fast casual architecture meeting...desig agenc engagin industry fast casual architecture 206...

Design Agency by Engaging Industry 204Fast Casual Architecture

Fast Casual Architecture

REDESIGNING BOB EVANS RESTAURANTSDesigning a burrito at Chipotle is a highly organized yet flexible process. Step one: Select your site: burrito, bowl, taco or salad? Step two: what about pro-gram? Chicken, beef or vegetables? Brown or white rice? Next, on to design development: Mild or hot salsa? Corn? Cheese? A change order: Would you like guacamole? It will cost you more—is that okay? (The question about paying extra always comes at the end of the design process). After crafting the burrito, Chipotle guests seat themselves in the dining area, a casual environment simi-lar to those found in fast food dining – easily wipe-able surfaces, plastic booths and tables – but with the addition of upscale elements such as polished concrete floors, metal chairs, soft lighting, and accents of corrugated aluminum.

Similar to fast food dining, Fast Casual restaurants (such as Chipotle, Panera, or Baja Fresh) provide quick, cost-effective meals in a casual yet upscale dining envi-ronment. There are no waiters or staff on the dining floor, customers carry their own food to their self-selected seats and, at the end of the meal, clear their own tables. However, unlike familiar quick serve restaurants (such as McDonalds or Wendy’s), Fast Casual restaurants provide made-to-order food, prepared on-site from high quality and (often) fresh ingredients. Customers assemble their own meals, selecting endless options for customized burritos, soup and sandwich combinations, or salad options, spending nearly twice as much at a Fast Casual establishment than at a typical quick service restaurant. Fast Casual straddles the line between fast food and casual dining—somewhere between McDonalds and Appleby’s—it offers fresh food in an upscale environment without the fuss of wait staff (figure one). It is also the fastest growing segment of the restaurant industry and is the most popular restaurant type for college age students. When it comes to food, atmosphere and design, Fast Casual is the future.

In the fall of 2013, Ohio State University partnered with the Bob Evans Corporation to develop a research studio around the question of how to redesign

KAREN LEWIS

The Ohio State University

It is essential that architects position their design research—not design

services—at the core of what we practice. Architecture in this case must

become fast—it needs to respond to the speed of conversations about multiple

components of an environment. But it also must maintain its flexibility—allowing

for client interests to enter the design agreement. While the work of design is

serious and thoughtful, its ability to be agile, friendly, fast and casual, gives us

agency and value.

205 The Expanding Periphery and the Migrating Center

Bob Evans Restaurants. Originally a farm in southeast Ohio, the Bob Evans Sausage Company grew from a roadside sausage stand into its first commercial restaurant in 1952. Bob Evans originally distributed its sausage to local truckers by leaving products in the farm mailbox (a company icon today, each restaurant boasts a symbolic mailbox at the front door of each location). Currently Bob Evans Restaurants comprise close to 300 stores across the mid-west, and their sausages, mashed potatoes and other prepared foods are distributed in grocery stores nationally. Picking up on the theme of the Ohio farm, Bob Evans presents “farm fresh goodness” in a Family Dining environment, competing with restau-rants such as Cracker Barrel, Golden Corral and Denny’s. Family Dining serves casual food, focused on crowd-pleasing, large portions served by a wait staff and, most significantly, does not serve alcohol. The dining room is bright and acoustically sound, the booths and tables are large, the atmosphere is homey and comfortable (figure 2). The Bob Evans slogan “We treat strangers like friends and friends like family” extends to the restaurant décor, which resembles a farm-house kitchen.

The comfortable food and friendly atmosphere attract and retain a senior demo-graphic (figure 3). As Bob Evans Restaurants have expanded, their original client base has stayed loyal to the restaurant; however, new customers haven’t come along. As the Bob Evans Corporation has identified, their current client base is “dying off.”1 The company is looking to expand into new markets, and would like to engage younger generations who can grow with the company. When OSU approached Bob Evans, our aspiration was to link Midwestern networks and resources to develop not just a new restaurant typology, but new systems of dis-tribution, food production, and cultural identities. In discussing the potential for

Figure 1: The Dining Experience. There are

significantly more employee/ customer

interactions in a Family Dining restaurant

compared with Fast Food and Fast Casual.

PHASE ONE: ENTER RESTAURANT PHASE TWO: ORDER FOOD PHASE THREE: RECEIVE FOOD, FIND YOUR SEAT

PHASE THREE: FIND YOUR SEAT, WAIT FOR FOOD

PHASE FOUR: LEAVE OR STAY

PHASE FOUR: ENJOY YOUR EXPERIENCE

ENGAGE MENU WHILE STANDING IN LINE

WALK IN AND FIND HOST

ORDER AND PAY FOR FOOD

PHASE ONE: ENTER RESTAURANT


PHASE TWO: ORDER FOOD

PHASE TWO: ORDER FOOD, WAIT FOR FOOD, RECEIVE FOOD THREE: PAY AT THE COUNTER FOUR: EXIT

ENGAGE MENU WHILE STANDING IN LINE ORDER AND PAY FOR FOODTIP AT THE BEGINNING

CARRY YOUR OWN FOODSELECT YOUR OWN BEVERAGE

SELECT YOUR OWN BEVERAGE

WAIT IN LINE TO PAY

SELECT YOUR OWN SEAT...


...OR LEAVE RIGHT AWAY LEAVE AT YOUR LIESURE

LEAVE AT YOUR LIESURE

CLEAR YOUR OWN TABLEPICK UP FOOD

FOOD IS BROUGHT TO YOU

SEE HOST PAY FOR MEALBE SEATED

FOOD

MENU

MENU

WATER SILVERWARE

DRINKS

FOOD

PAY

TIP

“IS THERE ANYTHING ELSEI CAN BRING YOU?”

“DOES THIS COMPLETEYOUR ORDER?”

“YOUR COLESLAW ANDBREAD IS COMING SOON”

“NO RUSH, BUT HEREIS YOUR CHECK”

“DO YOU WANT TOBUY SOME COOKIESFOR THE ROAD?”

TEN INTERACTIONS WITH SIX DIFFERENT PEOPLE

TWO INTERACTIONS WITH TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE

TWO INTERACTIONS WITH ONE / TWO PEOPLE

PHASE ONE: ENTER RESTAURANT PHASE TWO: ORDER FOOD PHASE THREE: RECEIVE FOOD, FIND YOUR SEAT

PHASE THREE: FIND YOUR SEAT, WAIT FOR FOOD

PHASE FOUR: LEAVE OR STAY

PHASE FOUR: ENJOY YOUR EXPERIENCE

ENGAGE MENU WHILE STANDING IN LINE

WALK IN AND FIND HOST

ORDER AND PAY FOR FOOD



PHASE TWO: ORDER FOOD

PHASE TWO: ORDER FOOD, WAIT FOR FOOD, RECEIVE FOOD THREE: PAY AT THE COUNTER FOUR: EXIT

ENGAGE MENU WHILE STANDING IN LINE ORDER AND PAY FOR FOODTIP AT THE BEGINNING

CARRY YOUR OWN FOODSELECT YOUR OWN BEVERAGE

SELECT YOUR OWN BEVERAGE

WAIT IN LINE TO PAY



...OR LEAVE RIGHT AWAY LEAVE AT YOUR LIESURE

LEAVE AT YOUR LIESURE

CLEAR YOUR OWN TABLEPICK UP FOOD

FOOD IS BROUGHT TO YOU

SEE HOST PAY FOR MEALBE SEATED

FOOD

MENU

MENU

WATER SILVERWARE

DRINKS

FOOD

PAY

TIP

“IS THERE ANYTHING ELSEI CAN BRING YOU?”

“DOES THIS COMPLETEYOUR ORDER?”

“YOUR COLESLAW ANDBREAD IS COMING SOON”

“NO RUSH, BUT HEREIS YOUR CHECK”

“DO YOU WANT TOBUY SOME COOKIESFOR THE ROAD?”

Dining:The Experience

Choosing where we eat is a major part of how we deal with forming our daily experiences and personal taste. We choose partical dining typologies due to existing factors in our likes and dislikes, our time, and our finances. What do we seem to prioritize most? By dissecting three popular dining types and interesting point surfaced: the interactions with staff we undergo sets a tone on the way we percieve and then accordingly judge our meal. Having the freedom to sit, eat, and relax at our own liesure seems pefereable to dining under the constant watch of a server or staff member. We value our independence in the dining exeperience.

FAST FOOD / FAST CASUAL

CASUAL CHIC LOCAL CAFE

BOB EVANS RESTAURANT

1


University partnership, however, the conversation shifted from the potential of design research to an opportunity for Bob Evans to engage with the University’s most powerful resource: its 18-24 year old students.

Bob Evans recognized the potential of working with an imaginative and enthusias-tic group of young, talented designers; but they also recognized the opportunity to engage directly with a desirable, as yet unexplored user-group. Initial client and university meetings involved flushing out potential directions for the design studio: how can students connect to existing Bob Evans? Could the company’s new prototype, Bob Evans Express, find its way into the campus environment? At one point the Vice President for Innovation imagined Ohio State students might design and build their own Bob Evans Restaurant on Ohio State’s campus, tak-ing the model of the Rural Studio into an expanded direction. Collaboratively, OSU and Bob Evans cultivated the direction of “Fast Casual:” How does Bob Evans engage a Fast Casual market? What might new forms of Bob Evans look like if transferring from stand-alone stores by the side of the highway, into an urban infill site.

Fast Casual emerged as a way to engage design process, one that easily connects physical space to experience. The atmosphere of the Fast Casual restaurant is not just about the interior finishes or the lighting. It’s a calibration between the food and its presentation, the customer service and corporate tone, the res-taurant location and the designed space (figure 4). Fast Casual is flexible. The restaurant provides a framework of high-quality pieces and a comfortable, well-designed environment; the customer assembles their meal. Fast Casual is clear. The distinction between served and servant space is highly articulate. Where the customer orders food, how the menu is presented, what spaces customers

Figure 2: Fast Casual Mise-en-Place. Comparing

the design of Panera, a local restaurant and Bob

Evans, the attention too all aspects of the dining

experience is pulled apart. The presentation of

food on the table, straw wrappers, selection of

flatware and presence of additional advertisements

contribute to the overall restaurant design.

2

Restaurant Comparisons

BOB EVANS

PANERA BREAD

NORTHSTAR CAFE


occupy to wait for their orders, the type of physical divisions between food ordering and dining space, are tightly controlled and calibrated. Fast Casual is also free. After the customer has picked up their food, they are free to craft their dining experience. They select their own seats, and then can stay for hours or leave quickly. Different sized tables invite different sized groups to congregate, allowing customers to eat, work on their computers, read, or meet with others without time constraint or interruption. The restaurant staff never step foot on the dining room floor. The space belongs to the customer, and they are welcome to occupy it for as long as they would like. Fast Casual suggests flexibility in res-taurants, a type of “free planning” approach to food. It proposes dining not as a highly customized, specific fit, well defined and controlled by the restaurant—but rather one that is looser, faster, more casual. It suggests an experience built around several components of what Denise Scott Brown might identify as having more “wiggle room.”2 A loosening of architectural, programmatic and food con-straints to allow for growth, change, flexibility and freedom.

Moving away from a highly specific project, into one that allows for transforma-tion, is a way for the architecture studio to approach the design research project in conjunction with corporate engagement. Within the studio, Fast Casual was not just a restaurant typology, but also a way to design environment. It was not possible for students or client to speak about a restaurant design without also recognizing the design of the food, service or user experience through the space. Students worked in teams to develop several design prototypes that navigated the relationship between food, site, architecture and demographics. In transi-tioning Bob Evans to an urban infill-site, for example, questions about the type of breakfast go-er emerged. Who would need breakfast in a city? Where were they going? Would they have time for a sit-down meal, or would grab-and-go sand-wiches be a better fit? If the customer is popping in and out of the restaurant on their way to work, how does the service diagram change to accommodate new user groups? Similarly, if Bob Evans were to become a gourmet sausage restau-rant, how might the wait staff roles transform? Would one now need a personal food curator, rather than a waitress? How would sausages become the identify-ing brand? And would this type of restaurant experience require a corner site?

While the questions of architecture, site and service were apparent, so, too, were

Figure 3: Senior Moments. Panera and Chipotle’s

Instagram and Twitter images are dominated by

young adults and food photographs; at Bob Evans,

the majority of images show elderly customers.

3

Twitter andInstagram

We looked at how customers connect to their dining experiences through photographs on Instagram and Twitter. We noted that Young Adults are drawn to taking photos of themselves—with their food—at popular Fast Casual restaurants such as Panera and

Chipotle. Young adults are less inclined to photograph themselves diving at Bob Evans. We did find more images of Sports Teams, however, at Bob Evans. Bob Evans also far outranks Chipotle and Panera with photos of the elderly.

BE2: BOB EVANS RESEARCH STUDIO58

FAMILIES + CHILDREN

HIGH SCHOOL TEENS

YOUNG ADULTS

ELDERLY

SPORTS TEAMS

INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER

318KFOLLOWERS

25KFOLLOWERS

204KFOLLOWERS 10K10K

FOLLOWERS

2KFOLLOWERS

3KFOLLOWERS

FAMILIES + CHILDREN

HIGH SCHOOL TEENS

YOUNG ADULTS

ELDERLY

SPORTS TEAMS


318KFOLLOWERS

25KFOLLOWERS


FOLLOWERS

2KFOLLOWERS

3KFOLLOWERS

SPRING 1459

Research

FAMILIES + CHILDREN

HIGH SCHOOL TEENS

YOUNG ADULTS

ELDERLY

SPORTS TEAMS


318KFOLLOWERS

25KFOLLOWERS


FOLLOWERS

2KFOLLOWERS

3KFOLLOWERS

FAMILIES + CHILDREN

HIGH SCHOOL TEENS

YOUNG ADULTS

ELDERLY

SPORTS TEAMS


318KFOLLOWERS

25KFOLLOWERS


FOLLOWERS

2KFOLLOWERS

3KFOLLOWERS

FAMILIES + CHILDREN

HIGH SCHOOL TEENS

YOUNG ADULTS

ELDERLY

SPORTS TEAMS


318KFOLLOWERS

25KFOLLOWERS


FOLLOWERS

2KFOLLOWERS

3KFOLLOWERS


discussions of how the food transforms the restaurant environment. At the final presentation to the CEO and other Vice Presidents, Ohio State Students com-mented upon the restaurant’s pre-packaged butter. The Bob Evans mise-en-place has many authentic elements: the china is real, the silverware is real, the glasses are real, but the food is processed. The butter is pre-packed butter spread, and stands out as a plastic anomaly against the dinner plates and glasses. At the end of the presentation, the Vice President of Innovation commented, “we will never serve packaged butter again.” While not the direct charge of the architecture stu-dio, butter became a way to symbolize anomalies between design and process. As a continuation of this inquiry, students developed renderings of potential breakfasts that would match the proposed restaurant typologies. In designing the environment of the restaurant, considering how scrambled eggs might look in the space, is part of the restaurant design. Quite quickly, the lines between food, site, service, demographics and architecture became very casual.

Unlike an architecture-service studio, which focuses on how design can address issues of social justice and access, the Fast Casual model reinforces design exper-tise in conjunction with how design redefines problems. Fast Casual studios don’t provide design for well-documented disasters, they mobilize futures before they exist. Working quickly and loosely between architecture and environment, iden-tity and specifics, the fast casual mode of design suggests a loosening of bound-aries akin to RE Somol’s essay “Green Dots.” “Less concerned with means… than ends, the focus of graphic expediency is on audience and reception, and what might now be characterized as custom massification, the specific fashioning of unlikely collectives and synthetic communities. Rather than offering parametric flexibility for the world as it exists, the graphic enacts a cultural-political world of

Figure 4: Scales of Engagement. The matrix

recognizes the relationships of formality between

food preparation and presentation. Formal food

(made on site) presented is an informal way

(customer helps themselves) is preferable to

informal food (food prepared off-site and ahead of

time) presented formally (with many wait staff).

4

FOOD PREPAREDON-SITE

FOOD PREPAREDOFF-SITE

CASUAL SERVICE∙ CARRY YOUR OWN FOOD∙ NO HOSTS, WAIT STAFF∙ CASUAL DECOR

FORMAL SERVICE∙ FOOD IS BROUGHT TO YOU∙ HOSTS, WAIT STAFF, ETC∙ REFINED DECOR

RIGSBYSFresh local food, prepared by a five-star chef

Emphasis on local food,prepared and cooked in-house

Seafood, Italian sodas

Standard fast foodPlastic booths

Wood chairs;Corrugatedmetal finishes

Sophisticated colors,lighting, artwork

Standard fast food

Food is assembled on-site, fresh vegetables

Exceptionally well-informedstaff ; Real china, napkins, wine glasses, good lighting

MCDONALDS

SUBWAY

CHIPOTLE

PIADA

POTBELLY

BOB EVANS

WHOLE FOODS

NORTH MARKET

KATALINA

Fresh fast food

BURGERWORKS

COSI

PANERA

WAFFLE HOUSE

MAD MEX

HOLLIHANS

OLIVE GARDEN

ROOSTERS

BAKERSFIELD

NORDSTROM

TASI

NORTHSTAR

HARVEST

ITALIAN MARKET

CREST

Fresh local crazy combos“tradition with a twist”

Crazy color,refirbisheddecor

GETGO

NOODLES

Frozen food, canned fruit, etc

Liquid egg product, assembled on site comfort food, prepackaged condiments

Paper napkins, real dishes, child-safe tables, farm decor

Plastic plates, paper napkins, plastic booths, wait staff just to bring food

Good lighting, cloth napkins,wooden booths

Attention to presentation,but food not as fresh

Food brought to you,but no wait staff, plastic booths

Prepackaged sauces,fresh non-local salads

Gourmet-like

Fresh mexican

Tentative staff, cozy decor,real china, wine glasses etc;

Lounge atmosphere,neo-western theme, mason jar style

Very formal, prepped on-site

Semi-formal, prepped off-site

Very casual, Prepped on-site

Very casual, prepped off-site

: Researched by studio

: Researched outside of studio

BE2: BOB EVANS RESEARCH STUDIO62

RESTAURANT RESEARCH

Scales of Engagement

Not all chain restaurants are created equal. To understand the context of Bob Evans dining we situated our restaurant experiences against several scales and tones of “Farm Fresh” dining. We compared dining at Bob Evans to other Family Dining establishments; we looked at how Bob Evans was different from Fast Casual or Fast Food; we considered how Bob Evans compares to other local organic restaurants. How does the farm, fresh food and tastes of home translate into our everyday landscape of dining options?

Fast Food

Fast Casual

FOOD PREPAREDON-SITE

FOOD PREPAREDOFF-SITE

CASUAL SERVICE∙ CARRY YOUR OWN FOOD∙ NO HOSTS, WAIT STAFF∙ CASUAL DECOR

FORMAL SERVICE∙ FOOD IS BROUGHT TO YOU∙ HOSTS, WAIT STAFF, ETC∙ REFINED DECOR

RIGSBYSFresh local food, prepared by a five-star chef

Emphasis on local food,prepared and cooked in-house

Seafood, Italian sodas

Standard fast foodPlastic booths

Wood chairs;Corrugatedmetal finishes

Sophisticated colors,lighting, artwork

Standard fast food

Food is assembled on-site, fresh vegetables

Exceptionally well-informedstaff ; Real china, napkins, wine glasses, good lighting

MCDONALDS

SUBWAY

CHIPOTLE

PIADA

POTBELLY

BOB EVANS

WHOLE FOODS

NORTH MARKET

KATALINA

Fresh fast food

BURGERWORKS

COSI

PANERA

WAFFLE HOUSE

MAD MEX

HOLLIHANS

OLIVE GARDEN

ROOSTERS

BAKERSFIELD

NORDSTROM

TASI

NORTHSTAR

HARVEST

ITALIAN MARKET

CREST

Fresh local crazy combos“tradition with a twist”

Crazy color,refirbisheddecor

GETGO

NOODLES

Frozen food, canned fruit, etc

Liquid egg product, assembled on site comfort food, prepackaged condiments

Paper napkins, real dishes, child-safe tables, farm decor

Plastic plates, paper napkins, plastic booths, wait staff just to bring food

Good lighting, cloth napkins,wooden booths

Attention to presentation,but food not as fresh

Food brought to you,but no wait staff, plastic booths

Prepackaged sauces,fresh non-local salads

Gourmet-like

Fresh mexican

Tentative staff, cozy decor,real china, wine glasses etc;

Lounge atmosphere,neo-western theme, mason jar style

Very formal, prepped on-site

Semi-formal, prepped off-site

Very casual, Prepped on-site

Very casual, prepped off-site

: Researched by studio

: Researched outside of studio

SPRING 1463

Food

Family Dining

Fine Dining


plastic relationships.”3 Somol’s essay promotes “graphic expediency,” a type of fast, casual approach to establishing identity. Rather than identify a figural / logo green dot shape, Fast Casual demands a way to organize between experience and environment, building and system, urban typology and breakfast sandwich.

To this end, the potential of engaging industry within architecture inquiry is to use our spatial expertise as a tool to expand the definition of “environment.” Fast Casual architecture is a tool for branding—a physical embodiment of other economic and cultural imperatives. Our expertise in designing physical space productively reifies economic discussions. How architects visualize information, transfer this data into a sequence of events, and organize these interactions spa-tially, is essential to the value of our discipline. It is essential that architects posi-tion their design research—not design services—at the core of what we practice. Architecture in this case must become fast—it needs to respond to the speed of conversations about multiple components of an environment. But it also must maintain its flexibility—allowing for the client’s interests to enter the design agreement, and ultimately be open to changing their own practice. While the work of design is serious and thoughtful, its ability to be agile, friendly, fast and casual, gives us agency and value.

ENDNOTES

1. Presentation and discussion between students and executives at the Bob Evans Corporation, New Albany, Ohio, January 13, 2014

2. The idea of “wiggle room” was articulated by Denise Scott Brown in Architecture as Signs and Systems (Belknap Press, 2005) and visualized with the sketch of a hand in a glove com-parred to one in a mitten.

3. Somol, RE. “Green Dots 101” Hunch 11 (2007): 28-37.

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