Basics For Choosing The Right Awning Company For Restauranteurs

By Author: Michael Richman
Total Articles: 12
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Your restaurant can enjoy better branding and visibility with commercial canopies and awnings. The key to ensuring that you have the best commercial shade structures in place is strongly dependent upon your choice of awning company, specifically one that caters to eateries of all shapes and sizes.

As a restaurant owner, it’s important to appreciate the significant benefits that come with installing an awning or canopy or other shade structures for your business. Awnings have proven extremely successful in grabbing customers’ attention and giving a unique identity to your business. Just envision a Mexican restaurant with a sombrero-shaped awning featuring tortillas and salsa or a cheese-dripping slice of pizza with illuminated pepperoni reds, mozzarella oranges and yellows and brown, crumbly crust. Images like that go a long way to entice would be patrons, often more than text and labeling alone. Also with a well-constructed and installed awning you can achieve excellent branding by using customized graphics -- graphics that excite passersby even from a distance. Investing in such awnings will help your restaurant ...
... in a meaningful way for a long time to come. Not only will you save on your energy bills with well-built and cleverly placed awnings, you will also reduce the damage caused by sun to your floors, furniture and carpets and all while extending usable outdoor space in nearly any season.

By installing an awning or shade structure, you will also make diners happy by providing them protection from the elements. Come sun or rain, your customers will be able to sit down in comfort, not having to shield themselves from oppressive heat, a soaking rain, or squint their eyes in direct, harmful sunlight when the clouds finally break, as they will be comfortably in the awning’s shade, away from the rain or sun’s harsh rays. And remember, a happy customer returns again and again and also spreads good word about you and the quality of your food!

Restaurant awnings, made from a variety of materials including metal, (often steel, the world’s most durable metal, or lighter aluminum) mesh, canvas, and combinations thereof, -- retractable or fixed – are a great way to bring in more customers and of course, more revenue. Even in chilly winter climates an awing combined with propane heaters (and the natural heat generated from a crowd of people, not to mention piping hot delicious food) can continue to extend your outdoor footprint. Add additional lighting schemes, backlit or otherwise, along with holiday décor and logos and you can turn your restaurant awning space into a festive extravaganza. Translucent fabrics also can give your restaurant awning a glowing, inviting look which is especially attractive during these shorter, cooler days.

So whether you’re a pub, a country farm-to-table restaurant, or a casual roadside stop, awnings might really be the cost-effective way to spruce up your dining establishment while improving energy efficiency, leading the way to LEED certification, (or solar cell installation) and growing seating capacity. To find an awning company which is reliable and skilled enough to deliver all that is mentioned above, is not an easy task. When you start looking for an awning company you will come across many companies claiming to be the best and most professional in the trade. But not all claims are true or match up to the standards of workmanship and professionalism you expect for your business. That is why you need to pick a company which will work with you as a team in designing and installing the best suited awning for your restaurant as well as one that’s affiliated with organizations like the NEWH and the Restaurant Facility Management Association, two organizations committed to upholding the highest industry standards. The right company will begin by understanding your requirements from a shade structure, answer all your questions regarding the shade structure and then get back to you with a professional solution.

A reliable awning company will advise you on ways you can opt for an even better awning selection within your budget. They will rely on their experience to guide you in choosing the best suited awning style, design, colors and fabrics for your set up. They will give you detailed information about every awning design choice you have including its performance and durability along with cost. This will help you make the best choices and stay away from picking an awning which will be nothing but an investment gone wrong.

So always pick only the most experienced awning companies who have been in business long enough to take up every project successfully irrespective of its size and complexity. The best awning manufacturers will consider your needs and match them with the weather conditions to create the right awning using the latest manufacturing techniques. A well-established and reputed company which is associated with industry authorities and uses the latest graphic designing and production techniques will deliver the project on time and within budget.

The writer is associated with Academy Inc. the Los Angeles based leading supplier of canopies and awnings and other commercial shade structures.