Restaurant construction projects are layered in complexities. For one, the industry is highly regulated, which makes for its own challenges. On top of that, however, building a restaurant requires owners to make many choices. And it’s these choices – some big and some small – that can have a major impact on a restaurant’s design and buildout. In this post, we’ll focus on refrigeration needs and how they play a role in restaurant design and construction.

Why You Need to Assess Refrigeration Needs During Pre-Construction

When building a restaurant, you know the commercial kitchen appliances you’re going to need: a range and hood system, dishwashing station, refrigeration, grease trap, etc. But beyond that, most people don’t spend as much time as they should evaluating how their needs will shift how these appliances operate in their kitchen. This is why during pre-construction, we encourage clients to dig a little deeper into how they intend to use the kitchen so we can fully optimize the design, including appliance size and placement.

In terms of refrigeration, walk-in coolers and freezers can be commonplace in restaurant construction. Before choosing one, however, we encourage clients to consider questions like these during pre-construction for their buildout:

• What unique refrigeration needs will your restaurant have?
• What size restraints are you working with within your space?
• Do you need a walk-in cooler to meet your operational needs or does a standard appliance suffice?
• What is the ideal placement of your refrigeration appliances?

Every restaurant is different, and if you’re going through the work of building a custom kitchen, it should be designed and built with your needs in mind – not those of the previous tenant.

For help understanding your commercial kitchen needs and how those can be accommodated into a custom design/build, come talk to us at Seacoast Consulting Group and Seacoast Construction. We proactively approach every project to help our clients from pre-construction and site selection through to project completion. To learn more and set up a free consultation, get in touch with our team at Seacoast Consultants.