Restaurant Design: Stealing Home
Outdoor furniture and accessories help Punk's Backyard Grill recreate the family cookout--without smoke or mosquitoes.
By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 7/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
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| 1. A large, showy grill lets Punk’s customers interact with the grill-master as they wait for their orders. |
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| 2. Punk’s unusual shape allowed the creation of expensive but effective floor-to-ceiling windows. |
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| 3. Real potted plants and ficas trees in the dining room bring the outdoors in. |
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| 4. “Kathy did a great job of building a house,” says Punk’s cofounder Jeffrey Sloan, referring to the white picket fence, brickwork and other residential touches. |
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| 5. All the interior elements at Punk’s were designed for outdoor use. |
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| 6. An open ceiling painted sky-blue evokes the great outdoors—but makes for a noisy restaurant during rush periods. |
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| This floor plan is designed to show the location of each key photograph. Shot numbers correspond with numbers in select photos. |
Punk's Backyard Grill looks just like the setting for a cozy, casual family cookout—if the family happened to belong to Martha Stewart.
No slouchy, aluminum-frame lawn chairs or tippy tables here: Patrons enjoy their burgers, potato salad and coleslaw while lounging in wicker-and-chrome chairs or on sleek teak benches. There isn't a polystyrene cooler in sight. Instead, beverages nestle on ice beds in copper washtubs. No Coleman lanterns or citronella candles: Elegant Prairie-style pendant lights hover above tables. Bumpy, buggy grass? Not in Punk's backyard. Smooth pavers and poured concrete cover the floor.
This idyllic version of the classic cookout comes from the minds of cofounders Jeffrey Sloan, Sheila Laderberg and David McCabe, who met while studying at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. The school holds an annual restaurant-concept contest; the three, yearning to relive childhood backyard memories, created Punk's.
“We won in an overwhelming way,” says Sloan, now chairman of PGB Development Company LLC, Washington, D.C. “We had investors slipping cards into our pockets.”Punk's the concept was born in 2005; Punk's the restaurant opened in February at the Westfield Annapolis Mall in Annapolis, Md. The design, Sloan says, captures the magic of backyard cookouts without venturing into “cheesy, kitschy” territory. He adds that it also underscores the quality of the concept's menu: from-scratch everything, from burgers to Red Bliss potato salad to barbecue sauce to simple syrup.
Not Your Parents' Cookout
On the advice of their facilities designer, the founding trio hired Kathy Diamond-Ulepic, principal of Kathy Diamond Design Associates, Scottsdale, Ariz., to design the interior. Their design mandate: Backyardy and outdoorsy, but contemporary and grownup as well.
Diamond-Ulepic produced three preliminary designs. One, which she nicknamed “King of Queens,” after the television show, was an eclectic look of gingham, picnic tables and mismatched furniture. Another was an ornate look, featuring wrought iron furniture and a gazebo.
Punk's management chose the design that Diamond-Ulepic dubbed “Smith & Hawken,” after the upscale outdoor furniture company.
“It was different than anything we had ever done,” says Diamond-Ulepic, pointing to the teak and wicker furniture and use of building materials such as siding and brick. “Everything, minus the flooring, is something you'd use outside,” she says.
In addition to the furnishings—all contract and all designed for outdoor use—design details help evoke a house-like feel. Floor-to-ceiling brickwork makes the dining room look as if it's outside. White siding and casement windows, which line the corridor that leads to the restrooms, do the same. A white picket fence set with window boxes separates the ordering queue from the dining room.
Growing Pains
Punk's opened in February, and so far business has been slower than expected, due to the economy and a rough winter, Sloan says. However, “each month is better than the next,” he adds.
The restaurant is drawing affluent and sophisticated families, singles and older couples from the Annapolis area. “We think this is a perfect market for this concept,” he says. The business model, he adds, predicts unit volume between $1.5 million and $2.5 million.
Sloan wants Punk's to be open a full year before deciding on expansion plans. “Our No. 1 focus now is nailing down operations and the customer experience,” he says.
In the meantime, the design needs some fine-tuning. Because of all the hard surfaces, Punk's is loud. “Customers complain about the noise,” Sloan says. Ceiling baffles or under-table dampers will help cut noise.
The area around the POS systems also needs modification. Too little space and a dearth of display room for desserts, beverages and other add-ons make it tough for customers to made decisions, Sloan says. “We need more time and space to convey to them what we're doing, what we're offering,” he says.
Sloan will not disclose buildout costs but says the building cost more than expected due in part to the space's unusual half-circle shape. Contractors had to break through a concrete wall to install the walk-in cooler, and oddly spaced beams made window construction more expensive. Sloan says those costs will disappear when Punk's is built in a more regular space.
Some design features will be toned down to save money. The floor-to-ceiling brickwork is one example: It adds a residential feeling, “but I don't think we need 30 feet of brick,” Sloan says. Future versions will feature eight to 10 feet of brick, topped by painted drywall.
In addition, future Punk's restaurants most likely will not have costly 3-inch-thick redwood veneer in the vestibule. “We could probably live with less-thick redwood,” Sloan says.
And the Martha Stewart-worthy furniture? It's expensive, but it's not going anywhere. “We get a lot of on it,” Sloan says.
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| An exterior flower mural, a landlord demand, is unique to the original location. |
Snapshot
Concept Punk's Backyard Grill
Location Annapolis, Md.
Ownership PBG Development Company LLC, Washington, D.C.
Designer Kathy Diamond Design Associates, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Opening Day Feb. 1, 2009
Area 3,094 square feet
Seats 88 inside, 40 patio
Check Average $12
Unit Volume $1 million*
Expansion Plans None currently; eventually to the greater Washington, DC area
*Chain Leader estimate
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Awesome design-real homey!! Also fantastic food!!!!
Kathy Kinsey - 2009-17-7 04:10:00 MDT
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