Book excerpt: An integrated approach to restaurant design, incorporating front- and back-of-the-house operations Restaurant design plays a critical role in attracting and retaining customers. At the same time, design must facilitate food preparation and service. Successful Restaurant Design shows how to incorporate your understanding of the restaurant's front- and back-of-the-house operations into a design that meets the needs of the restaurant's owners, staff, and clientele. Moreover, it shows how an understanding of the restaurant's concept, market, and menu enables you to create a design that not only facilitates a seamless operation but also enhances the dining experience. This Third Edition has been thoroughly revised and updated with coverage of all the latest technological advances in restaurant operations. Specifically, the Third Edition offers: All new case solutions of restaurant design were completed within five years prior to this edition's publication. The examples illustrate a variety of architectural, decorative, and operational solutions for many restaurant types and styles of service. All in-depth interviews with restaurant design experts are new to this edition. To gain insights into how various members of the design team think, the authors interviewed a mix of designers, architects, restaurateurs, and kitchen designers. New information on sustainable restaurant design throughout the book for both front and back of the house. New insights throughout the book about how new technologies and new generations of diners are impacting both front- and back-of-the-house design. The book closes with the authors' forecast of how restaurants will change and evolve over the next decade, with tips on how designers and architects can best accommodate those changes in their designs.