Most restaurant kitchens are designed twice: once on paper by somebody who wants the plan approved, and once on the first busy Friday night by the people who have to work in it. The second design usually wins.
The gap between the two is mostly distance, heat and traffic — how far the cook walks, what is standing next to the fryer, and where two people collide at the pass. All three are knowable before the equipment is ordered.
What guides our writing
- We explain the mechanism before the model. Knowing why a long walk between prep and the line costs you every shift tells you where to put the cooler. A list of recommended brands does not.
- We give ranges and name the variables. Equipment capacity, energy use and lead times depend on your menu, your volume and your building. We do not quote numbers we cannot tie to a variable.
- We say plainly when the cheaper option is the right one. A used reach-in is often a fine buy. A used fryer with a cracked tank is not. We say which is which.
- We name the failure mode. Every piece of equipment fails in a recognizable way. Each article says how, and what it costs on the night it happens.
- We update rather than repost. Codes, models and energy rules change. When they do, the original article is revised and the change noted.
Our readers
Independent restaurant, café and ghost-kitchen owners and the chefs who run them, usually opening a first or second kitchen, working inside a lease and a budget with no equipment dealer on retainer.
Everything here lives in one category, Commercial Kitchens: planning a layout around flow, choosing between gas and electric, buying used equipment without inheriting someone else’s problems, sizing refrigeration, and understanding dish machines.
The limits we set
Health and building code. Plan review, sanitation requirements, hood and fire-suppression rules, and accessibility are set by your local health authority, fire marshal and building department. We tell you that review exists and that you should ask early. We do not tell you what your jurisdiction requires.
Gas, electrical, plumbing and ventilation work. Connecting gas lines, running power, plumbing drains and hoods and fire suppression are licensed trades with permits and inspections. We describe the requirements and send you to the licensed contractor.
Pricing. We do not quote equipment or installation prices. Costs vary by region, supplier and condition, so we name what drives them.
The person behind it
Gwen Abernathy — Editor. Gwen spent fifteen years in foodservice equipment, first on the sales floor of a dealer in Chicago and later designing kitchen layouts for independent restaurants across Georgia and Tennessee. She has walked through more kitchens at six in the morning than she can count, and noticed that most layouts fail on the same Friday night for the same few reasons, which is how this site’s editorial approach was formed. She writes Kitchen Line Brief for the owner with a signed lease and no idea how to put the line in the room.
Paying the bills
Running Kitchen Line Brief costs money, and two things cover it: display ads selected by third-party networks, and the occasional affiliate link. We never see the ads beforehand, advertisers cannot touch our copy, and a commission has never changed a conclusion — a good deal of our advice is to move a cooler six feet or buy the used reach-in, which earns us nothing. The details are in the Disclaimer.
Corrections
Nobody is right all the time. Equipment lines and local rules change, and we make our own mistakes. Use the contact form to point out a mistake; we check it against the source, correct the article and say what we changed.
Talk to us
Questions, disagreements and topic suggestions are welcome through our Contact page. We cannot design your kitchen remotely or approve a plan, but we can usually tell you which questions to put to your dealer and your plan reviewer.