Introduction to Food Court Furniture and Décor

A Palmer Hamilton Food Court transforms your cafeteria into a relaxed environment, providing a unique and comfortable place to dine and interact. Palmer Hamilton offers a wide selection of furniture and custom décor to complement your current cafeteria.

Palmer Hamilton walks you through the entire process, from design to furniture selection to customized artwork, crowd-control systems, installation services and more. You have full access to our talented design team with over 100 years of combined experience in food service facilities design.

Transform your cafeteria into an exciting and vibrant dining environment.

Food Court Benefits

Food Courts offer convenient, casual campus dining giving students a variety of both traditional and non-traditional cafeteria elements. From booths to high-top chairs, to lounge furniture and décor, Food Courts provide a unique and comfortable place to dine and interact. They are a proven way to keep students on campus and involved in your program, which means increased food service revenue for your school. Other benefits include:

• Increase student participation.
• Increase revenue and profits.
• Transform your cafeteria into an exciting and enticing environment for diversified students to all enjoy.
• Enhance school pride and foster a sense of community between students.
• Accommodate more students with increased seating.
• Reduce student congestion with improved traffic flow.
• Provide a community center/gathering place for all students, faculty and parents.
• Introduce catering opportunities for outside groups.

Payback Analysis

Research has shown that food courts will pay off by recapturing initial investments in about 18 months for a 2,000 student middle or high school, with profits continuing after the initial payback period. Schools that have made this transformation have experienced profit increases up to 74%, with the majority of schools averaging over a 25% increase.

The following example chart shows possible increases in food service revenue based on the various percentages of increase. The below K-12 model is based on 1,300 total students enrolled and currently serving 500 students (Note: Analysis is based on a 180 day school year and average student spending of $2.88 per day).

A Palmer Hamilton Food Court is the perfect on-campus dining solution for any food service program.

A Well-designed Cafeteria

With an emphasis on interactive design, variety and comfort, food courts can create a multitude of environments by incorporating free-standing tables, booth seating, custom cabinets and a full range of décor and accessories. Components of a Well-designed Cafeteria take into consideration:

• Age & Cultural Appropriateness
  Each design will reflect the age and culture of the students, aligning with the identity of the school.
• Furniture Selection
  Ranging from lounge furniture to mobile tables, booths to high-top tables, the chosen furniture helps reflect the atmosphere of the food court.
• Paint Schemes
  Brighten up a dull lunchroom with custom paint schemes to resemble a restaurant-style eating area rather than an institutional cafeteria.
• Décor Themes
  Décor such as graphics, lighting, and banner are great tools to use to entice students to stay on campus for lunch.
• Furniture Layout
  The right furniture layout brings additional seating, improves functionality and adds excitement and depth to any cafeteria.
• Traffic Flow
  Well designed food courts can increase student flow, reduce theft and minimize congestion in the cafeteria.

Our Design Process

Palmer Hamilton's professional design group will walk you through the entire food court process. You will have full access to the best design team in the industry, with over 100 years of combined expertise in food service facilities design. If you have a new building or an older campus that needs a cutting-edge Food Court, we can provide the design services that will be your Blueprint for Success.

• Step 1 - Pre-design Consultation
  We begin the process of creating a food court concept for your facility by understanding your basic needs and goals. Pre-design consultation includes school site inspection and analysis, student and staff interviews, budget reviews and timeline projections.
• Step 2 - Design & Plan
  With our staff of professional food court designers, we provide the artistic skill, creativity and knowledge to create the concept while maximizing the functionality of your school cafeteria. Design and plan includes seating layout, furniture selection, graphic design, color selection, custom cabinets and millwork, wall-mounted graphics, décor and signage designs.
• Step 3 - Design Proposal
  A member of our food court design team will present and describe the cafeteria design concept enabling you to visualize the final food court layout and design. The design proposal will include rendered floor plans, rendered elevations, décor illustrations, presentation boards, room finishes, and final specification documents.

Turn-key Project Management

Once you have approved your food court design a personal project manager will coordinate, develop and manage your project from start to finish, including all phases of your cafeteria transformation.

• Organizing final design documents
• Working with you to issue a purchase order
• Coordinating and tracking all production
• Arranging product delivery
• Coordinating installation teams
• Conducting final walk-through inspection