Putting On An Addition...

[firechef37]

I was looking over the dining room addition bids that are being put in today and realized I have no idea how many tables, booths etc we can fit in a space 29' long by 15.2' wide. We were hoping for atleast one "big" corner style booth and three "regular" 4 person booths and three or four cafe style 4 top tables. Does this sound like too much for the space?

[old man]

Sounds about right to me. More space between tables is good, booths don't matter - need about 6.5-7 feet per booth.

[chefgbs]

Generally speaking, you need 12-15 sq. ft. per seat, depending on the style of service. I assume your place is casual, apologies in advance if I'm wrong. Using these numbers, you have 441 sq.ft to work with, so you can seat anywhere from 29 to 36 people. A lot of it depends on the layout, of course. Is this going to be a separate room?

[jonesg]

The fire dept will tell you, they have the last word on that.

Other issues creep in too, if you go over the local limit you might be required to add seperate bathrooms etc.

Its rarely as simple as "push that wall out and rake in the money".

I've got 7 freakin sinks ...just in the kitchen area....and they wanted me to add another hand sink.
I moved the sandwich unit closer to the handsink to shut them up.

Just don't expect common sense to be their guide.

[firechef37]

The bathroom issue and new walk in coolers and freezers have been taken care of and the fire department has approved 36 seats giving us a new total of 64 total seats once all is done. That is hypothetical as just "doubling" seating will give people more room. Our State health/food inspector and her boss have looked over the plans and our ability to meet increased food demands and have approved our current kitchen layout as well.

On another note...any good companies supply the midwest with tables, chairs, booths etc.?

Common sense has never played a role in our operations with the fire inspector. He owns the company that does all the Ansul work in our area. We were allowed to open by him last year because he had ordered the equipment needed to meet changes in life safety codes...sometimes a small town is nice.