Bar Restaurants Fitouts

While a café often focuses on daytime speed and light snacks, a bar and restaurant fitout is significantly more complex due to several critical factors:

• Atmospheric Layering: Unlike the bright, functional lighting of a café, bars and restaurants require sophisticated, dimmable lighting “scenes” and acoustic treatments to manage noise levels from music and large crowds.

• Heavy-Duty Utility Demands: Restaurants require much higher-capacity gas, water, and electrical loads to power commercial ranges, walk-in cool rooms, and high-temperature dishwashers.

• Bar Engineering: A bar is a high-speed production zone. It requires specialised plumbing for keg systems, drainage for ice wells, and specific ergonomic heights for bartenders that go beyond a standard café counter.

• Liquor Licensing & Compliance: Bar fitouts must adhere to strict liquor licensing laws, which often dictate the physical layout, visibility of the service area, and specific bathroom ratios based on patron capacity.

• Durability of Materials: Since these venues operate into the late night and handle high volumes of alcohol and heat, the materials used must be significantly more durable and stain-resistant than those used in a standard café.

Absolutely. Flooring in a hospitality environment isn’t just an aesthetic choice; it is a critical safety and hygiene requirement. Because bars and restaurants deal with high foot traffic, heavy liquid spills (alcohol, oils, and water), and extreme temperatures in the kitchen, your flooring must meet specific Australian Standards:

• Slip Resistance (The ‘R’ Rating): For commercial kitchens and bar service areas, flooring must have a high slip-resistance rating (typically R12 or R13) to prevent workplace injuries, especially when wet or greasy.

• Coving Requirements: Australian health regulations (AS 4674-2004) require “coving” in food preparation areas. This means the floor must curve up the wall at the edges (at least 75mm) to eliminate 90-degree corners where bacteria, grime, and pests can hide.

• Non-Porous Materials: Bar and kitchen floors must be non-absorbent. We typically recommend Epoxy Resin or High-Grade Commercial Vinyl for back-of-house areas because they are seamless and easy to sanitise with high-pressure cleaning.

• Thermal Shock Resistance: In the kitchen, floors need to withstand “thermal shock”—going from the cold of a walk-in freezer to the high heat of a dishwasher or oven area without cracking.

• Front-of-House Durability: For dining areas, we use commercial-grade timbers, polished concrete, or vitrified tiles that can withstand the constant scraping of chairs and heavy patron traffic without losing their finish.

Yes, this is one of the most critical services we provide. Navigating the regulatory landscape for a licensed hospitality venue in Australia is significantly more complex than a standard retail shop. We handle the heavy lifting to ensure your project stays on track:

• Expert Documentation: We prepare all necessary architectural drawings, floor plans, and technical specifications required by your local council or Private Certifier.

• DA vs. CDC Navigation: We determine if your project qualifies for Complying Development Certificate (CDC)—which is a faster approval process—or if a full Development Application (DA) is required due to heritage constraints or major structural changes.

• Liquor Licensing Integration: Unlike a bakery, a bar or restaurant often requires coordination with liquor licensing authorities. We ensure your layout complies with “responsible service” visibility and safety requirements to support your license application.

• Specialist Reports: We coordinate with consultants for essential reports, including Acoustic Reports (to manage noise for neighbors), Waste Management Plans, and Section 10.7 Certificates.

• Health & Fire Safety Compliance: Every design we submit is guaranteed to meet AS 4674-2004 (Construction and fit-out of food premises) and stringent fire safety regulations for public assembly buildings.

Absolutely. “Open Plan” or “Show Kitchen” designs are a massive trend in the Australian hospitality scene because they create a sense of theatre and transparency. However, making it work requires a delicate balance between aesthetics and high-performance engineering:

• Visual Continuity: We ensure that the finishes in your kitchen—such as custom tiling, matte black extraction hoods, or brass accents—match the high-end design of your bar and dining area.

• Odour & Smoke Control: In an open-plan layout, your ventilation must be flawless. We use “Ozone” or “UV” filtration systems within the exhaust hoods to neutralise cooking smells before they reach your guests’ martinis.

• Acoustic Management: Open kitchens can be noisy. We use sound-absorbing materials and strategic equipment placement to ensure the “clinking” of pans doesn’t drown out your guests’ conversations.

• The “Clean Line” Design: We design specific “low-profile” equipment zones so that prep work is tucked away while the “hero” elements—like a wood-fired oven or a sleek pass—are front and center.

• Health Compliance: Even in an open layout, we must maintain a strict legal separation between “clean” and “dirty” zones. We use architectural barriers like glass partitions or raised stone counters to meet AS 4674-2004 standards without blocking the view.