After a difficult year 2020, restaurateurs and patrons are excited to dine again. The return of restaurant dining means that many restaurants are looking to enhance the dining room experience to create something unique and exciting for diners. As an interior designer, I’ve worked with several Valley restaurants to improve their dining space. Here are some of the most popular restaurant design trends used by Phoenix restaurant owners.
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A dining experience that captures all the senses
Experiential dining is a dining experience that invigorates all of your senses by integrating the stimulating dining experience of the food into the design of the restaurant. This means that the dining experience should completely entice you with the unique sights, sounds, tastes and aromas. For example, a restaurant looking to give you the feeling of dining in a beautiful garden might use real floral or botanical motifs to give the impression that dinner is outside. They can also play the sound of a waterfall or soothing music through the speaker system or use digital screens to shoot a garden scene. They can also make cocktails that smell like flowers.
Incorporating all of these sensory elements into your restaurant’s menu and design gives diners an experience they can’t get anywhere else and help you stand out in a busy and competitive industry.
Blur the line between day and night
Dala Al-Fayers is the owner and principal designer of House of Form, a boutique hospitality design firm based in Scottsdale.
When we think of a bar, we usually think of a space that oozes dark, intimate nighttime vibes. A nice cocktail bar or a cozy bar comes to mind when you think of your typical bar at night. However, the line between day and night is blurring as bar and restaurant owners look to design spaces that can transition from afternoon to night while giving the space a unique feel during each time of the day.
Patrons want a bar space worth visiting during the day and at night. This means creating a space suitable for evening cocktails as well as afternoon coffee. This means that designers have to be aware of how the space will look when the lights are out. Designers choose things that can make an impact when in lower light levels such as heavy textures, bar fronts, columns in space, and fabric on bar stools. Using contrasting colors in a space can make different parts of the bar stand out at different times of the day.
Lighting is also incredibly important in transitioning your bar from a daytime space to a nighttime space. This means allowing plenty of natural light to shine through in the day and using intimate, dim lights at night.
Restaurant and bar owners are looking for a space that accommodates customers at all times of the day.
Get rid of the TV
A few years ago, every bar needed a TV so customers could watch the game and have an occasional drink. However, there are many bar owners who are looking to ditch TVs altogether in order to make their bar more experienced around drinks, communication, and crafting a personal connection.
Ditching the TV is becoming increasingly common with any bar with a heavy focus on cocktails. Many customers want to focus on the company they are dealing with as the mixologist prepares a complex cocktail rather than just watching the game.
Bringing the outdoors indoors
Restaurant owners have really taken to the concept of lively neighborhood interior design. This design concept brings the outdoor life and beauty inside your restaurant. You can incorporate biophilic design into your restaurant by designing with plants and plants so that your customers feel like they are outside and not locked inside. The restaurant owner can also use natural tones in the material palette to mimic the rocks outside or the trees around.
Biophilic design is great because you can give your clients the feeling of being outside in a climate-controlled environment. Outside patios create a great dining experience, but are limited by the weather outside.
Valley restaurant owners are looking forward to giving their customers a more complete dining experience that captures all the senses. These design trends help them craft that complete experience.
Dala Al-Fuwaires is the owner and principal designer of model house A boutique hospitality design company based in Scottsdale. They specialize in creating memorable spaces and experiences for restaurants, hotel groups and other commercial spaces.