The Unlikely Perks of a Bigger Restaurant Area

A model of this submit initially appeared on Might 14, 2025, in Eater and Punch’s e-newsletter Pre Shift, a biweekly e-newsletter for the trade professional that sources first-person accounts from the bar and restaurant world.

This ship is the second of a four-part sequence on restaurant progress, offered by Sq.. Arrange all of your orders — dine-in, on-line, and third-party — and fulfill them in a flash, proper out of your POS. Subscribe now for extra tales like this.

Kato, in accordance with co-owner and wine director Ryan Bailey

The place: Los Angeles
The expansion: Jon Yao opened Kato in an LA strip mall in 2016 as a tiny operation. The restaurant, with its then-$55 and -$80 tasting menus, was a food-media darling: In 2019, it earned a Michelin star and topped the Los Angeles Instances’ 101 Greatest Eating places listing. Although the workforce was already planning to increase, COVID-19 accelerated the need of shifting. In 2022, Kato reopened in a much-larger area and constructed up its menus, beverage program, and employees. Right here, co-owner, director of operations, and wine director Ryan Bailey explains what it was like taking up such a big restaurant.
Dimension of restaurant in 2020: 850 sq. toes, 24 seats (20 eating room, 4 bar)
Dimension of restaurant now: 4,700 sq. toes, 56 seats (48 eating room, 6 bar, 2 ADA bar)

On discovering an area

We didn’t suppose we would have liked over 4,500 sq. toes. However what it did enable us to do was area out our tables 3-plus toes so friends felt comfy eating indoors. We’ve saved that as a result of it offers our friends a way of intimacy. We’ve an outside patio. We don’t even use it, however we have been excited to have that—ought to we’ve got to do outside eating at one other time limit, we don’t have to construct it out in a parking spot.

On menu construction

The previous area was all constantly one menu. On the new area, we’ve got three totally different menus each evening. In the principle eating room, we provide a menu that’s 12 programs, plus or minus one, and a three-hour eating expertise. Once we first opened, we had à la carte on the bar.

Due to the inconsistency of that, I can’t provide you with a wait time as a result of some folks order loads and a few persons are out and in—we now have an abbreviated menu that’s half the eating room time. It’s about an hour and a half, seven programs, and composed of our basic dishes and crowd favorites. We needed an area for individuals who have been touring internationally or had examine these dishes up to now. We even have two seats on the bar that we reserve for walk-in drinks and à la carte bites.

Wonho Frank Lee

On a full beverage program

The previous area didn’t have a liquor license, so the one beverage choices have been glowing water and tea. We thought that if our aspirations have been to construct out an iconic LA restaurant and have it’s a multicourse tasting menu, we should always construct out a wine program that mirrored that. We now have 3,000 wine picks in-house and over 15,000 bottles. We provide two pairings at evening to associate with the meals.

Our cocktail program has additionally developed extensively—we’ve got a full pantry only for that. We additionally put a giant emphasis on creating an alcohol-free program. We went primarily from having three drink choices to having about 3,500 choices for folks to drink. Alcohol brings in between 15 and 20 % of our income. Should you have a look at that when it comes to an à la carte restaurant which may serve extra cocktails, that’s really fairly low, however as a result of our menu is $325, that skews the share upward towards the meals.

On the operational advantages of growth

We’ve extra fingers to liberate the work, which permits for extra time to develop new dishes. We’ve a far more intensive pantry. We’re extra conscious of waste: Within the previous area, we didn’t actually have anyplace to place issues if we weren’t instantly utilizing [them], however now, we are able to incorporate them into different initiatives. We’ve extra chilly storage, so we are able to take bigger drops of issues and work straight with the farmers.

On staffing up

We will have extra particular person roles for folks. Nikki Reginaldo, my common supervisor and new managing companion, was doing every part and now I can have her give attention to a greater visitor expertise. Once we moved, our workforce grew. With our workforce rising, we may give extra alternatives to folks.