How to design the dining experience in 2022 and beyond

It is now time to decide which key elements of lockdown life will stay and which will go in the design of your business, says Ewald Damen.

At the beginning of 2020, we were told not to leave our houses, which consequently saw the closing of pubs, bars and restaurants around the world. The UK’s full lockdown between 20 March and 4 July dealt a devastating blow to the industry, resulting in a 90% economic downturn in the hospitality sector compared with February of the same year.

While customers had to adapt to the temporary loss of their night out, it severely affected the future of some proprietors and hospitality outlets as they grappled with no income and complicated regulations, such as limited guest numbers once restrictions started to ease.

With a challenging time hopefully behind us, it seems customers are keen to enjoy their eating and drinking out experiences once again. Positive forecasts suggest the UK restaurant market is set to recover to 94% of its 2019 value, reaching a total value of £11.2b.

The main question is: how do we now move forward – especially in the hospitality industry – and how will this experience affect the way we approach restaurant design in the years to come? Out with the new

I personally believe that most people will want to forget the past two years in hospitality and pick up on their journey pre-Covid, when restaurants were fun, entertaining and social venues, with welcoming environments and strong character and personality. Permanent redesign of restaurants and bars for social distancing and other Covid measures is unthinkable, as it feels most people have moved on from the effects of the pandemic and so expectations, therefore, have shifted back.

Let’s presume we need to be mindful of some of the imposed restrictions and insert some thinking on the lessons we learned on hygiene and guest safety, not to mention those who are still sensitive to the measures. However, for this to dictate the future of restaurant design with venues ending up as bland, sterile canteens, is far from what the customer’s vision will be.

The past years have also provided us with an acceleration of ‘movements’ in guest expectations. A push towards an honest realisation of sustainability and an ethical local attitude can have an impact on how restaurants create a community base and a positive reputation. Elements of this are not only in the food and staffing, but we increasingly see establishments reflecting this in their interior design. The survival mode brought on by the lockdowns has even inspired some restaurants to keep providing their locally sourced produce and turn part of their seating area into a small retail offer, selling a curated selection of wines and dry goods, adding a new level to the spatial requirements.

Notable in fashion and store design is also a direction of more strong, characterful identities that recognisably stand out. Fashion house Fendi created an in-house café, expanding its brand offering as a combined ‘dwell offer’, a strategy becoming increasingly popular and taking coffee culture in retail to the next level.

The word ‘experience’ is used a lot, but it seems we live in a world where an added visual or physical layer (or a simple Instagram picture) for entertainment purposes has the ability to attract a huge number of customers, as they experience your business through reviews on social media.

This will have an impact as guests are raising their already high standards, which range across the food quality, service and design of the venue. Ultimately, bars and restaurants will need to pay attention to their interior design at whatever level or style to stand out and be able to attract a more discerning customer base.

Ewald Damen is creative director at design specialist Virgile + Partners