Creating a mood for food in North East restaurants

Jan 8 2009 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

The magic restaurant ingredient is not monosodium glutamate, it’s ambience. Alastair Gilmour considers how it’s achieved through thoughtful design.

THE design of a restaurant involves so much more than simply decorating and arranging the furniture.

Surroundings influence food appreciation and no area should be created in isolation – the risk of throwing the cheque book out with the dishwater is all too real.

Our surroundings have a significant effect on the way we feel and how we are likely to respond. Interior design influences a restaurant’s atmosphere with an enormous impact on a customer’s decision-making.

Designers must take care to avoid anything that is likely to make us feel uncomfortable or even distressed – low ceilings, small windows and narrow rooms can be intimidating – and should aim for a harmonious environment that ultimately has a positive effect on our mood.

Italian restaurants should suggest romance, while French ones should have an air of je ne sais quoi – a concept difficult to grasp but achieved through creative thought and wonderful food presented well.

It’s the job of the interior designer working closely with the establishment’s owner to maximise those positives and to create opportunities out of a given space and budget. That’s the approach taken by Judith Addyman who runs Boldon-based Restaurant Design Associates with her husband Roy. They and their team of designers and hospitality specialists examine every detail and peer into every corner alongside the proprietor.

Judith says: “You would start by looking at the most important thing, the type of food that’s going to be served. It’s also very important to get front of house right, although the most money is normally spent on the kitchen area where the very expensive equipment is – and it’s the part the customers don’t normally see.

“We look at warmth and comfort and make sure that furniture and carpets are top of the range because we want people to sit down and to keep them there – and you want them to come back, of course. “These days so many business meetings and catch-ups are in coffee shops and restaurants that some McDonalds have an executive corner with soft leather club chairs and black granite flooring.”

Subdued lighting can make us feel more relaxed and can increase the perception of attractiveness, according to university psychologists in Tokyo. An expensive restaurant where the idea is to create a culinary experience is more likely to be lit unobtrusively, together with lower tables and comfortable seating arranged in a way that creates privacy and encourages the diner to linger.

Fast-food establishments, on the other hand, generally demand a rapid turnover of custom and actively encourage people to eat up quickly by using harsher lighting and more practical seating set in close proximity. Their overall colours tend to be bold and striking.

“You can create a mood through colour,” says Judith, “and lighting is very, very important, but it’s something the customer shouldn’t really notice.

“It’s the whole ambience that’s important, there’s a psychology behind it. For example, we’re designing a student bar in Leeds at the moment so we don’t want it to look too expensive like a Starbucks or a Costa Coffee – that might frighten them off.”

An interior designer should understand the operation of a restaurant with the flow of the food from kitchen to table considered alongside customer circulation, staff needs and the feel of fabrics and furnishings.

Restaurants which have grasped the significance of appropriate interior design could be in the running for the Best Interior category of the North East Restaurant Awards 2009, which are run in association with the Gourmet Society and sponsored by The Journal, our sister paper the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough, North East crockery and cutlery firm Crosby’s and German catering equipment supplier Schönwald.

The aim of the awards is to celebrate and highlight the region’s restaurant scene and its many culinary delights from across the globe.

To this end, readers are being encouraged to enjoy some of the exquisite food served up by dining out at one of the region’s 500-plus restaurants and gastro pubs. About 500,000 voting cards are being distributed to restaurants in the North, giving diners the chance to nominate their favourite in the 14 categories to be decided by the public.

Designers also have to keep one eye on the market and how tastes develop and change – a process that is getting faster and faster. What was fresh and new two years ago may be tired and overdone today.

“Trends come and go,” says Judith. “At one time it was all pinks, purples and mauves but there’s a move now towards black and white.”

The trick, as always, is to determine what customers want – and when they linger over that second bottle of wine, you know designer and chef have cracked it.

Voting for the 14 categories open to the public close on January 23.

CATEGORIES

Best Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside Restaurant – sponsored by NewcastleGateshead Initiative

Best Durham Restaurant – sponsored by FQ magazine

Best Teesside and Cleveland Restaurant – sponsored by CBS Investments

Best South Tyneside and Sunderland Restaurant

Best Northumberland Restaurant

Best Drinks List – sponsored by Carlsberg UK

Best Small Restaurant – sponsored by Business Link

Best Indian Restaurant

Best Oriental Restaurant – sponsored by Aspers Casino

Best European Restaurant – sponsored by DFDS Seaways

Best Value For Money Restaurant – sponsored by George Payne Butchers

Best Chain Restaurant – sponsored by RobRoy Lettings

Best New Restaurant – sponsored by uniquethinking

Best Interior – sponsored by Restaurant Design Associates.