Every restaurant needs just a little more revenue. A company called Spacious may have the answer.
Anyone who’s run a restaurant knows the margins are razor-thin. Food and labor costs are well known for eating into, if not completely overwhelming, any profits at the end of the month. Another major cost is the facility itself – all that storefront isn’t cheap, especially if it’s only generating revenue from 5pm to close. This is where spacious.com steps in.
Spacious is a company focused on the future of remote workers – those laptop professionals staring at screens in coffee shops. Instead of renting in workspaces in offices like WeWork, Spacious provides spaces in the dining rooms of restaurants. It’s one of those simple solutions that benefits all parties. Remote workers have a place to access high-speed internet, take calls and host meetings while restaurants get to monetize their dining rooms during off-hours.
Founded in New York City, Spacious founders Preston Pesek wanted to re-imagine how spaces were used in urban areas. They quickly realized that restaurants offered everything an office-less worker needed to be productive. After proving out the idea in a couple dining rooms, they spread to restaurants throughout NYC and San Francisco. Not only were the needs of remote workers met, Spacious provided a new revenue source – as well as visibility to new potential customers – to restaurants.
“Joining the network brings an immediate exposure to an audience of locals and travelers that otherwise may not have visited the space,” said Preston Pesek. “Spacious locations are using their existing asset to plug into a membership based platform and create an additional use for the community.”
In order to make the relationship with restaurants as beneficial as possible, Spacious provides its own staff members to check-in guests and provide various services. The Spacious team works with the host restaurant to create a plan for the day to day running of the space, ensuring there is little to no interference with prep schedules and room setup. The restaurant can concentrate on all the moving parts needed for a smooth service.
The Milling Room is one Spacious location that has seen immediate benefit from the arrangement. “The Milling Room was able to take the profits that they receive from us, and used the extra income to hire another floor manager, which ended up increasing their wine sales in the evening,” said Pesek. “This is an example of our partners having new opportunities to try new things with their primary business, which may include offering new menu items, hiring additional staff, or simply reducing the fixed costs of running a restaurant.”
When a restaurant is considering a Spacious location, they can reach out through spacious.com. The Spacious team will then evaluate the potential space based on location, size, functionality and the neighborhood. Their goal is to make sure both sides get some value from the partnership. Not all restaurants are a good fit for co-working, or would benefit from the service.
“It varies space by space,” said Pesek. “But the goal is to create a profitable partnership immediately.”
With the costs of just about everything rising, restaurants are looking for revenue, or to save money, anywhere they can. Along with delivery, smarter POSs, better marketing and more efficient hiring (HI!), Spacious offers an innovative idea to savvy operators. Though Spacious is currently only available in New York and San Francisco, more cities are coming online in 2019.