StarrDesignTeam

It’s not exactly a revelation to say that everyone today walks around with a supercomputer in their pocket. This fact has changed how people live, work and play — and how they do business with restaurants. Device culture’s most obvious impact on the foodservice sector is the rise of online/app-based ordering and the subsequent pickup by either the customer or delivery driver. The shift toward this revenue stream started prior to 2020 but accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operators, therefore, need to make pick-up areas and operations a central part of the design process, says Ignacio “Iggy” Goris, principal and co-founder of Profitality, a restaurant-focused industrial engineering firm. Even today, he says, he encounters operators who open, and then are moving tables around to accommodate pick-up shelves just a few weeks later. “If it were designed from the get-go, they would be in a much better place,” he says.

Shelves, of course, aren’t the only solution for pick-up areas. These spaces need to be well-considered to prioritize what’s important to the brand, says Steve Starr, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Starr Design, which offers architecture, interior design, kitchen design and graphics services. There are, he says, competing priorities in the design of these spaces. A high-volume fast-casual operation like Chipotle may prioritize speed and convenience, making shelves a good choice.

When most people think of creating a brand, or building a branding program, they immediately think of logos, colors, signage, and keeping things consistent across advertising platforms. All of that is very important, because you do want to present a unified marketing message. But it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creating a brand.

The Buttered Biscuit, a growing regional operator in Northwest Arkansas, had a clear vision for its operation in place from the beginning. Thanks in part to owner Sam Russell’s experience in the CPG industry, he understood the importance of parlaying a consistent message to customers. The scratch-made concept with a family-style atmosphere had won over people in the communities of the first four stores. So when it came time to plan for expansion, Russell knew he needed more.

The Buttered Biscuit partnered with Starrdesign to create a plan for future growth, and part of that included taking a hard look at the company’s brand, and making sure it permeated throughout the entire operation, from the architecture and décor to the equipment in the kitchen.

The Branding Process

The first step in building the Brand Identity is always to take a hard look at the operation’s current brand. The process starts with talking with team members, studying current operations and looking into the existing brand. Through initial conversations, the primary message for The Buttered Biscuit centered around scratch-made food in a family-style atmosphere that would help build a sense of community.

Once the primary message is agreed upon, the Brand Identity is fleshed out with a document that includes target customers, the competitive landscape and a brand positioning statement. That is used to create the brand collateral, including the color palette, logo, and other brand assets. For The Buttered Biscuit, the brand included blues and yellow for interior décor, warm woods, and a focus on assets that emphasize the scratch-made philosophy.

For The Buttered Biscuit, the brand identity is centered around the core values of scratch-made food served in a place that feels like home. That starts at the entrance, where blue awnings decorated with cheerful buttercups and comfortable benches create a front porch feel to welcome guests to the restaurant.

Implementing the Brand

Once the Brand Identity is created and agreed upon, it’s then used to help focus everything surrounding the restaurant’s operation, from the architectural design to the menu and kitchen processes.

When it came to The Buttered Biscuit, that meant designing a restaurant that felt cozy and welcoming, while producing hot, made-from-scratch foods.

Architectural Elements. A couple of things stand out in the architectural design of The Buttered Biscuit that point to the implementation of the brand within the design. An awning at the entrance not only softens the façade of the building, but also provides shelter from sun or rain for people as they wait to be seated inside. The patio area is an extension of that entrance, to create a “front-porch” feel. The big, open window between the dining area and the kitchen allows for an open feel, letting customers see the work going on to prepare each meal. It’s all to enhance the welcoming, family atmosphere called for in the brand package.

Décor that Creates Atmosphere. Two special pieces of art help drive home The Buttered Biscuit’s brand message. A wall made out of rolling pins divides the waiting area from the seating area, and not only does it illustrate the scratch-made philosophy, it also gives kids something to play with while they wait to be seated. A large piece of artwork made of flour hangs on the main wall of the dining area, also emphasizing the scratch-made brand.

Bringing it Home with Equipment. Brand Identity played a critical role in creating the kitchen design for the new locations of The Buttered Biscuit. From looking at the menu to analyzing operations and finding ways to improve efficiencies, each decision was made by looking to the core message first.

• FireX tilt skillet, with programmable recipes, allows any operator to produce the restaurant’s signature gravy, jams, and jellies with perfect consistency.
• A Marshall Air holding cabinet was added to hold potatoes and waffles, allowing for more efficient production while keeping the desired hot, fresh quality important to The Buttered Biscuit.
• A warming tray installed on a shelf at the kitchen window does double duty, keeping biscuits hot until they’re needed on a plate while showcasing the signature item of the restaurant for all to see.

Through collaborating with Starrdesign, The Buttered Biscuit now has a solid brand to drive all facets of its operation. This foundation paves the way for success as the restaurant continues to add new locations, giving it the guidelines needed to maintain a consistent message throughout its growth.

No matter what stage your operation is in, whether you’re renovating an existing restaurant business or looking to open a new operation, Starrdesign can help you find the focus to help establish a foundation for success moving forward.

When Sam and Anna Russell opened The Buttered Biscuit in Northwest Arkansas in 2017, they had very clear goals in mind for the restaurant. They wanted to offer made-from-scratch cooking with the best ingredients, served up with the southern hospitality that makes the region so welcoming. At the same time, they wanted their restaurant to be something good for the community, providing jobs and enhancing the local economy. The philosophy that permeated The Buttered Biscuit helped make it a success, and enabled the Russells to expand to three other locations in Northwest Arkansas.

It wasn’t long before Russell saw the potential for greater growth. He partnered with Starrdesign, Charlotte, NC, to create a prototype that would position The Buttered Biscuit for long-term success. “I knew from my first meeting with Starr that he could help us realize our goals,” Russell says. “He approaches projects with proven principles, backed up with a combination of data and confidence in his own experience.”

Working together, they created a business model and design that is not only easily replicable as The Buttered Biscuit enters new locations, but helps ensure that the values the Russells imbued in their first restaurant remain true in each new location.

Creating the Right Atmosphere

With four restaurants already up and running, it was important to get a good handle on the company’s brand before expanding further. “Having a clear identity, a primary message, is what drives all of the other factors within a foodservice operation,” Starr says. “The brand is what sets the guest’s expectations, and a successful operation has to deliver on that consistently, in all aspects of the business.”

For The Buttered Biscuit, the brand identity is centered around the core values of scratch-made food served in a place that feels like home. That starts at the entrance, where blue awnings decorated with cheerful buttercups and comfortable benches create a front porch feel to welcome guests to the restaurant.

Once inside, special attention was paid to imbue coziness, to further enhance the feeling of being in a home-like atmosphere. Simple architectural elements such as low booth walls and a ceiling accent feature helps create zones within the dining area to emphasize the cozy feel. At the same time, the zones help keep the energy of the restaurant alive even when it’s not completely full. The different zones also have their own type of furnishings. Tufted booths provide comfortable seating for families or small groups, and high-top tables along the windows are a good option for a quicker dining experience. A large wooden table serves as a focal point when entering the restaurant, while also providing space for large groups to dine like a family at home.

In addition to the furnishings, the décor also plays a big part in contributing to the overall atmosphere. Starrdesign’s own graphic design team created a couple of unique pieces to complement the yellow and blue themed plates hanging on the walls. A large print depicting art drawn in flour emphasizes the scratch-made traditions of The Buttered Biscuit. A rolling pin wall that acts as a divider between the waiting area and the dining area also embodies that philosophy while providing entertainment for kids as they wait to be seated.

Bringing the Brand into the Kitchen

While the dining area sets the stage for The Buttered Biscuit, the kitchen is truly the heart of the operation. A large window opens up the work area for full view from the dining area, allowing guests to feel like they’re part of things and putting the scratch-made process on full display.

Getting quality food, piping hot, out to customers is central to the scratch-made emphasis of the brand. The Starrdesign team worked with Russell and his team to streamline the workflow and order of operations, utilizing equipment to its fullest extent to maximize the efficiencies in the kitchen and enable the team to produce food at a consistent quality any time of day at any location.

After observing the team at work and analyzing data collected over time, some of Starrdesign’s recommendations included these highlights:

Prep process. In addition to the scratch-made biscuits that are the namesake of The Buttered Biscuit, there are a lot of other things that are handmade each day, include gravy, jams and jellies. A FireX tilt skillet to improve consistency with each batch. The insulated skillet is fully programmable, which allows operators to produce top-quality gravy and other menu items with a push of a button. Another improvement in this area included the addition of a blast chiller to retain the quality of produce that is pre-cooked.

Production. For a breakfast concept, egg dishes are important. Switching from omelettes to egg scrambles allowed all of the egg dishes to be cooked in one station. In order to make better use of the griddle, they brought in a stepped-up range top for easier access the burners in the back. Now, with the combination of new equipment and switching to scrambles, one person can work that station, using the back burners for fillings and then bringing it down to lower heat for the eggs.

The griddle was originally being used to cook the potatoes as well, which slowed production. By taking that item to the combi ovens in the prep line there is less chaos at the griddle during peak load times. Another improvement came with the installation of Pitco fryers. The new equipment’s self-filter process helps ensure the consistency of the oil is always clean, so the chicken comes out the same quality every time, and takes the same amount of time to cook, whether it’s the first drop of the day or the hundredth.

Expo station. A simple addition of an ice cream cooler in this station allowed the popular acai bowls to be prepared fresh in the kitchen. Before the redesign, the bowls were pre-portioned and put in a freezer, where service staff would do the toppings before delivering them to tables.

Holding. Keeping each item as fresh as possible until time to be plated is just as important as the prep and cooking. Two new additions helped improve consistency in this area. A Marshall Air holding cabinet keeps the potatoes and waffles hot and crispy, which means these items can be cooked early in the combi oven to prepare for peak times. And to help keep the biscuit in its place of glory, a warming shelf was installed where guests can see it through the big window between the dining area and the kitchen.

“Starr and his team take a big picture look at the operation, including labor hours, how many seats are in the dining area, what menu items are popular and how you manage food quality,” Russell says. “Armed with that information they’re able to work backward to create a design that has the right equipment and workflow to build an efficient, productive kitchen.

Since partnering with Starrdesign, The Buttered Biscuit has opened one new location and is in the process of construction on another one. The hard work on improving efficiencies and honing in the brand has already paid off, with the restaurant seeing sales 33 percent higher than the original expectations.

“Thanks to all these changes in equipment and workflow, we’re seeing consistent quality of food across the arc of the day, as well as a reduction in training,” Russell says. “Overall, we’ve seen easier operations and better consistency, and we’re excited to keep adding locations to our portfolio.”

Let’s face it, the goal for most restaurant operators is to create more revenue and more profit. And in the search for ways to improve your bottom line, you might have run across the term value engineering. But how often can you replace the words value engineering with cost cutting and get the same results?

People often look to the simple equation of reducing initial costs to see better unit economics and more cash flowing into the business. However, in the real world, things aren’t that simple. If you just focus on reducing capital expenses, you run the risk of causing problems and jeopardizing efficiencies and optimization in other areas. You might eliminate a costly piece of equipment only to have to spend more on labor to get the same results. At the very worst, your cost cutting could eventually affect top-line sales.

At starrdesign, we know the struggle restaurant operators face, especially in today’s environment where the cost of goods is still around 21% higher than pre-pandemic levels and construction inflation has outpaced that by an additional 17%. We understand the importance of value engineering to help run a successful business. And therefore, we look at value engineering with a unique approach, taking into account all aspects of an operation.

The Big Picture Strategy of Value Engineering

When we work with clients on value engineering, we emphasize the importance of taking a step back to analyze all segments of the business. While you might find places to cut capital expenses and optimize sourcing strategies within these areas, the goal is to find ways to improve operations and implement efficiencies in other aspects as well, without sacrificing your core values. We look at four major segments of each concept:

Brand. Who you are and what you stand for should be what everything else is evaluated against. Think about your messaging, and refine it down to its very essence. This is what you want the guest to experience. Once you have these focused messages in place, you can use it to evaluate the rest of the business.

Menu. Taking a critical look at the menu means more than just analyzing what menu items are bringing in sales and which ones aren’t. We also look at what it takes to produce the food, the equipment needed to prepare it or hold it, and the labor involved, all of which contribute to costs.

Operations. Traffic patterns say a lot about a restaurant operation and provide opportunities for improving efficiencies. We look at capacity requirement, party sizes, and table utilization to determine the minimum requirements to produce the appropriate sales levels and design accordingly. This often leads to one of the best ways to value engineer – simply build a smaller, more efficient restaurant.

Development Processes. There are things outside your four walls that also affect the bottom line. We help you look at strategic sourcing, set up national accounts, and collaborate with contractors and vendors to make the design and construction process as simple and quick as possible, which often produces long-term results with a significant effect on the bottom line. As we all know, time is money.

A Look at Our Process

The first and most important aspect of our work with clients on value engineering is to make sure all the decision makers are working together from the very beginning. That way as you walk through the processes, everyone is there to discuss the priorities, understand what sacrifices will need to be made, and come to an agreement on the best places for implementing changes. You won’t end up with a surprise well into the process when one person interjects their opinion after not being included early on.

Once you have your team together, we sit down for an evaluation. It might feel like we’re tearing things apart as we analyze the brand, menu, operations, and development process, but it’s important to look at each aspect of your business critically. It’s only after you tear it all apart that you’re able to put it back together again, y with improved results.

That’s where the next step of our process comes into play. Once we go through the discovery, it’s time to evaluate everything against those priorities. We use three metrics to guide this process. Ask yourself, is this reinforcing, neutral, or in opposition to your priorities? Once you’ve taken a hard look in a critical manner, that’s when you can start to put all the pieces back together again.

Putting the Process into Practice

The key to value engineering is balancing the equation. The best process focuses on both sides of the return on capital equation — strengthening sales and improving profit, while at the same time lowering the overall investment. It’s counterproductive to simply lower capital expenses and end-up lowering sales and / or increasing operating costs.

If you cut a cost, you then have to find a way to improve the value equation for your customers, so you’re not losing anything that’s meaningful or impacts sales. Or as you start to implement new practices, you may find another way to improve efficiency.

It’s important to remain flexible through the process. Value engineering, when taken from the big picture perspective, is not a linear process. It takes teamwork, strategizing and a willingness to change. But when everyone comes together to find improvements, you end up with a new foundation for future success.