Design for Device Culture
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…
FCSI 2025 Project Showcase Winner: Buttered Biscuit
Form Follows Function A systems approach to updating a breakfast-and-lunch concept finds success. When The Buttered Biscuit, a four-unit Northwest Arkansas chain, decided to expand beyond its home market to the Little Rock metro area, owners Anna…
Building a Brand: More Than Just Marketing
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…
The Buttered Biscuit: Streamlining the Design for Future Growth
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…
Taking an Innovative Approach to Value Engineering
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…
How Firebirds Fine-Tuned Its Design
Firebirds Wood Fired Grill’s latest prototype began with a comprehensive review, questioning the value of every aspect of the design. The original layout for Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, a Charlotte, N.C.-based steak and seafood concept, had served…
How to Design a Labor-Efficient Kitchen
Wing Zone is looking to remove people from its kitchens. The Las Vegas-based brand has recently implemented a company-wide rebranding, which included overhauling its kitchen design, technology, and AI to improve both operations and the customer…
Quick-Service Concept Hiya Taco Powered by Back-of-House Cook-Chill System
When Toro Taco Restaurant Group, a Milwaukee-based operator of the six-unit, full-service restaurant BelAir Cantina, was brainstorming new concepts that would be easier to operate and more cost-effective for future growth, they came up with a…
5 ways to design your restaurant for pickup and delivery success
From a well-thought-out labeling system to the placement of the food pickup area inside your restaurant, there are many ways to design for efficient and accurate pickup and delivery service. Here are a few snippets of the advice Starr Design Chief…
starr featured in foodservice equipment & supplies magazine
Among other industry experts, Steve Starr contributed to the featured article “Front & Center” for the November 2022 issue of FoodService Equipment & Supplies magazine about how important Open Kitchen and Food Theater is in…
big changes in fast-casual
The pandemic, great resignation and eminent recession has brought a wave of change in all segments of the restaurant industry. The biggest market shift seems to be the rise in off-premise business (e.g. catering, take-out, delivery). At one point…
how to survive the labor shortage
Everything isn’t out of your control! There really are things you can do. The health crisis and restaurant closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are finally starting to wind down. But trouble for the restaurant industry isn’t over yet. Now we…