Most new restaurants and cafés start with a picture: a mood board of warm lights, long tables, plants and a marble counter. The fit-out quote follows, then the contractor, and the questions about who the place is for and how it will actually run come later, when walls are already built. The decor then decides the business, when it should be the other way around.
Decor is one of the largest and least reversible costs in opening a place. Moving a counter, enlarging a kitchen or changing the seating after opening is expensive and disruptive. This article sets out six decisions that should be made, on paper, before any designer draws a line, and shows how each one changes what the space should look like.
In short: Decide six things before the decor: who the guest is and at what moment they come, the one thing the place will be known for, how guests arrive, the menu scope and average spend, the service model, and the name and identity. Together they become the design brief. Decor built on that brief supports the business; decor chosen first forces the business to fit the room.
The six decisions
1. The guest and the moment
Not "young people" or "families", but a person at a moment: the commuter who needs coffee in four minutes, the friends meeting after work, the parent with two children on a Friday. Clayton Christensen and colleagues, in "Know Your Customers' Jobs to Be Done" (Harvard Business Review, 2016), tell the story of a fast-food chain that learned many of its milkshakes were bought early in the morning by commuters who wanted something to keep them company on a long drive. The product was the same; the job was different, and so was what would improve it. A café is hired for jobs too, and different jobs want different rooms.
2. The one thing you will be known for
One sentence a guest could repeat to a friend: "the place with the best breakfast sandwiches near the metro", "the quiet café where you can work all afternoon". If the sentence needs three "and"s, the concept is not decided yet. This sentence later shapes the menu, the name and the signature detail in the room.
3. How guests arrive
Walk-in traffic, a destination people drive to, or mostly delivery? Each changes the space. A walk-in café needs to be seen and understood from the pavement in seconds. A destination needs parking and a reason to make the trip. A delivery-heavy kitchen needs a pickup point that riders can reach without crossing the dining room, and may need less seating than the mood board suggests.
4. Menu scope and average spend
How many items, which equipment they need, and roughly what a typical guest will spend. A long menu needs a larger kitchen, more storage and more staff; a short one lets the kitchen be smaller and the dining room bigger. The expected average spend also sets the level of finish that makes sense, since a place priced for quick, affordable visits does not need a fine-dining fit-out. Our article on menu pricing goes into the numbers.
5. The service model and how long guests stay
Counter or table service, how fast an order should take, and how long a guest should stay. Ray Oldenburg's The Great Good Place (1989) describes "third places", the cafés and gathering spots between home and work where people linger and become regulars. Some cafés want to be exactly that. Others need tables to turn quickly to make the rent. Both are valid; mixing them without deciding leads to a room where morning queues block the door and afternoon laptops fill every seat.
6. The name and the identity
The name, the logo, the colours and the one or two details guests will photograph and remember. Decided early, they shape the signage, the facade, the cups and the counter. Left to the last weeks, they end up squeezed into a room that was designed without them, and the signage is whatever fits.
The tool: the six-decision sheet
Fill this table before meeting any designer or contractor. A good answer is specific enough that two people would draw the same conclusion from it; a bad one could describe any café in the city.
| Decision | The question | What it decides in the space |
|---|---|---|
| Guest and moment | Who, when, and for what job? | Seating mix, lighting, noise level |
| Known for | What sentence will guests repeat? | The hero element: counter, oven, display |
| Arrival | Walk-in, destination or delivery? | Facade, entrance, pickup point |
| Menu and spend | How many items, what spend? | Kitchen size, storage, level of finish |
| Service | Counter or table, how long a stay? | Counter position, queue space, table sizes |
| Name and identity | What will guests remember and photograph? | Signage, colours, the photographed detail |
From decisions to a design brief, step by step
- A guest-moment sheet. List the two or three moments the place will serve, with the time of day and the job each one does. Output: one page, with the main moment marked.
- A location count. Stand outside the site, or a comparable one nearby, at the key hours on a weekday and a weekend, and count people who match the guest. Visit the three nearest competitors at the same hours. Output: a simple count per hour, and notes on who is already serving each moment.
- A concept sentence. Write the "known for" line and test it on ten people who match the guest: would they go out of their way for it? Output: one sentence, revised after the reactions.
- A draft menu with a target spend. Items, equipment each needs, and an illustrative average spend per guest. Output: a menu draft and an equipment list for the kitchen planner.
- A service flow sketch. A rough plan of how a guest moves from the door to ordering, collecting or sitting, and leaving, at the busiest moment. Output: a hand sketch showing where the queue goes and where riders wait.
- The design brief. The six answers, the counts, the menu draft and the flow sketch, with the name and identity direction. Output: a brief the interior designer works from, so the first concept is judged against the business, not only against taste.
A worked example
This example is hypothetical, and its numbers are illustrative. A founder is opening a café in a mixed office and residential area of Dubai. There is a mood board (communal tables, sofas, soft lighting) and a fit-out quote ready to sign.
The guest-moment sheet and the count show two very different moments. Between seven and nine in the morning, many people pass on their way to the metro and the offices, almost all in a hurry. Illustratively, a few hundred matching passers-by an hour, against a few dozen in mid-afternoon. But the afternoon crowd, residents and people working remotely, want to stay for hours. The nearest competitors serve the morning badly: slow queues, no pre-ordering.
The concept sentence becomes "fast mornings, slow evenings": the quickest good coffee on the way to the metro, and a calm neighbourhood room after four. Ten people who match the guest react most strongly to the morning promise.
The flow sketch changes the room. The mood board put the counter at the back, behind the communal tables, which would push the morning queue through the seating. The brief now puts a pickup point by the door for pre-orders, a short morning menu of items that can be served in minutes, standing ledges by the window, and fewer, smaller sofas at the back. Power outlets are placed in one quieter zone, so long stays are welcome without taking over the room. The name and the cup design are chosen to be read from across the street, because the morning guest decides from the pavement.
The decor still has warmth and plants. But the fit-out quote changes, because the counter moves and the communal tables shrink, and both changes cost far less on paper than they would have after opening.
Five mistakes we see most
- Starting with the mood board. It happens because pictures are exciting and easy to agree on. But a mood board answers "what will it look like" before "what is it for". Keep it, and test it against the six decisions.
- Designing for the photo, not the flow. A room that photographs beautifully empty can work badly full. Walk through the busiest moment on the plan before approving it.
- A menu that tries to please everyone. Every extra section needs equipment, storage and skills, and makes the concept harder to say in one sentence. Start shorter than feels safe; adding later is easier than removing.
- Choosing the site by rent, or by the founder's own habits. A cheap site with the wrong guests is expensive. A site the founder loves may not see the guests the concept needs. Count before signing.
- Leaving the name and the opening plan to the end. The fit-out takes the budget and the attention, and the name, the signage and how people will hear about the opening are rushed. Decide the identity with the concept, and keep part of the budget for the opening itself.
The strongest objection
"People come for the look. The decor is the concept." A striking room does bring first visits and photos, and that matters. But guests come back when the place fits a moment in their week: the morning coffee that is always fast, the corner where they can stay. Decor chosen first also locks in decisions, like where the counter sits and how big the kitchen is, that are the most expensive to change later. Decide the business, then make it beautiful.
Honest limits
These six decisions do not cover permits, kitchen engineering, food safety or lease terms. Those need the right specialists and local advice, and we do not give it. If the concept is already proven, for example a second branch of a working café, most decisions are already made and the work is shorter. And this article stops at opening day; what to measure and adjust after that is in the first 90 days after launch.
How OG helps before the decor
We lead with launch and market entry strategy, working through the six decisions with you in that order. Market research covers the area, the competitors and the counts; brand strategy sharpens the concept sentence; naming and visual identity give the place a name and a look that the room can be designed around. Then interior and space design works from the brief, and pricing strategy sets the menu prices. At each stage you get a written decision you can hand to whoever builds the place, us or others. Scope follows the need; there are no fixed packages.
Built on: our launch, brand and space work since 2013; Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David Duncan, “Know Your Customers' Jobs to Be Done”, Harvard Business Review (2016); Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place (1989). The six decisions are our working method, not a fixed standard. The Dubai café is a hypothetical example.
Before closing this page
- Which guest, at which moment, is the place mainly for?
- What one sentence would a guest repeat about it?
- How many people who match that guest pass the site at the key hours?
- Where does the queue go at the busiest moment, and where do riders wait?
- Has the designer received a brief, or only a mood board?
