Why Great Foodservice Design Starts Long Before the First Sketch

When people think about foodservice design, they usually picture the finished space or maybe the design phase itself. But, in reality, the most important work happens long before we ever start designing.

That phase is programming. It’s where we determine not just what a space will look like, but how it will actually work. After 25 years at elite|studio e, I’ve had the opportunity to guide countless clients through this process and it always starts the same way: by understanding the customer.

Every project starts with people.

We look at when they’re eating, what they’re looking for, and how they naturally move through a space. But even more importantly, we try to understand why they’re there in the first place.

Are they in a rush? Are they looking to linger? Is this part of a daily routine, or a destination experience?

Take, for example, a college campus in Connecticut. A heat map (pictured on the right) illustrates both existing foodservice touchpoints (bottom) and proposed locations as part of a master plan. Our team worked closely with the operator to ensure students and staff wouldn’t have to go far to grab something to eat. When you only have 15 minutes between classes, convenience isn’t a luxury —it’s essential.

Once we understand the customer, we begin defining the experience we want to create — not just visually, but functionally. Should it feel fast and efficient? Social and energetic? Calm and flexible? The answers to these questions start to guide every decision that follows.

From there, we focus on flow. In existing spaces, you might find me or someone from our team sitting in a café during peak hours, observing. We’re looking for pressure points like a salad bar line backing up into the cashier area, or customers having to cross the entire café just to get a cup of coffee.

How guests enter, where they make decisions, where lines form, and how they move through the space all inform our recommendations. Small missteps in flow can create major operational challenges, so we invest the time upfront to get it right.

One project for a pharmaceutical company in California is a great example of how small changes can make a big impact. We were brought in to revisit a recently renovated café. The original design featured a large circular salad bar with several feet of unused space in the center (see #1 below). We reconfigured it into two rectangular islands, eliminating wasted space and allowing access from all sides.

We also improved traffic flow at the entrance and exit by relocating the cashier stations. This widened the entry point and created a more intuitive path for guests to pay and exit. (see #2 below) These simple adjustments significantly improved the overall experience.

A big part of programming is ensuring the vision can be executed. That means aligning the menu with the space, the equipment, and the team behind it. It’s easy to design something that looks great on paper, but if it doesn’t function operationally, it won’t succeed long term.

We also plan for peak demand. Lunch rushes, class breaks, event surges — these are the moments that put the most pressure on a space. At that same California project, we introduced a micro-market just outside the café, complete with a rapid-cook oven, frozen yogurt, and grab-and-go options (pictured on right). This helped relieve congestion in the main serving area while also providing a convenient after-hours solution.

Programming connects the dots between experience, operations, and business goals. At an airline headquarters in Atlanta, our early research showed that the salad bar was the most desired station, but sales data told a different story, with the deli consistently outperforming.

A closer look revealed why: the salad bar was often crowded, slow, and difficult to navigate. While people were drawn to it, the experience didn’t match the demand.

In the redesigned café, we reimagined the traditional salad bar as a large design focal point featuring a hot and cold market bar — improving flow, increasing accessibility, and better supporting peak traffic. The result was immediate: a 43% increase in sales on opening day, followed by sustained growth of 30% thereafter.

By the time elite|studio e begins the design phase, we’re not starting from scratch. We’re building on a foundation of informed decisions shaped by insights from our team, the client, the operator, and most importantly, the end user.

In our experience, that’s what makes a space truly successful, not just on day one, but over time.

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Joshua Mass is Vice President of Project Solutions at elite|studio e and currently spearheads our Tampa, FL, Team E Location. With 25 years of experience leading complex, multi-million-dollar foodservice projects for national clients across the U.S., Josh specializes in developing scalable, high-performing programs for multi-location campuses, working closely with clients, operators, and design teams to ensure each space is both operationally efficient and experience-driven.