Serve up success with restaurant upholstery

Restaurant upholstery cooks up sizzling profits and delicious learning opportunities.

UpholsteryJournalMag.com | November 8, 2011

By Holly O’Dell

If you’re looking to diversify your business, consider entering the restaurant upholstery market. Nearly 10,000 restaurants opened in 2006, according to the National Restaurant Association. The numbers suggest plenty of opportunities for commercial upholstery work, but first, you need to understand the nuances of the industry.

Like venturing into any unfamiliar territory, learning about the restaurant business and making connections are crucial. Align yourself with an interior designer familiar with the market, or call the contractor building the restaurant down the street from your shop.

Kelly Mielke, owner of Kelly’s Upholstery in Bellingham, Wash., relied on the power of referral to break into the business of restaurant upholstery. Carpenters with whom Mielke had previously worked recommended him for several jobs. One was upholstering new booths in a café remodel. Another project consisted of upholstering the cushions of a 30-foot-long bench within a bed-and-breakfast restaurant. A third job came when the bed-and-breakfast owners asked Mielke to reupholster the booths at a café they owned.

“Word-of-mouth referrals and repeat business have been my best sales tools,” Mielke says. “Both the B & B and café have had me sew fitted vinyl table covers. I also reupholstered several antique chairs for the B & B, and its customers have sought me out after seeing my work.”

Another simple way to break into the business is to promote your services to those in the industry. Dan Vanderlip, owner of Vanderlip Upholstery in St. Clair Shores, Mich., regularly advertises in the Yellow Pages, newspapers and a local construction magazine.

“We also do work for quite a few contractors who build restaurants but don’t have access to upholstery,” says Vanderlip, who has upholstered major restaurants in the Detroit area, including The Rattlesnake Club, The ERSA Club at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and Sweet Lorraine’s.

AMC Industries, a 30-year-old company in Temple Terrace, Fla., that constructs restaurant booths and seating, participates in a variety of food-related trade shows. These include the National Restaurant Association Show, Texas Restaurant Show, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Show, and the Nightclub & Bar Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas.

“Attending these shows has helped tremendously,” says Tom Mumford, vice president of sales and marketing for AMC. “You’ve got to get the name of your business out there.”

Those who have done restaurant upholstery also report that the work can be profitable, particularly when it begets additional jobs.

“Any repetitive work that I do has the potential to be more lucrative because of the multiplicity in the work,” Mielke says. “For example, I am able to order in quantities with price breaks, and cut and sew a number of pieces at a time without having to change tools, work space and customers.”

Fabric considerations

Many factors contribute to the fabric selection in restaurant upholstery. One important consideration is durability, given the nature of the fabric’s use. Rips and tears to the seats are common, especially with how often customers move in and out of seating areas.

Another consideration is ease of use, both for the consumer and the restaurant’s staff. Mumford recommends avoiding fabrics that cause clothing to stick or bunch up upon sliding into a booth. With high traffic also comes high probability of spills. As such, seating needs to be easily wiped down.

In addition to all these requirements, restaurant upholstery needs to match the establishment’s theme or décor. Fortunately, the three most common types of fabrics used for restaurant upholstery—vinyl; vinyl-coated fabric, such as Naugahyde; and stain-treated fabrics, such as Crypton—offer myriad options from both a usability and aesthetic standpoint.

Rex Pegg Fabrics, a distributor in Tacoma, Wash., recommends contract fabric materials to its upholsterers working on restaurants.

“Contract vinyl and fabric offer durability and top coating for stain resistance, plus higher abrasion resistance and more flame retardancy,” says Skooter Scott, president of Rex Pegg Fabrics. “Typically, these types of vinyls and fabrics will carry a higher price tag due to the extra strength and ingredients it takes to manufacture such a product.”

For most of the restaurant work he does, Vanderlip is a fan of Naugahyde. “It’s durable and cleans up easily,” he says. “You can get pretty much any color you like.”

Many upholsterers have also found success with the properties of Crypton, particularly for booth backs.

“It is a breathable fabric that is nearly impervious to liquids, highly stain resistant, easily cleanable, very strong and looks and feels like most any good upholstery fabric,” Mielke says. “Crypton is on the more expensive side, but it should outlast and outperform traditional upholstery fabrics and vinyls.”

Adds Mumford: “Restaurants want to make bold statements with their fabrics. The Crypton fabrics have incredible designs.”

Ultrasuede, Ultraleather, and other faux leathers tend to be used in higher-end restaurants. In his bed-and-breakfast project, Mielke used Ultraleather on long seat cushions on a bench, accompanied by a bolstered back in a complementary fabric, which attached to the wall under the windows.

Faux materials have a beautiful look, but they tend to be pricier than vinyls. Still, budget-conscious restaurateurs can attain an appealing look for less, thanks to the variety of vinyls and fabrics today.

“Our clients want the best feel for the money,” says Mumford, who counts Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Bennigan’s, and some single-unit restaurants among AMC’s customers. “They are very cost sensitive, so we try to offer their look at the right dollar value.”

Because of the range in both materials and pricing, understanding your client’s upholstery goals is imperative.

“I make recommendations and try to explain the pros and cons of each type of fabric that would do the job, and let price and customer preferences dictate their decision,” Mielke says.

Thorough communication up front helps avoid costly mistakes down the road, Scott adds. “The last thing any of us wants is for the wrong type of fabric to be used in these commercial situations,” he says. “Premature failure of vinyl and fabric is a problem where everybody loses, so it is always prudent to use the right quality materials that suit each particular job.”

Completing the work

Once you and your client have worked together to determine the best fabric options for the restaurant’s function and budget, the next step is to determine where the work will be done, and how long it will take.

As a full-service booth and restaurant-seating manufacturer, AMC Industries has created an efficient upholstery process. Using 15 high-speed Adler industrial sewing machines, AMC’s staff can quickly turn around upholstered booth cushions and seat backs. An installation team takes anywhere from three to five days to assemble and install booths and tables at the restaurant.

For those with much smaller capacities, however, work has to be done around a client’s schedule. “They need to consider their customers and do it at their convenience so the restaurant doesn’t lose money,” Vanderlip says.

Often, Vanderlip will take his truck to the restaurant and use it as a mobile upholstery unit.

“We’ll grab a couple of seats from the restaurant, take them to our truck, reupholster them and bring them back,” he says. “This way, they’re only down one booth at a time. Clients want quick turnaround service, so we try to upholster with no downtime.”

Mielke completes most of his restaurant upholstery work in his shop. “I find that I can take home the pieces to be reupholstered after hours and return them prior to the establishment opening for business,” he says.

Learning about and networking within the restaurant industry, along with understanding your clients’ needs, can lead to success with restaurant upholstery. And with a little word-of-mouth advertising, you just might find yourself working on the next big restaurant chain.

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