Restaurant and cafe fit-outs in operating buildings

A restaurant is judged the minute someone walks in. Getting it to that point means sorting out a long list of practical things first, often inside a building that keeps trading around you.

Start with how the venue will run

Before we build anything, it helps to know the kind of venue, who it's for and how service will work. At Bucketty's Brewing Co. in Brookvale, which we designed and constructed, the brief was reuse, recycle and repurpose, so the venue was planned around salvaged materials from the start. It seats 100, with room for a pool table and dart boards.

The kitchen drives the job

Kitchen layout, exhaust, drainage, fire services, power and storage have to work together. Get them wrong and you get rework, or a venue that looks finished but doesn't work on a busy night. Sort them out before the finishes.

Building inside a building

Plenty of venues sit inside a bigger building that keeps running: an office tower, a shopping centre, a heritage precinct. We've done food court work in the MLC Centre, so we know deliveries, noise, dust and waste have to be planned around everyone else in the building.

Heritage venues have extra steps

At The Observer Hotel in The Rocks, a State Heritage listed pub, the heritage architect signed off every service route and we fitted the kitchen with fire suppression and a fire-separated cellar.

Protect the opening date

Tight deadlines, limited access, kitchen and services coordination, and late design changes are what usually push an opening back. Make decisions early, order long-lead items early, and leave time in the program for the finishing touches: signage, joinery details and lighting.

If you've got a venue opening coming up, talk to Dylan, Matt or Neil.