Plover Multi Purpose Chair by Eravolution Limited and a Group of THEi Students

Eravolution Limited and a Group of THEi Students, 2019 | Courtesy of A’ Design Awards & Competition

The restaurant industry has rebounded like never before, so much so that lots of people are starting to think about putting their money back into this type of business. Starting a restaurant is most definitely something that can enable you to start earning a truly amazing level of income each and every year, but before you dive into this industry you need to know about its ins and outs. Too many restaurateurs that do not have a lot of experience as of yet make the mistake of jumping in without first acknowledging the needs of the business, and that is why so many restaurants end up closing their doors well before anyone would get the chance to fully appreciate them.

One thing that we would like to say about the mistakes that new restaurant owners make is that they often fail to innovate. We’re not just talking about the menu here either, there’s plenty of innovation in that respect. Rather, we are talking about how the furniture that is used in various gastronomic establishments has not really undergone any kind of change over the past couple of decades, and this is something that needs to change sooner rather than later.

Innovation does not have to restrict to the food that you offer. It can be extended to every single aspect of your eating establishment, including the restaurant chairs that you might have on offer. Everyone has been to restaurants with straight-backed chairs and the like, and while you can find a lot of success by offering people things that they have gotten used to over the years, you need to understand that mixing things up and offering a variety of options to your customers makes a lot of sense too.

If you were to give your customers a choice of not just the food that they can eat but the chairs that they can sit on while they eat it, suffice it to say that your restaurant would become a roaring success before too long. One suggestion that we can give you is that you might want to try using rocking chairs in your eatery. This might sound odd to you, but you should hear us out before you pass judgment because there is a whole lot more to this advice than initially meets the eye.

Walter Gropius Chair | © Walter Gropius

Chances are that you associate rocking chairs with old grandmas knitting a sweater for their grandchildren. This image might not be something that you would want associated with your restaurant, but if you take a deeper look into it you might realize what we are trying to say. Try to parse the emotions that are associated with that image and see what you feel. Things like comfort, warmth, security and coziness are all a big part of that image. We have all sat at our grandmas’ feet and watched them knit us a sweater, and if you manage to incorporate that emotion into your restaurant then you can get a surprising amount of success out of at the end of the day.

Remember, a restaurant doesn’t just sell food. People can make food at home after all, so what you offer to them needs to go far beyond that. Much on the contrary, restaurants sell experiences, and what is the most important thing that determines an experience? It is the feeling that we associate with it, so by implementing furniture ideas that evoke emotions we can mold the customer experience and turn it into something or the other that they are going to want to keep coming back for time and time again.

A rocking chair is also just generally a very comfortable type of chair to sit in. The gentle rocking motion can give your customers a sense of ease, as if they are in the den of their own home rather than being in a public location. If you manage to space your tables out adequately enough, you can also give customers the type of privacy that can enable them to truly take advantage of this type of chair because they would not end up feeling self conscious and would instead be able to rock to their heart’s delight.

Balloon Chair

Balloon Chair

Another benefit of rocking chairs is that the motion helps to boost digestion. Our digestive systems are not perfect after all, and food often has a bit of trouble getting through because pockets of gas and other obstructions can get in the way thereby causing indigestion and the like. Rocking back and forth can help ease the passage of food through our digestive tract by jostling it around just a little bit, thereby making it so that any obstructions that would have gotten in the way would no longer be relevant.

Bear in mind that only gentle rocking is going to give you this result. Rocking too aggressively is going to result in even worse indigestion, but your patrons are going to feel uncomfortable if they rock back and forth too hard while eating anyway so you can just let human intuition do its thing in that respect.

Providing your customers with a rocking chair will give them a reason to get their foot in through the door. The most difficult part of owning a restaurant is finding a way to entice people into giving your restaurant a try, and a set of rocking chairs is going to do just that and then some. A customer that enjoys eating in a rocking chair is going to want to come back time and time again, and this can result in you getting a very reliable source of revenue that you can make the most of and keep your restaurant afloat for the foreseeable future.

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