
You and Stef really should be getting your restaurant education now, asking to look at kitchens of local establishments becuase it is goign to take the two of yu a good long time to start to feel that you can operate form a knowledge base. One thing might be to start getting some restauratn trade magazines and reading restaurant industry websites. I ahve been to the food show numerous times in Chicago at McCormic place and saw and learned a lot. I am sure there must be Food Shows in Texas becasue there were even smaller Food Shows in Milwaukee. Start going to Food Shows if you can find out where they are. The higher end chefs, particularly those at Private Country Clubs will know all about the Food Shows in you area.
There is just all kinds of stuff, linnen storage, not using table cloths you say? Well you still need kitchen towels and bar towels and you have to have a place to store them. Oh and also dirty linnen need a spot for that. Once you start visiting kitchens and listening to Chefs complain about their kitchens what they dont' like about their kitchen, you will really learn a lot. You have to design doorways so that the guests don't see into the kitchen yet the layout provides easy movement for waitstaff.
I just thought of another thing, have you ever heard of a grease trap? Restaurants have them, and it is part of the pluming and drain systems. Yu have to ahve a grease trap, now way around that. The more I think about this, the more I am sure that really, you have to have a kitchen design meaning exactly what size stove, how many BTU's, what size broiler, how many fryers etc. before you can dig the hole.
In a house, you can say I'll put a toilet here, a shwoer there and a sink here, and not build it out and put in the rough plumbing. You really can't do that with a commercial restaurant. The approach is much much different.
Of course there is a mulit mllion dollar golf club that I am aware of who built a beautiful club house and just had a blank square for the kitchen, figuring they would build that out later becuse they didn't ahve the experience, and they left absolutly no way to put in the kitchen hood! They had to re-do the roof and it cost a fortune to re-do. That blank square called kitchen, they lost their whole enterprise, it broke them. They went bankrupt. They had a glorious clubhouse but it was worthless without any dining, they never imagined how much it costs to build out a kitchen and then they didn't have the money to do it and overcome the structural obsticles. I just remembered my husband tellign me that story. He thought the owners were complete idiots.
So you provided a nice lunch conversation for us.