If you ask restaurant designer Karl Hasz (photo) about the big new thing in his industry, he’ll tell you it’s small. Meaning small restaurants, which tend to bring small cost and small risks.
For an example of what he’s talking about, consider the case of local restaurateur Andrew McCormack, who in 2004 opened a financial district extravaganza called Frisson, with 200 seats and lounges on 2 floors. McCormack’s next project, expected to open by the end of the year, is a tidier Marina place called Laiola, with a third as many seats and a budget in the hundreds of thousands rather than the millions.
That sort of downscaling, Hasz said, is a growing part of his business, with restaurateurs like Joseph Manzare of Tres Agaves and Dennis Leary of Rubicon contributing to the small trend, with 45-seat Pescheria and 22-seat Canteen, respectively. A small restaurant is more expensive to build per square foot if you are installing essentials like extra water hookups and ventilation for the first time. But it means you can get by with a tiny staff and spend less on utilities.
With the minimum wage up in each of the past 4 years and heath-care mandates slated to hit restaurants with more than 20 employees, keeping headcount down has become more important to restaurant owners. And with construction costs starting at $300 per square foot and easily rising up to $600 per square foot, controlling total footprint has its own advantages.
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