Restaurant Design

Restaurant Design

Like most other businesses, the restaurant trade has had to adapt to progress in changing styles and tastes. These days with so many cookery programmes on television showing us how we 'should' cook it could even be said that cookery and certainly food presentation is an artform in itself.

Since the early days of “novelle cuisine” the emphasis has been on how the plate looks as well as how good the food is to eat. Eating out has come a long way in a relatively short period of time.

Even going back to the early 1970's there were very few restaurants compared with today, certainly most regions including cities such as Chester would have very few restaurants to choose from and those available were invairably fairly dark and ominous places to visit, with an overbearing maitre d' and a sneering sommelier serving obscure food and wine, you would hardly consider calling these places inviting...more of a challenge.

Fortunately times changed and with the advent of more selection there came a much more relaxed but competitive industry. Increased food hygene inspection also meant food quality improved immeasurably as well. Everywhere you went choice were more readily available, with yet more and more different styles of cooking from all corners of the globe. Each type of restaurant's style has changed over time as well. If you are old enough to remember eating out in an Indian restaurant in the late 1970's it is a quite different experience today....in most cases.

But have we peaked? A latest poll has shown a drop for the first time ever in numbers of people eating out. If Chester restaurants or anywhere for that matter aren't careful maybe we will see a reversal in quantity. Back to the 1970's? I hope not.

by Phil Hendon