Restaurant design is a very important aspect of the work done at TriMark United East. By changing the layout of the kitchen, valuable time can be saved in the fast-paced world of serving customers as well as making the kitchen feel as though it is part of the same restaurant as the dining area.
"I was just standing in the kitchen one night doing prep and I looked around and said, 'This is ridiculous, '" says Shire of her renovation epiphany. Closed for only six holidays annually, with some staff working in it round the clock, Biba's kitchen, after eight and a half years of continuous operation, was beat up. "A lot of equipment was half broken down, " Shire says. "Some of the walls were caving in. The light fixtures were a mess."
So in the summer of 1997 she added an aluminum ceiling, re-tiled the walls, bought new equipment, and replaced fluorescent lights on the line with overhead halogen spotlights. "I did it for the cooks -- I mean this wholeheartedly. So many restauranteurs put all the money out front and forget about the people working in the kitchen every day." Colored tiles in the kitchen every day." Colored tiles in red, blue, yellow, acid green, and purple liven up the pastry station and entrance walls. Pounded-brass animal-themed sculptures are tacked up in full view of the staff at every station. A state-of-the-art heat lamp system replaced free-hanging ones that were ugly and not as efficient. A new pasta cooker and wok have also made their impression on the staff -- and on the menu.
"Its' unbelievably valuable," says co-chef Regis of the Pitco Frialator pasta cooker. "It's small and gives you constantly boiling water, which you can also use to blanch off vegetables in a hurry or thin sauces. We used to have a pot on the stove as well as a backup so we wouldn't get caught with starchy water. The Frialator is a lifesaver, and has freed up burner space." The cooker -- electric, which is why it's not under the hood -- sits opposite a new freezer so that frozen pasta made on the premises can be quickly tossed into the bubbling water.
Regis is equally thrilled with the wok range. "The first thing we did in it was a sweet-and-sour seared beef tenderloin dish that sold like crazy," she says. "We also use it a lot for specials. Giant scallops are great in the wok. Now we're doing wok-charred char coated with taro root slices served with a scallion and taro root cake."
That taro root cake, which is panko-breaded and deep fried, emerges crispy golden from the new Pitco Frialator. The small but heavy-duty floor model replaces a previous portable fryer that sat propped on a table and was continually breaking down from heavy use. "It fits right in the same space," Regis says. "And it's a dual one, so if one gets dirty, you can change it during service." New Vulcan stoves -- a four-burner and a six-burner -- replace the stoves Shire originally installed. "My cooks were unhappy with that other stove," says Shire. "They were kicking it and everything."
As you can see, changes in restaurant design, especially in the kitchen, can be very important for the morale of the workers.