A steakhouse lives or dies on the room. 14 Prime opened on Gate Parkway with a dining room built around dark fluted ceiling slats, full-height curtains and framed landscapes lit from above, and we did the seating.
Key takeaways
- Two rooms at 14 Prime, the chef-driven steakhouse on Gate Parkway: the main dining room and the banquette side.
- Three upholstery elements working together. Teal channel banquettes on a brass toe rail, curved cream barrel chairs, and booth seating built to its own radius.
- Restaurant seating is specified above residential abrasion ratings and has to meet the fire-code requirements for public assembly spaces.
- A curved booth is made to its radius, not bent into it afterwards. The panels are cut so the seams stay even the whole way round.
- A brass toe rail is the detail that keeps a banquette looking new, because it takes the shoe scuffing that would otherwise land on the fabric.
- Restaurant work is scheduled around a fit-out programme, so it has to be made, delivered and installed inside a fixed window.
Restaurant work is a different job from residential upholstery, and not because the pieces are bigger. It answers to a fit-out programme, it has to meet contract durability and fire-code requirements, and it gets one window between the trade in front of you and the one behind. Here is what went into these two rooms.
The Dining Room: Teal, Brass and Cream
The main room pairs teal banquettes along the walls with curved cream barrel chairs at the tables, on an oak floor under that slatted ceiling.
The pairing is doing real work. The banquettes are the dark anchor that holds the edges of the room, and the pale barrel chairs stop the middle going heavy, which is the trap in a room this dark. Get that balance wrong and a steakhouse reads as a cave rather than as somewhere you want to sit for three hours.
The banquettes run on a brass toe rail. That is not only decoration. A toe rail takes the shoe scuffing that would otherwise land on the bottom few inches of fabric, which in a busy restaurant is the first place a banquette starts to look tired.
Curved Booths: Built to the Radius
Several of the booths curve, and a curved booth is made to its radius rather than bent into shape afterwards.
Every panel has to be cut for its own position on the curve, and the seams set so they stay even the whole way round. On a straight run you have a little room to pull a panel true. On a curve you do not, because any discrepancy shows as a seam that wanders and a back that ripples. It is planned before cutting, and then it is sewn once.
The seat height, the back angle and the depth all matter more in a restaurant than at home, because guests sit down and get up several times an hour and the seat has to work for all of them without thought.
Three Fabrics, Three Jobs
There are three upholstery elements in the room and each is doing something different.
The banquettes take the wear, so they carry the toughest specification. The barrel chairs carry the lighter colour and get moved constantly, so the fabric has to take handling on the outside back as well as the seat. The scatter cushions do the softening, and they are the piece that can be replaced cheaply when a room wants refreshing without redoing the seating.
All of it is specified well above residential abrasion ratings, and all of it has to satisfy the fire-code requirements that apply to public assembly spaces. That narrows the range of fabric you can use considerably, which is exactly why this gets decided early rather than late.
What Fine Dining Seating Has to Survive
- Constant cycling. A restaurant seat is sat in and vacated far more often than anything in a house, and the wear is concentrated at the front edge.
- Cleaning. Spills are dealt with immediately and often, so the fabric has to take repeated cleaning without going pale or stiff.
- Fire code. Public assembly spaces have requirements that residential furniture never has to meet.
- The programme. Seating lands in a fixed slot between the other trades, and the opening date does not move because the upholstery did.
Commercial Work on the First Coast
We’ve been doing this from the Atlantic Beach workshop since 1999, for restaurants, bars, hotels and clubs across Jacksonville and the beaches. The same workshop does the residential work, which is why the commercial work looks the way it does.
You can see more of it on our commercial upholstery page, or read about the two rooms we did at Ponte Vedra Inn & Club.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you do restaurant seating in Jacksonville?
How is restaurant seating different from home furniture?
Can you build curved and radius booths?
Can you work around our opening hours?
Why put a brass rail on a banquette?
Do you reupholster existing restaurant seating, or only build new?
Planning a restaurant fit-out or a refresh? We quote commercial seating in writing, work to your programme, and can phase the work so the room keeps trading where that matters. Call (904) 242-8778 or visit the showroom at 1079 Atlantic Blvd #7, Atlantic Beach.