October 2019 Digital Issue

method to take space in an industrial area that
doesn’t have to be retail driven. As a result,
restaurants can take more of a QSR approach
because you don’t have the burden of frontof-house
costs.”
And, as delivery, takeout and online ordering
gain popularity, Nanci Giovinazzo, principal
at Food Forward Consulting in Toronto,
says her clients are reconsidering how they
plan out their kitchens.
“I’ve got some clients with 30 per cent of
their revenue coming in from takeout,” she
says. “So, [many of them] are adding commissary
areas that are not downtown based and
are a less expensive to build. These commissaries
are able to service the smaller location,
their main kitchen, which then becomes the
finishing kitchen.”
MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
With the higher cost per square foot, casual
and fine dining are motivated to shrink kitchens
in order to add more revenue-generating
seats, Wolfe says. “But you can’t just reduce
the footprint of the kitchen and generate the
same volume of output doing things the same
way as yesterday. It simply doesn’t work.”
Reducing kitchen size and labour requirements
in back of the house allows operators
to get out front where the revenue streams
are, explains Doug Feltmate, foodservice
and hospitality consultant with Planned
Foodservice Solutions Inc. in Ottawa. “If
you’re paying $35/sq. ft. gross rent for your
space, 15 sq. ft. will cost $525 a year in the
back of house. The same 15 sq. ft. could generate
$1,000 to $15,000 annually in the front
of house.”
The question remains, how do you take a
2,400-sq.-ft. space and achieve the same productivity
and revenue in 1,800-sq.-ft. of space
with fewer staff, he adds. “The equipment
used in your operation with be that determining
factor.”
Equipment basics that can play a key role
in reducing space and labour requirements
are a combi-oven, a blast chiller/freezer and
a vacuum-pack machine, Feltmate says. “The
proper combi can replicate several different
cooking environments and eliminate the need
for several other pieces without sacrificing
food and service quality and times.”
Technology also comes into play on a number
of fronts, Wolfe notes. “Many efficiencies
are technology driven. For example,
self-cleaning appliances, cloud-based connectivity
for remote programming and
maintenance, capacitive touch interfaces and
tablets allow operators to be more effective in
controlling operations. With cloud connectivity
for example, you can videoconference,
conduct training across the country, program
equipment, manage diagnostics and even do
maintenance remotely.”
Self-ordering/self-paying kiosks in QSRs
are proving valuable tools for optimizing
space and reducing the number of cashiers.
“McDonald’s has led the charge in selfordering
and payment kiosks,” Feltmate says.
“Three kiosks will replace two cashiers and
eliminate lineups. A $15,000 to $20,000 initial
investment could save $60,000 to $75,000
annually in labour.”
Switching to a cashless system for any
operation also saves considerable labour at
the end of the shift, allowing for instant server
and management reconciliations
with the POS system without
having to count, balance and do
cash deposits.
The QSR sector is also leaning
a bit more on speed-cooking
technology, Wolfe notes. “They’re
not having to predict how many
[items] they’re going to sell.
Rather, they can heat and crisp
items when they need to without
pre-heating.”
“Even in food-court kiosks,
they may not be cooking but finishing
it in front of customers in a
rapid-cook oven. It adds a level of
quality to the process. To that end,
we’re seeing more attractive rapid-cook
ovens coming into play,
with curved corners and matte
colours, not institutional hunks
of stainless steel,” says Andrew Waddington,
senior consultant with fsSTRATEGY Inc.
in Toronto.
With the growing trend to expanding
menus, multi-purpose equipment is gaining
ground at all levels and driving the need for
multi-purpose systems even more, he adds.
“Even Tim Hortons is doing fries and burgers
now. When menus expand, footprints can’t
match it, so equipment has to do more with
the same space.”
FROM THE
SUPPLY
SIDE
More operations are adding eco-friendly
functions to the equipment mix, Waddington
says. “Most major refrigeration companies are
using more environmentally friendly coolants,
for example. More operators are choosing
high-efficiency hoods and demand-control
exhaust systems. We’re seeing a lot more
focus on ventless technology, rapid-cook
ovens and warewashers that recapture heat
and require less chemicals.”
EQUIPMENT SHOWCASE
Fine dining stands apart in situations where
equipment is often more about branding and
innovation. “Because fine dining pushes innovation
in food, it’s also pushing equipment
innovation,” Wolfe says.
Open-display cooking is becoming an
increasingly popular option. “People always
want to see the kitchen; they want to see the
action,” says Ori Grad, broker at CHI Real
Estate Group in Toronto, which helps restaurateurs
find their ideal space.
“But this means operators need
to have better and cleaner-looking
equipment.”
In fact, for many fine-dining
CAMERA-READY LOGOTYPE – UL MARK FOR CANADA AND THE U
The QuiQsilver operations, the push is on to
Roll-O-Matic create showcase kitchens that
silverwarerolling
machine in a wide range of materials, fin-
include higher-end equipment
wraps all kinds
ishes and formats to reflect the
of flatware in napkins
at a rate of 500 sets branding and decor, Wolfe notes.
per hour. The Roll-O- “Once you lose the walls, you
Matic also rolls and can do a lot with the space. Now
and chopsticks. Not you can take predetermined setups
and configure lines however
only does this piece
of equipment reduce
labour, but it you want into a smaller space,
sanitizes each set with [modular] elements like
with a built-in ultraviolet
light as it rolls. spaces or griddles.”
burners, French tops, warming
“When you become a morespecialized
restaurant, the equipment
reflects that,” Waddington says.
Whatever the equipment and technology
choices, operators will need to move outside
their traditional comfort zones, Feltmate says.
“They’re going to have to explore different
ways to do things and dump the traditional
thought process of, ‘well that’s the way we’ve
always done it.’ Good operational planning
and facilities design are needed more than
ever. The solutions are out there...they just
have to be put in place.” FH
36 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY OCTOBER 2019 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM