By Wissam Baghdadi
A beautiful interior can draw a crowd. But when a restaurant needs regular custom to survive, its concept must give guests a reason to return, writes Wissam Baghdadi.
As an F&B operator with more than 27 years of experience and the founder of Restauratomy, I work across restaurant concept development, operations, menu profitability and growth. That perspective shapes the question I ask of any concept: how will the business work once the doors open?
I keep noticing restaurants where considerable thought and money have gone into the interiors, yet the dining room remains quiet for much of the week.
The furniture, lighting and finishes all suggest ambition. On certain occasions, these places fill up. People come, take pictures and enjoy the setting. Then the occasion passes, and the restaurant is quiet again.
I find myself asking: how much thought went into understanding the customer’s reason to come back?
An almost empty dining room at a particular hour tells us very little on its own. Some restaurants make their money during a few concentrated periods. Others are designed for celebrations and special occasions. They do not need to become someone’s Tuesday lunch spot to succeed.
But their economics need to reflect that reality. My concern is when a restaurant depends financially on frequent visits while offering an experience customers will choose only occasionally. That is a gap between the offer and the demand that an expensive interior cannot close.
Design the visit
When I am building a concept, I find it necessary to ask: what place in someone’s life will it occupy?
In hospitality, we spend a great deal of time describing concepts. We talk about the cuisine, the menu, the atmosphere and the experience we want to create. These are essential parts of concept development.
I think we should spend more time describing the visit. Who is coming? What brings them here today? How much time will they spend? What are they comfortable spending? Realistically, how often will they return?
A business lunch, a family dinner and a celebration are different buying decisions. Each comes with its own expectations around convenience, service, price and atmosphere.
A customer might love a restaurant and still have very few reasons to visit it. They might recommend it for a celebration while choosing somewhere else for an ordinary meal.
That distinction matters. Being admired does not automatically make a restaurant commercially sustainable. The frequency of demand has to support the business around it.
Test demand before committing
Good design matters. It can make people feel comfortable, give a place character and help justify the experience. But I have seen too many projects where the design becomes the proof that the concept will work. It isn’t.
With an interior, you can see the money. You can walk the site, move things around and keep improving. Demand is harder. You have to test your assumptions, speak to people who are not invested in the idea and accept that the market may not show up as often as the model says it will.
Renderings make everything look busy. The harder question is who will actually fill those seats on an ordinary Wednesday, at the price you plan to charge, once the novelty has worn off. That answer should come before the budget is locked in. Otherwise, the investment starts dictating the price — and customers do not care what it cost to build the restaurant.
Look beyond a full room
A full restaurant is encouraging, but I also want to understand why it was full.
Was demand driven by a celebration, a promotion, high season, an event or the excitement of something new? Would those guests return under normal circumstances, paying the regular price?
These questions help distinguish occasional success from a repeatable pattern.
When quiet periods follow, the instinct may be to increase marketing. That can help when the right customers simply do not know the restaurant exists. But awareness is only one possible problem.
People may already know about the restaurant. They may even have enjoyed it. The barriers to another visit could be the price, the location, the menu or simply the absence of an occasion that makes it relevant again.
More exposure alone will not solve those issues. The operator needs to understand what is delaying or preventing the next visit.
Plan for an ordinary week
Before committing to a concept, I would want a convincing answer to a simple question: what does an ordinary trading week look like?
Which customers come during each period? What do they buy? How often do they return? What evidence supports those expectations?
The answers should shape the positioning, venue size, menu, staffing, opening hours and investment, allowing for realistic periods of quieter trading.
An occasion restaurant can be a sound business. A neighbourhood restaurant can be a sound business. The difficulty comes when costs assume neighbourhood frequency while the offer attracts occasion demand.
For me, that is where the discussion must begin.
We know how to create impressive hospitality spaces. The more demanding task is building a business around a clear understanding of the people who will visit them.
Before asking how a restaurant should look, ask who it is for, whose life it fits into, why they would choose it and what would bring them back.
About the author
Wissam Baghdadi is the founder of Restauratomy and an F&B executive, operator and author with more than 27 years of experience.
Restauratomy helps restaurants, cafés and F&B ventures with concept development, operations, menu profitability and growth. Learn more at restauratomy.com.
Images: Nobu One Za’abeel, Dubai / Rockwell Group; Pink Mamma, Paris / Big Mamma Group.
Portrait: Wissam Baghdadi, founder of Restauratomy.
