1. Keep it simple
Last summer, Gathering Place at Sparrow—Sparrow Hospital’s revamped eatery in Lansing, Mich.—opened its doors to provide hospital staff and guests with made-to-order meals.
While the space is an improvement, Executive Chef Laura Fellows, who was hired midway through construction, wishes Gathering Place’s equipment better reflected the needs of the space and her staff.
“They put in a lot of beautiful equipment that we don’t utilize. If I was going to do this again, I would standardize the equipment a little bit more,” says Fellows.
Despite such challenges, Fellows says Gathering Place’s pros outweigh the cons. Among the front-of-house components, Fellows says one of the most successful is a dividing wall that allows staff to close off food stations that are not in use during breakfast and late-night hours.
“We can limit some of the seating so our security team isn’t trying to monitor 24,000 square feet, 24 hours per day,” she says.