3 Tips to use Plants to Create Social Distance in Restaurants
Have you seen the mannequins sitting in the next booth? Or maybe you have seen the Individual greenhouses in the Netherlands? Although those do make for social distancing, here at Architectural Supplements we would like to offer some suggestions that might be a bit better than hiding behind the proverbial “Potted Palm”. We have three simple tips to help you design your next socially distanced dining area.
1. Create “Rooms”
In todays COVID world, indoor dining can be an anxiety-provoking experience. As people struggle to maintain social distance, they end up weighing their safety with their desire for social connection. Good weather in the summer months has made outdoor dining possible, but colder months are right around the corner. Restaurants hoping to stay in business will have to adapt and we can help them do so in the best way possible—with greenery!
Tip number one is that we recommend creating unique dining spaces with tall, long-spanning planters, such as Architectural Supplements Earth Walls or Strong Clay Rectangles. This creates privacy for seated customers, while still allowing an open atmosphere for customers. Waitstaff will also enjoy being able to keep a line of sight to the customers as they try to ensure that bread baskets and wine glasses stay full.
2. Guide Customers
As customers enter restaurants it can be challenging to know where to go. Many restaurants have taken to putting tape down to indicate unusable tables and give customers directions to their restrooms. This proverbial “trail of breadcrumbs” can instantly destroy the aesthetic of a restaurant. What’s more, it is unnecessary with good design and use of space. Our second tip is to use greenery to usher customers to their destinations.
3. Make it Mobile
In normal times, restaurants use their dining rooms for a variety of events. Many of the options we’ve discussed so far, however, are somewhat permanent. Moving a large planter is no easy task! For this reason, we think that an investment in plants should be done with an eye for the future. The products we sell today, need to last for years to come. That’s sustainability!
As restaurants start to open and we approach a return to normalcy, more and more events will be back on. The backlog of postponed weddings will start to unfurl, and restaurants will be charged with adapting their rushed COVID spaces into more dynamic venues.
Our third and final tip is to focus on ways that one can introduce mobile greenery to build sustainable social distance. Take for example our innovative BioMontage & NextGen Living Wall Room Dividers. These come on rolling, lockable casters and can be connected to create modular space. Similarly, many of our planter products can be put on casters, so that they may be moved at a moments notice.
