Edge: Smart Design Solutions for Small Spaces

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Edge: Smart Design Solutions for Small Spaces

By: David Voelz, CEC, CWPC, CCA, WCEC, CDM, CFPP, FMP, FSWC

IF YOU’RE LIKE ME and came through the ranks on the culinary side, you dreamed of working in a large kitchen perfectly appointed with every tool and gadget you could imagine.  Dreams of something like Thomas Keller’s ‘French Laundry,’ with its glorious windows to enjoy the view while prepping vegetables harvested 100 yards away.  Or maybe the main kitchen at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, with its soaring ceiling.

But the fact is, most of us have toiled away in tiny spaces that were more of an afterthought than a curated culinarian’s dream.  You’ve likely thought to yourself, “I don’t know who designed this place, but I’d love to have a pointed ‘conversation’ with them.”

From time to time, we find ourselves at a property that may not be building from the ground up, but perhaps there is a remodel or refresh that is budgeted.  While we might not have the opportunity to change or increase the footprint, we have an opportunity to address layout and equipment.  In a small space it’s essential that we only put in what is necessary, and arrange the space for maximum efficiency and output.  What follows are some thoughts and guidelines to consider when the opportunity arises to contribute to that planning.

THE MENU

The first thought for your small space has to be the menu.  Of course, we know that the menu will shift and vary over time, but it will not likely change completely in the space it’s in.  The menu informs everything — equipment, staffing, dry storage space, mechanicals, and flow.  If you don’t know what your menu will be and you start to make all of these decisions without it, it will be like putting 10 pounds of sugar in a 5-pound bag.  There will be stuff on top of stuff, no clearly defined flow, and ultimately give you a kitchen that is impossible to clean and will frustrate your staff to no end.  We all live and die by our health inspections and audits.  Everyone agrees that good staff is hard to find.  It is essential that we take the time to consider our menu as the starting point, so we don’t end up making a small space impossible to maintain and staff.

Some years ago I had the opportunity to do a remodel on a pool kitchen at a country club.  Everyone knows that of all the kitchens, this one is a glorified closet with the remnants of too many chefs’ forgotten menus and intentions.  Though the space didn’t get too much larger in the remodel, the first thing we did was to refine the menu so that we could begin to home in on all the elements noted above.

EQUIPMENT CONSIDERATIONS

When thinking about equipment for a small kitchen, the phrase “the less, the better” should be your guiding principle.  The first reason for this is the most obvious: space.  Remember that we only have a 5-pound bag, so we need to restrain ourselves in terms of equipment.  While you are dreaming of all the fancy and shiny things you want to put into your kitchen, don’t forget about the boring things that quickly take away floor space.  Things like prep tables, freezers, three-compartment sinks, or dishwashers.  You may not need all these items in your space, but even if you need one or two of them, you can kiss some square footage goodbye.

At my current continuing care retirement community (CCRC), I inherited a planned small kitchen renovation.  On the sketch, the updated kitchen looked so big, with so much room.  But the moment of truth came when we started putting in drying racks, shelving, and glass racks on dollies.  All that room the sketch showed was gone in an instant.

Look for equipment that can perform multiple tasks.  Maybe instead of a steamer and an oven, a combi will work.  If you are doing a lot of sandwiches, instead of a panini press, toaster, and a griddle, you can make do with just the griddle and a grill weight.

The second reason to be judicious with the amount of equipment you shoehorn into your tiny kitchen is heat.  Especially when summer comes and the return air is dumping air from the roof (that could actually be another cooking surface!), you and your staff will be glad that there is a limited amount of equipment giving off heat.  What we all know to be true is that the air conditioning in kitchens, the exhaust hood, and any other ventilation do an adequate job at best at keeping our kitchens at a decent temperature.  Don’t add flame to the fire by piling up other heat-emitting equipment.  Also remember that refrigeration, though its job is cooling, puts off a great deal of heat from its compressors, which also add to the heat level of the room.

WORKFLOW

This element is the trickiest of them all.  While we are planning where to put our carefully thought-out equipment, we have to remember to make room for people to actually work in this small space.  Cooks will have to get to that stand-up freezer that wouldn’t fit on the line that is over in that weird corner.  Servers must be able to move from the window through the maze of stainless steel equipment with a tray on their shoulder and make it to the serving area, without looking like an old-fashioned pinball machine striking targets.

Start by identifying the natural traffic paths in the kitchen.  You need to get in and out.  You need to get up and down the cook line, and from the pass to the dining room.  Once you have established those paths, start to look at the other workflows that are challenging because of the diminished footprint.  How are you going to wash dishes?  Is there a sink or machine in the space?  Can it be easily accessed?  If not, you’ll require a bus cart to put dirty items on and it can’t be in the middle of the aisle.  Don’t forget the all-important hand sinks.  They must always remain unobstructed, so that’s not the place to park the bus cart.  And don’t we want everyone to be able to wash their hands as much as possible anyway, to protect against contamination?

STAFFING

Here’s the kicker with small spaces.  You’ve got to have a small staff.  Hopefully you aren’t feeding an army out of a closet and have an appropriate load for the size of kitchen you are provided.  But with that said, the hunt for some superstars is necessary.  Dig deep into your labor budgets and make room for these crusaders.  Kitchen staff here will likely be working alone a great deal of the time, or with minimal assistance.  Small spaces are often forgotten or out of the normal path of traffic.  Look for cooks who may have some supervisory experience.  They are likely going to be supervising themselves most of the time.  You will need self-starters and people that will understand your expectations.  They will be the ones slogging through orders in a less than desirable amount of space, making more runs to stock their kitchen, and probably working in the hottest place on campus.  They deserve to be rewarded financially, and in any other way your employee recognition budget can bear.  Having trouble finding new recruits?  Have you thought about that one cook that has great skills but may not play well with others?  Their oasis may be in that single-person operation where they can do their own thing.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

In my experience of building, remodeling, or refitting small kitchens, the one thing that I have always found to be true is that I never get all the things I want.  There is always a compromise to be made.  It may be smaller coolers, less BTUs for the stove, and an immovable obstacle in what you think is the perfect pathway for efficiency.  Don’t be discouraged.  As with most situations, your staff will naturally find their own efficiencies for working in a small and disjointed space. Remember to start with your menu.  This feeds all other decisions along the way.  Sure, you may move the drying rack from this side to that, or have to go to the main freezer for French fries three times a day instead of once.  What is most important is that you proceed along your project thoughtfully with the understanding that small can also be mighty with the right foresight and planning.