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Coming to America
The U.S. adventures of a European fast casual.
March 26, 2009
The signature blue-and-white facades of IKEA stores, each stocked with simply designed, clever and compact furniture. The unmistakable bulb of a Volkswagen Beetle. The fashionable frame of a Manolo Blahnik pump.
There is design. Then there is European design.
IKEA, Volkswagon and Manolo Blahnik have brought to furniture, cars and shoes what some restaurants are just now catching onto: sleek, modern and well-crafted designs that set them apart from the industry standard.
Very few concepts in the United States have yet to explore and incorporate European ideas of functionality and use, but those that have, with Vapiano leading the way, are changing the dining experience.
German-based Vapiano debuted in Washington, D.C., in 2008. With four locations open in the U.S. and more than 30 worldwide, Vapiano's founders plan to grow the chain's domestic presence.
How fast that growth occurs depends largely on how customers adapt to the differences in the experiences accompanying a European brand.
The service model at Vapiano may take some getting used to, especially in the States, where a grab-and-go mentality prevails. However, fast casual restaurants such as Vapiano, and full-service ones like wagamama and Bimbamboo, are betting on the European model.
"I think European design is impacting what is going on over here," said Brett West, a designer with Milwaukee-based Kahler-Slater. "European ideas of functionality and use are being thought about in the fast casual realm. We're seeing more staff playing multiple roles in the experience and engaging the customer to enhance the experience."
Case in point: Vapiano's heritage is rooted in the Northern Italy dining experience. The menu consists of pizza, pasta and salad, and the open floor plan invites an abundance of guest and chef interaction.
"It's not only about the food, it's also about the people," said president and co-founder Kenny Hahne. "We don't want people sitting with laptops by themselves, we want them to go back to older times. We wanted a lot of people communicating with each other and a lot of people really cooking within the restaurant."
Once inside, guests order at individual stations rather than at a counter, and they tell the chef how they'd like their meal prepared as it's being fixed. There are separate pasta, salad, pizza and dessert stations, along with a separate bar area from which customers order. And instead of paying as they go, each order placed is tallied on a magnetic-stripe card that is read at the POS on the customer's way out the door.
"It's like you get invited to somebody's house," Hahne said. "Everybody is moving around, drinking, and you don't have to pull out money every time you want to add something. It's not a quiet place, it's a very communicative place."
Although the overall dining experience is meant to fully engage the customer, there are some challenges.
"We really need to do a lot of work at the entrance to greet people and walk them through the process," Hahne said.
And that process can be confusing, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of foodservice consultancy Technomic. While there's an advantage to being in front of the person preparing your food, diners can be unsure of what to do after their order has been placed.
"Do you stand there and wait for it? Go back to your table or go order something else?" Tristano said. "In that way, the people preparing the food have to be part of the explanation of what to do next."
And diners at London-based wagamama, an Asian noodle house, face a different type of service model. They are given their food when it's hot, regardless of how many are in their party.
"When you order, the food comes immediately to the table, even if other guests' food isn't ready yet. We serve it when it's ready so it's always hot when you get it," said Ed McGraw, wagamama's U.S. vice president of development.
Elements of style
Functionality and use are two ideas that link Vapiano and wagamama together. Both brands eschew the clunky elements of design that tend to define many American restaurant concepts.
Vapiano founders look for locations with unique architectural elements and open ceilings to make for a spacious dining room, and they have created several different seating areas from which diners may choose.
"They want to be a more upscale environment where someone can come in and get a $10 lunch that is healthy and abundant in size and sit down and eat it at a cool, upscale, contemporary environment," said Herb Heiserman, principal of Bethesda, Md.-based The Heiserman Group.
"They took me to Germany three times to visit operating locations there. They said, ‘Create this in Washington, D.C.' It was challenging. How do you create a German brand here?"
In addition to a different set of cultural norms, Vapiano's founders faced architectural challenges. One of the biggest was adapting the brand's style and design to American codes and standards.
In Europe, 6,000 square feet of real estate equates to more than in the U.S., because space is used on lower levels for storage, Heiserman said.
"Here you can't do that, because space isn't available and it's an Americans with Disabilities Act issue," he said. "ADA is not in play in Europe."
Because the ADA mandates certain accessibility standards for potentially disabled employees, the restaurant's cook line had to be lowered by four inches, and some of the storage areas had to remain on the main level.
"They were just really surprised they had to go to such an extent to meet the code," Heiserman said.
Vapiano founders also could not import their preferred equipment because of America's Underwriter's Laboratory safety codes.
"They wanted to use the same equipment they were using in Germany, (but) they couldn't bring that from Germany here," Heiserman said. "It's kind of like rebuilding the brand to try and make it all the same, but it's all different."
Heiserman's firm was given the task of creating the Vapiano concept in the States, and in a way that task would easily enable its replication for expansion.
"I think they perceive the environment as something that is certainly different from Panera," he said, referring to what might be considered the archetypal image of an American fast casual concept. "Vapiano brought all of the craftsmen from Germany here to build it, and the results show. They want you to feel the whole experience. Not only do they have the warm wood, the marble and the trees, they add a splash if artistic flair in each one. So they always bring something into each restaurant."
Marble tables are built around olive trees in the main dining room, and herb plants are scattered throughout the restaurant from which customers may pluck. Plush red chairs are settled around a fireplace in a lounge area, in addition to plenty of bar seating.
In other parts of the world, those tables might be shared by multiple parties.
"Community tables are more of a European trend that's come to the U.S.," West said. "My experience has been where we tried that, it hasn't been as successful as European counterparts. I think we're just not comfortable as a culture to sit with 4-5 people we don't know at a very large table."
While Vapiano's founders may have had some initial challenges bringing the concept to the States, the struggle seems to be paying off, at least in terms of execution.
"They have fought hard to not only have that upscale environment, but to have it affordable. I think you walk in and you feel it. You feel a cultural change," Heiserman said. "I think today what we've created is the best experience in Washington, D.C."
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