THEME RESTAURANTS

Theme restaurants are restaurants in which the concept of the restaurant takes priority over everything else, influencing the architecture, food, music, and overall 'feel' of the restaurant. Theme restaurants are commonplace at theme parks. It offers a unique dining experience incorporating the theme in the décor, music, staff outfits and food is essential.

The successful theme restaurants provide a unique dining experience through both entertainment & quality food. Theme restaurant is a business concept which should accompany with a quality menu & tightly run operations. No doubt, that here the food usually takes a backseat to the presentation of the theme, and these restaurants attract customers solely on the premise of the theme itself. But still it’s a restaurant so before opening these kinds of restaurants one should focus on developing a tasty menu and careful planning of every aspect of your operations.

Things which should be kept in mind before nailing down the idea are:

Careful consideration of locality

Always make that the market will be receptive to your theme concept for not. For example; a cowboy-themed restaurant might flop in Boston, but flourish in Dallas, where tourists expect it. However, marketability is not always as obvious as it seems. A poker-themed restaurant might do just as well in the Midwest as it would in Las Vegas, because the Midwest locals would consider it a novelty. In general, best location should offer an ideal market for attracting both tourists and locals.

Make it Exceptional

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A very unique kind of theme will bring tourists to your restaurants. A Star Trek themed restaurant in Las Vegas and a haunted Jekyll and Hyde themed restaurant and bar in New York City have both done very well at attracting their respective target markets.

Controversial Publicity

Tourist can learn about your restaurant if a highly controversial theme is created that goes against the grain. For example, a great quantity of press has gone into covering Marton, a toilet-themed restaurant in Taipei, where customers sit on toilet seats and all food is served in dishes meant to resemble mini toilet bowls and urinals. As another example, the Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, Arizona, offers fattening, heart-unhealthy food served by naughty “nurses.” The theme outraged local health workers, but the press created by the controversy actually attracted more business. . The other notorious of them was Hitler's Cross, in Mumbai, India which was renamed to Cross Cafe in August 2006.

Incorporation of your theme in:

Menu

In theme restaurants, menu reflecting the theme will be the best as compare to standard ones. For example, the Heart Attack Grill serves food that could cause a heart attack. The most popular dish at Marton, the toilet-themed restaurant in Taiwan, is the chocolate ice cream served in their toilet-shaped dishes. While the obvious resemblance may seem unappetizing, the ice cream is not, and it has gained a loyal following from the locals and created a buzz that has incited interest from tourists from around the world.

Restaurant Designs

Make sure your interior and exterior restaurant design – including colors, graphics, decorations and architecture – matches your overall theme. For example, tiki bars, some of the most popular theme restaurants to spread across the world, are generally decorated with palm trees, painted masks, and grass skirts. Medieval Times, a middle-ages-themed restaurant in North America, designs its restaurants to resemble 11th Century Spanish castles.

Music & Sound

It would be great if you can incorporate music and sound into your theme. Rainforest Café soothes its diners with a constant background of rainforest sounds, such as raindrops falling and chirping birds. A horror-themed café could play spooky theremin music with screams and groans for sound effects. A futuristic-themed restaurant could play sci-fi and electronic music for a full futuristic effect.

Lighting

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Tying in your lighting with your theme will create a mood to improve the overall thematic consistency of your restaurant. For example, if you run a vampire-themed restaurant, you could use low, red lighting to create a vampiric atmosphere. Some restaurants, such as the Whale Inside Dark Restaurant in Beijing, offer pitch black lighting as their central theme. Servers are both blind and capable of moving in the dark, or they wear night-vision goggles. The lack of visual sensation is supposed to strengthen and alter the diners’ perception of taste.

Restaurant Staff

Your restaurant staff’s uniform and demeanor should reflect the theme of your restaurant too. For example, Ninja New York, a Japanese theme restaurant, dresses its servers in black and trains them to move like ninjas.

Pubs

Pubs can also be considered in this category, as music and a dancing floor become the main theme of pubs not giving more importance to food. Bennigan's is an Irish pub-themed casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1976. It is one of an originator of America's original casual dining concepts. The restaurant company is owned by ‘Legendary Restaurant Brands, LLC’ and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Some of the Successful Theme Restaurants:

The popular Rainforest Cafe restaurants have the obvious theme of a "Tropical Rainforest". It is owned by Landry's, Inc. of Houston, Texas. They are designed to depict some features of the rainforest; including plants, mist, waterfalls, animatronic robots of animals & insects. The restaurant serves food ranging from seafood, beef, and chicken to pasta and pizzas. This restaurant targets children and tourists as their customers and so they are mainly located in theme parks, well-known mall of the city or fun world.

Medieval Times has its theme of "Medieval Europe".

The Jekyll & Hyde Club evokes an atmosphere of Jack the Ripper and Victorian horror novels. Some theme restaurants use controversial images, contexts, or ideas.

Hard Rock Café is themed on musicians and music artists. Hard Rock café has chains all over the world. The largest is in Orlando and currently there are 191 Hard Rock locations in 59 countries including 145 cafes, 21 hotels, and 10 casinos. It is a private company which was originally founded in 1971 by Americans Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 2007, Hard Rock was sold to the ‘Seminole Tribe of Florida’, and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

There are also some exceptional themes built around. These are a way too unique and also cost a way too high too.

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Diners in the Sky - Brussels (Belgium) based

A person can dine over beautiful cities like New York or Las Vegas at night, above a landmark like Eiffel Tower or by the ocean at the sunset from a seat that can rotate 180 feet. The apparatus, which was built in Belgium, is suspended 50 feet in the air from a 200-ton crane. The center can hold a waiter, a chef, and an entertainer. The host can even hire a second platform to exhibit something or bring a band or live show along.

Ithaa- under sea water restaurant in Maldives

The restaurant is an acrylic tunnel with a 270- degree view of the sea that is accessed through the spiral stairs at the end of the jetty.

Ice Bar

There are Ice bars where everything including curtains, mirrors, chairs, decorative elements and sometimes even drinking glasses are made up of ice. Diners are provided with insulated jackets and gloves to keep them warm. There are many ice bars like the Orlando in the US, 21 Fahrenheit in India and IceBar London in the UK.

As we already discussed these kinds of restaurants are theme focused rather than in food and these restaurants even becomes out of fashion easily. So upgrading your theme and maintaining its popularity is the main challenge. So keep innovating and in case need any assistance to start your own business contact us at: www.crossprof.com. Our database of trusted professionals will provide you every kind of business services you need from all around the world.  

Ref:

http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/blog/how-to-start-a-theme-restaurant/

http://www.slideshare.net/binoythapachetri/themed-restaurant

http://www.hardrock.com/corporate/history.aspx

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