Cafe and restaurant architecture · France
We designed a patisserie and cafe in France.
Three separate businesses run inside the same shell: bakery retail, a quick breakfast and sitting down for coffee. If all three are to work at once, the display, the queue and the seating must not overlap. Below we set out how those three were separated.
- Location
- France
- Space type
- Patisserie, cafe and quick breakfast
- Scope
- Interior design, display layout and visualisation
- Stage
- Design
Design principle
In a patisserie the display case is the centre of the architecture. A project that places it afterwards like a piece of furniture produces a queue that cannot see the product and a customer who cannot make the decision to buy from outside.
01
Timber portals at the entry
The entrance sits on an axis running through the middle of the shell, with timber-slatted portals set on either side. A portal is not a door; it is a frame that keeps whoever walks in on the axis.
The gaps between the portals are used as shelving. Packaged goods, jars and planters sit there, so the customer has seen the range before reaching the display case.
The floor is patterned tile at the entry and plain timber in the room. The material makes the threshold: where the tile stops the retail area stops and the seating begins. That distinction keeps the queue from cutting between seated guests.
02
The front: three sections, three headings
Because the business has three separate jobs, the signage was divided into three. Coffee, breakfast and patisserie headings sit at even spacing on the timber-slatted fascia, so a customer chooses which section to head for from outside.
The display run continues along the line beneath those headings. Because the fascia and the display end on the same line, the front reads as a single horizontal band; a broken-up front would make the same product look smaller.
There is concealed lighting beneath the fascia and no spotlights above it. The light falls on the product rather than on the sign: in a patisserie the most expensive surface is the one behind the display glass.
03
Behind the counter
The band behind the display was divided into three functions: bread shelving on the left, the till in the middle, the coffee machine on the right. Staff cover those three points in a single step; with the wrong sequence the same task becomes three steps.
The wall behind the counter was split between open timber shelving and dark tile. The shelving is where packaged goods are seen and the tile is the wet zone; separating the two settles cleaning and stock visibility together.
The customer side of the counter was finished in vertical boarding. Horizontal surfaces show marks, while vertical boarding carries both marks and knocks — on a surface hundreds of people lean against daily that is a durability decision.
04
Mint arches and the mirror line
The long wall of the seating area was a blank surface. We turned it into a run of arches painted on a mint-green ground, with an oval mirror set inside each one.
The mirrors are there for depth rather than decoration. In a narrow room a mirror line reflecting the opposite wall pushes back the wall behind a seated guest, and the same room reads twice as wide.
The arches repeat at even spacing and the tables sit according to that spacing. Because the rhythm of the wall sets the table layout, when the operation wants to add a table the wall says where it goes.
05
The brick wall and the brand
The opposite wall of the room was left as brick, with the brand mark set at its centre as a lit relief. The contrast between the two long walls — painted arches on one side, raw brick on the other — separates the two sides of the room.
A high-backed buttoned banquette sits beneath the brick wall. Its back leaves the brick above eye level, so the raw material becomes something looked at rather than touched.
The arched mirrors repeat on this wall too, at a smaller size. Using the same element at two scales ties both sides of the room to one family without feeling repetitive.
06
Two sides of seating
The two sides of the long axis are not the same. The brick side was built with a continuous banquette and is closed to single-seat crossings; the arched side was built with loose chairs that can be joined during the day.
That asymmetry answers the rhythm of the business. In the morning the quick breakfast turns over fast on the loose side; in the afternoon guests who sit move to the banquette side. The same room works as two different layouts at two different hours.
The axis was left clear between the two sides and never narrowed. What staff carrying hot drinks on a tray need most is not another table but an uninterrupted line.
07
The window edge
The band along the glazed front is the most valuable seating and, for that reason, the most abused. Rather than squeezing tables in, the gaps between the two-seat tables were left open; the window edge fills itself.
The timber-slatted portals repeat in this band as well, framing the window without separating it from the room. A table behind a portal sits at the glass without feeling exposed.
Daylight bounces off the timber floor. Choosing a pale floor colour is the one decision that carries light to the back of the room in the afternoon, even on a north-facing front.
08
The display case itself
The display case was treated here as a piece of architecture rather than furniture. Its height was kept low enough for a standing customer to see the bottom shelf and high enough for the top shelf to stay at eye level.
Behind the glass there are three tiers: packaged and durable goods on the bottom, the product of the day in the middle, bulky bread on top. That order is the order in which the decision to buy is made — the best seller sits on the middle shelf, at eye level.
The body of the case shares the boarding language of the room, while the top is dark stone. Building one piece from two materials keeps the surface behind the product calm and the surface in front of it durable.
Decisions and common mistakes
| Item | Settled in the design | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Display height | The bottom shelf was set for a standing customer and the top shelf at eye level. | A stock-size case is bought and the bottom shelf is never seen. |
| Retail and seating | The floor material makes the threshold and the queue never enters the seating. | One floor is laid throughout and the queue passes between the tables. |
| Behind the counter | Bread shelving, till and coffee machine are covered in a single step. | The sequence follows the services rather than the plan and every task takes three steps. |
| Narrow room | An arch and mirror line was built on the long wall and the room reads wider. | The wall is painted flat and a narrow room looks narrower still. |
Frequently asked
- Where does the display case go in a patisserie?
- Where it can be seen from the door, along the line the queue walks. Here the case ends on the same line as the fascia, and behind the glass there are three tiers: packaged goods at the bottom, the product of the day in the middle, bulky bread on top. Because the decision to buy is made at eye level, the best seller goes on the middle shelf.
- Can retail and seating share one space?
- They can, provided the queue and the tables do not use the same line. Here the floor material makes the threshold: patterned tile at the entry and along the retail band, timber in the seating. Where the tile stops, retail stops. The long axis of the seating area is also never narrowed, so staff carrying trays have an uninterrupted line.
- How is a narrow cafe made to look wider?
- By building a mirror line on one long wall and finishing the two walls differently. Here one wall was finished with a run of mint-green arches and oval mirrors, the wall opposite with raw brick and a buttoned banquette. The mirrors double the depth by reflecting the far wall, and the difference between the two walls keeps the room from reading as a tunnel.
- Do you work on venues abroad?
- Yes, this project was prepared for France. The drawings and visuals are ours. Food-preparation, ventilation and fire rules differ in every country, so we run that part together with the architect of record or contractor on the ground.
Let’s talk about your space.
If you have the dimensions of the shell and know where production sits, we can start. Tell us how many products you want on display and we will draw the counter around that.