Repeat business in the restaurant industry is by design

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 16, 2002 by Carolyn Walkup

Does a dynamic restaurant design promote repeat business?

Some say food and service are far more influential, while others say the design is equally important, if not more so, when one considers that it's the first thing diners see and experience when entering a restaurant.

I suppose the answer depends on the diner's orientation. One person may require pleasing environmental aesthetics, while another maybe oblivious of his surroundings.

I'm very aware of how everything around me looks and am appreciative of beauty, both in natural and in manmade wonders. When I'm dining out, how a restaurant looks and, consequently, makes me feel definitely influences my enjoyment of the meal and my intention to return.

My tastes in design encompass a wide range of styles and my like or dislike depends on how well the theme fits the restaurant's concept. Subtlety is always preferable to me.

As a fan of Art Deco, I admire places like Goodfellow's in downtown Minneapolis, which is a painstaking recreation of that city's historic Forum Cafeteria, dating from 1930. It contains the original fixtures from the Forum, at the insistence of the local historical society.

Goodfellow's is one of the few surviving examples of ZigZag Moderne, a subcategory of Art Deco popular in the United States between 1928 and 1934 that uses geometric patterns influenced by American Indian motifs. Diningroom highlights include decorative columns, snowflake chandeliers and hand-painted lake scenes on mirrors.

Arts & Crafts is another vintage design style that appeals to me. One of the best examples of that style I've seen in a restaurant is at North Pond, a seasonal, American restaurant overlooking the Lincoln Park lagoon. Nancy Warren, head of Chicago-based Warren Architects, fittingly chose Arts & Crafts to accent the cuisine of chef Bruce Sherman, who is a leading proponent of local artisan food producers.

Noteworthy elements of North Pond, located in a former ice skaters' warming house, are 9-foot glass French doors that afford views of the lagoon and surrounding park year-round. In cold weather an oversized Illinois fieldstone fireplace provides an ideal focal point.

Many restaurants have recaptured successfully the kitsch of the 1940s and 1950s, and one of my favorites is Club Lucky in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood. Club Lucky is a Southern Italian supper club in a working-class corner-tavern building that formerly was a VFW dance hall. Accoutrements include red naugahyde booths, black formica table tops, the original black-and-red checked linoleum floor and chandeliers that are replicas of those found in New York's Empire State Building.

Club Lucky's Art Deco half-horseshoe bar accented with red neon lighting is the perfect spot to indulge in a martini made in an antique shaker that would satisfy even the meticulous James Bond.

Back to the present: A much different mood is achieved at the brand new Aria, a contemporary, "culturally inspired, comfortably American" restaurant that replaces the departed Entre Nous in the Fairmont Chicago Hotel. Complete with its own outside entrance, Aria is aimed at attracting nonhotel guests.

Aria is an understated, modern space with curved walls, several "action stations" for display cooking and rich, natural building materials. "It is a dramatic environment that complements the contemporary world cuisine that is served here," said Marve Cooper, principal of Lieber Cooper Associates, which designed the restaurant.

Muted oranges and other earth tones warm the otherwise sleek space, as does skillfully placed indirect ceiling lighting. Browns, olives and golds in upholstery and paneling create a calming mood.

Diaphanous curtains muted a view of gently falling snow during a recent lunch, which also featured whimsical serving pieces, including a pewter, wide-mouthed-frog water pitcher, a flat porcelain foie gras dish shaped like a goose and a miniature silvery wok containing an Asian noodle dish.

Of course, some very successful restaurants do good business without big investments in design. However, I, for one, salute both the restaurant designers who make me feel good when I'm in the spaces they created and also the operators who hired them.