RODE Restaurant Work Featured in Food Service East

RODE's restaurant work and intensive collaboration process is featured in this month's issue of Foodservice East. Check out some highlights below:

“We’re a very process-oriented design firm and restaurants make up 10 to 15 percent of what we do. We know our process. There’s a lot of complexity from the kitchen to the front door.”

The architects like to work with chefs and general managers as well as doing an “exhaustive study” with patrons. When their work begins on a project, they look at what the space looks and feels like as a starting point. “We don’t dictate the final outcome,” Robinson explains. The goal is to translate the owners’ vision in an architectural way, he points out. Asked what is the hardest part of the process, he thinks it may be trying to let the client let go of preconceived opinions. “We ask them to post what they like and don’t like on a Pinterest page and think about the architectural part. We pull out images of what they like and talk about them. It’s important to take notes, listen and come back and re-present what we heard back. We show them images that evoke what they think the client is talking about and ask them to come up with three ideas. “We distill their thoughts into a vision,” Robinson explains.

His favorite part of the process is going back at the end and seeing what worked or didn’t work. “We love to experience it, talk and enjoy it and celebrate the joint vision when they’re happy and doing well.”

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Read the original article in its entirety here.