Can the look and feel of a restaurant really have that much of an impact on its success?

The Chinese seem to think so. For centuries, Chinese business owners have applied the principles of Feng Shui (pronounced fung sway), a philosophy that focuses on people's interaction with their environment, whenever they've built an office, a store or a restaurant.

"American businesses with offices in China wouldn't even consider not using a Feng Shui master," says John Buchanan, the managing partner at Ben Pao, a new Lettuce Entertain You restaurant in Chicago. "If they did, their Chinese clients would politely decline to do business with them, because, according to Feng Shui, if the company's environment isn't designed properly, it won't be successful."

Buchanan learned about Feng Shui while designing the concept for Ben Pao, which means "fireworks" in Chinese. "At first when I was doing research, Feng Shui seemed hokey," he says, "but the more I read, the more it cropped up." Buchanan began developing floor plans with the philosophy in mind and ultimately hired a Feng Shui master to look over his final design.

Did the ancient set of principles — which stipulated, for example, that the columns in Ben Pao's dining room have rounded corners so the room's energy could flow without agitating the guests — have any effect? The initially skeptical Buchanan believes it did. "In 25 years of managing restaurants, I've never experienced a response like this. So many people have told us that they feel tranquil and relaxed in the restaurant, I don't think it can be an accident," he says. "I have to believe it is the Feng Shui principles."

Of course, not every restaurateur is going to rely on an ancient philosophy when designing a restaurant, but many are paying closer attention to their operations' ambience. And well they should. According to a 1995 survey by the National Restaurant Association, 44 percent of respondents said they liked stimulating and active restaurant environments.

Consumers' interest in ambience seems to be growing. Roger Yee, editor-in-chief of Contract Design, a magazine for architects and designers who work on commercial properties, cites other restaurant-industry figures to explain the trend. "In 1955, 25 percent of the U.S. food dollar was spent away from home," he says. "In 1993, it was 44 percent, and there is every indication that it will soon be up to 50 percent."

Simply put, the more consumers eat out, the more sophisticated and demanding they become.

Design as a drawing card

Kenneth Zankel, owner of Zinzino in San Francisco, learned the hard way how important design is to a restaurant's success. "While working with my first architect, I learned that drawings and scale models are one thing and what the restaurant will look and feel like is another," he says.

While Zankel's concept for his restaurant — focus on pizzas in a restaurant with the look and feel of an Italian outdoor cafe — has always been the same, the original design did not convey the feeling Zankel wanted — and in fact caused his business to falter. "The restaurant looked cold," he says. "The colors were cold and the angles were severe."

But the biggest problem with the design, what Zankel refers to as "a real marketing disaster," was that customers tended to sit in the back of the restaurant rather than the front. The result was that the new restaurant attracted no attention from passersby. "The restaurant's back room could be really busy, but when someone walked by, they thought the place was empty and figured it couldn't be any good," says Zankel.

Zankel hired a new designer, Anna Veyna, who immediately began to work on the design problems. She changed the colors of the facade and added a banner to the outside of the restaurant to intrigue people from a distance. And she and Zankel moved the marble-topped bar to the front room, pairing it with cushioned banquettes set up in the windows. "Now, when people walk by, they see a busy, buzzing, happy scene and they want to be a part of it," says Zankel, who reports that during the first week after the redesign, Zinzino's sales soared 80 percent higher than the restaurant's previous best week.

When Bruce Cooper opened his restaurant, Jake's, in the Manayunk area of Philadelphia in 1987, he faced a similar challenge in attracting attention. His restaurant was located in a depressed and little-known neighborhood. "Tumbleweeds were blowing down the middle of the street here," he says.

Jake's made itself known with a three-dimensional metal awning in the shape of a stylized table complete with a wine bottle in midpour and a flower arrangement in midblossom. "The first review said the awning was worth the drive by," says Cooper, "and we did see people drive by to look." These days, reviewers routinely refer to Jake's awning as the emblem of the now-revitalized neighborhood.

Both Cooper and Zankel believe that good design can do more than just draw people to the door. Two years ago, Cooper put Jake's through a renovation. Although he did not change the idea behind the restaurant, he added subtle improvements. For example, he upgraded the restaurant's lighting, adding fixtures made of Italian blown glass decorated with metal vines and leaves created by a local jewelry designer, and made improvements to the chairs. "It was amazing how much the customers appreciated what we were doing," he says. "Our business jumped by 30 percent."

Zankel also found that seemingly small details could have a big effect on his customers. When he redesigned Zinzino, he spent $16,000 just on the lighting. "And even if we had done nothing else, that would have improved the restaurant 100 percent," he says. "I don't know if people consciously think, 'I look good in this restaurant,' but light plays a big role in people's psychology."

Cooper's renovation of Jake's included the addition of 22 seats. Careful attention to the feel of the restaurant allowed it to absorb the extra seats without wrecking the feel of the place for customers. "If you give people a comfortable chair, high ceilings and a good-sized table, you can push them together a little more," Cooper says. He also swears by a metal soundproof ceiling, which looks something like the ceiling of a Quonset hut, for setting the tone at Jake's. "I would never do a restaurant without that," he says.

Aesthetics important at all levels

Customers' search for ambience is not restricted to just upscale restaurants. "More midmarket restaurants are opening that offer very high style but are very reasonably priced," observes John Radulski, editor of Hospitality Design. "This is not necessarily limited to places where the entree costs $35."

At Ben Pao, for instance, the look is definitely upscale — at the dining-room entrance, water ripples with a soothing sound down two granite sculptures designed by artist Eric Orr — but the prices are not. "On the lunch menu, there are no double-digits, while in the evening, the most expensive item is $12.95," says Buchanan. "I wouldn't necessarily use the word 'upscale,' because I don't think customers use that word, but I think they do see the look of the restaurant as being a little fancier, more sophisticated."

The two Sopraffina Market Caffes located in Chicago definitely fall into the fast-food category: They are self-service, and half of their business is carryout, with an average lunch ticket of $5.60. But an artful design gives the units an appealing ambience. "If you put tablecloths on the tables, it could be a fine-dining restaurant," says Sopraffina's designer and architect Mark Knauer.

According to Dan Rosenthal, president of the Rosenthal Group, Sopraffina's parent company, headquartered in Chicago, that was the whole idea. "We are trying to combine the essence of fine dining with the essence of fast food," he explains. "We took the best of fast food — speed, convenience and value — and combined it with the best of fine dining — high-quality, all-fresh food; a beautiful decor; and great service."

Rosenthal believes his restaurants' ambience enables them to appeal to a wider market. "Our customers cut across a full spectrum," he says. "The president of a company might be conducting business while sitting next to a secretary having lunch."

Beyond good looks

Restaurant design itself has become more sophisticated to keep up with heightened consumer standards. Pat Kuleto, a restaurant designer based in Sausalito, California, says he started out "back when it was easy to design a restaurant. In those days, you could get away with murder. Just being fun and different worked for a long time."

Kuleto has designed well over a hundred restaurants, including Fog City Diner and Wolfgang Puck's Postrio, both in San Francisco. "As the dining population began to become more sophisticated, it became more difficult. Now, you need a whole concept, a total package, where the exterior, the interior, the food, everything works together," he says.

Other designers agree. "In order for a restaurant to be a living, breathing space where people want to go, the food, the service and the decor all have to come from one point of view," says David Rockwell, a restaurant designer based in New York City. Rockwell, whose projects have ranged from the Planet Hollywood chain to Nobu (one of the top-rated fine-dining restaurants in New York) often incorporates his knowledge of what the menu will be into his design. "I want to create an environment that is unique and that will support the food," he says. At the Japanese eatery Nobu, for instance, the chairs at the sushi bar echo the look of chopsticks.

One aspect of restaurant design hasn't changed: the need for an operation's look to set it apart from the competition. "The days are over when you just needed to have good food," says Heinz Kern, owner of Palette's, a Chicago restaurant filled with sculptures, paintings and furniture designed by artist Boban Ilic. "Today, design is very, very important. There is so much competition, you need to set yourself apart from the typical restaurant." In order for a restaurant to be a living, breathing space where people want to go, the food, the service and the decor all have to come from one point of view.

But as the competition between restaurants continues to heat up, that feat becomes more difficult. "Also, people in general are exposed to a lot more input," says Rockwell. "It takes more to excite people now than it did 10 or 15 years ago. "

Doug Cavanaugh, president of the Ruby Restaurant Group, a chain of 25 diner-style restaurants headquartered in Newport Beach, California, sees the same trend. "People expect a little more every year, and every year, it gets a little tougher," he says. "And now, with the MTV generation, which is used to such a fast pace, restaurants will be challenged even more."

Like many restaurateurs, Cavanaugh believes that customers do not want to go to cookie-cutter restaurants, even within the same chain. All of his Ruby's restaurants have a 1940s-era theme and share some similar components: red-vinyl booths, white formica tabletops and soda fountains. Many of the locations, however, have been customized. One, for example, is near a train station and has been equipped with an elaborate set of model trains that ride around the restaurant on a track suspended from the ceiling. Another, near the El Toro Marine Air Base in Laguna Hills, California, sports a collection of miniature airplanes, one with a 6-foot wingspan, that fly around the restaurant. Meanwhile, a Ruby's unit in San Diego has three 1940s-vintage motorcycles on display. "The differences give people a reason to come and see the different Ruby's," Cavanaugh points out.

Although these operators are placing more importance on ambience than ever before, they say it would be a mistake to focus exclusively on the look of a restaurant. "People can't take the art home with them," says Kern. "The most important parts of the restaurant business are still the food and the service."

But Kenneth Zankel points out that the look and feel of the restaurant is what initially convinces people to try the food and the service. "I've learned that people have to walk in and, in two seconds, 'get' it," he says. "The restaurant has to intrigue them and invite them in."

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