How Restaurant Lighting Can be Used to Attract the Right Clientele

Restaurant lighting is primarily used to set the mood and provide a welcoming atmosphere for diners. Whether you want to create an intimate, romantic restaurant, a trendy eating establishment, fast food venue, family restaurant or themed eatery, your choice of lighting will vary greatly on the type of atmosphere you want to create and the clientele you intend to attract.

As a rule, restaurant lighting should be flattering for eateries where dinners are likely to sit for long periods of time, and brighter in fast food establishments where you want a quick turnaround of trade. If you have a romantic establishment and want to attract couples to your venue, you won't go far wrong by layering your lighting and having a combination of wall, side lights, ceiling lights and candles. However, restaurant lighting fixtures should be brighter, sturdier and less delicate in family restaurants, especially those that have a combination of indoor dining and soft play areas.

Angelo's offers a full range of commercial lighting including restaurant, kitchen and bar lights. We also offer a price promise so you can keep costs down with high quality restaurant lighting at the best possible prices.

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Restaurant lighting – As mentioned earlier, your choice of lighting in your eating establishment will depend on whether you want a quick turnaround of guests, or you want your diners to pace themselves and enjoy a long evening meal with wine and several courses.

If your clientele is mainly couples looking for a quiet, intimate place to dine, lighting should be gentle and flattering to set the scene and evoke a feeling of tranquillity and calm. The atmosphere you create makes difference to the overall dining experience: choose lighting that is too bright and the venue loses its appeal as a romantic restaurant; make it too dim, and your customers won't be able to read the menu or see to eat, which is equally off-putting.

Lighting also sets the mood in a themed restaurant. In a Moroccan restaurant, for example, Eastern inspired candle holders and wall lights, which shed a myriad of patterns across the venue, can create a wonderful, intimate atmosphere.

Equally, lighting can be used to spotlight artwork or memorabilia; for example, you might want to light up a sculpture, fountain or signed poster that relates to your restaurant theme. Consider up lights behind plants or sculptures to cast impressive shadows, or concealed down lights to shed light on the floor or surface below.

If you have a buffet style restaurant, while lighting should be low key in the dining areas, it should be much brighter in the self-service zones. This is because the purpose of lighting in these areas is functional, rather than to create mood. Diners want to see what they are dishing out on their plate!

Commercial Kitchen Lighting - Commercial kitchen lighting is primarily chosen for safety and functional purposes – so staff can see to cook and prepare food. Pendant ceiling lights, spot lights, down lights and strip lighting are all used to create the right conditions for the health and safety of staff. Light fixtures should be bright enough for staff to see, but should not be too bright that it is uncomfortable.

However, aesthetics can and still do play a part to help create the right environment for staff, especially if the kitchen is on show. Some restaurants, such as Thai restaurants, have a glass panel with a view straight through to the kitchen. In this case, lighting should be appealing and functional to appeal to staff and guests. Although commercial kitchen lights are chosen for safety reasons, in this case, lights are also chosen to set the stage.

In addition to this, commercial kitchen lighting also has to conform to certain regulations because of the atmosphere (i.e. dampness and high temperatures) they will be used in.

Bar Lighting – Most restaurants also have a bar area, and this will either adjoin the restaurant, or be situated in a separate room or floor. This is so that diners can enjoy a drink while they are waiting for their table, or relax while ordering a takeaway. In some venues, the bar is just as popular as the restaurant and may well attract the younger, trendier crowds.

Just as with restaurant lighting, your choice of bar lighting should reflect the type of clientele you want to bring into your venue. It could be intimate and traditional for an older group, and bright and modern for a younger crowd, with a variety of visuals to attract this type of market.

Lighting behind the bar is for visual effect and also so that staff can see adequately to take orders and to prepare drinks. Consider wall lighting, concealed lighting, lighting under surfaces and hidden within the bar. Lighting on display cabinets and hidden in shelving makes the venue appear clean and sanitary. Scatterings of light, including spotlights, makes surfaces appear shinier and also adds interest.

About Angelo's
Angelo's are the lighting experts for all types of commercial venues including bars, nightclubs, restaurants and hotels. Angelo's Lighting – Click the link to find the address of our showroom