Property types
Creating a floor plan for a restaurant or bar
Hospitality deals rarely fall through on rent and almost always on services: no extraction, a kitchen that is too small, no grease trap, no separate delivery route. A plan that shows those points filters prospects faster than any description.
At the same time, the cover count is the figure every operator works with. It follows from the dining area, the furniture layout and the circulation you have to keep clear — and it can only be derived credibly from a plan drawn to scale.
Separate dining room, kitchen and back of house
State the areas separately: dining room, bar, kitchen, wash-up, chilled and dry storage, staff room, customer WCs. That split is the basis of every calculation and of the conversation with the environmental health officer.
Draw the food route: from delivery into storage, from storage into the kitchen, from the kitchen into the dining room, and separately the return path of dirty crockery. Where those routes cross, you get conditions attached and conversion costs.
- Show dining, kitchen, storage and WCs as separate areas
- Draw the delivery and waste routes
- Note the extraction shaft and where exhaust discharges
- Lay out covers with tables and clear circulation
Deriving a defensible cover count
Furnish the dining room on the plan with realistic table sizes and keep the circulation clear. Only then is the cover count a number you can defend rather than an estimate that collapses at the first inspection.
Do not forget outside seating if it exists. A terrace or forecourt is the commercially decisive part of many concepts and belongs on the plan with its area and its cover count.
Services that have to be visible on the plan
Note where the extraction shaft runs and where exhaust air discharges. Without a route to roof level, a full kitchen is in practice not consentable in many older buildings — and that has to be clear before the viewing, not after.
Grease traps, three-phase power and the position of the cold room matter just as much. Place them as symbols on the plan and explain them in the legend rather than burying them in a footnote.
Frequently asked questions
How do I derive the cover count from a plan?
Lay out tables and chairs to scale and keep circulation clear. The number of places left is defensible. A rule of thumb per square metre regularly produces inflated figures.
Which services belong on the plan?
Everything that makes a conversion expensive: extraction shaft and discharge, grease trap, three-phase power, cold room and the position of the connections. Those decide whether a unit supports a full kitchen.
Should outside seating be on the plan?
Yes, if it forms part of the demise. For many concepts the external area carries a large share of turnover. Show it separately with its area and cover count.