Restaurant booth seating specified line by line, from types to lead time

Ask a buyer how many chairs the dining room needs and the answer is a number. Ask how many booths and the answer is a wall. That's the gap that earns booth seating its own lines on a furniture schedule, and it's why a booth order goes wrong in different ways than a chair order does.

Our booth catalog lists close to 50 booths, and every one of them is sold apart from its table. This guide covers the six types, what a booth line carries that a chair line doesn't, and what the lead time does to an opening date. It also says where the care instructions belong so the closing crew sees them. Keep your measured plan beside you. Each booth line starts from a wall someone has already walked.

Six booth types, six kinds of wall

The catalog sorts booths into six types: configurable booths, standard booths, L-shaped booths, half-circle booths, three-quarter-circle booths, and bar-height booths. An L turns a corner, and which way it turns has to be recorded before you order. Writing down handedness and orientation on the schedule line costs a minute. A wrong guess costs a great deal more.

Half-circle and three-quarter-circle booths curve, so they're drawn as arcs on the plan instead of straight runs. Bar-height booths belong to a bar zone, not the dining floor. Seats are padded across the catalog, and some booths pair padded seats with wood. Read the listing for the dimensions it prints before you fix a wall run, and if a dimension isn't shown, ask on the callback form.

Choosing among them starts with the wall, not the catalog. A corner calls for an L. An arc in the plan calls for a half-circle or a three-quarter-circle booth. A bar zone calls for a bar-height booth. When the wall has no corner or curve, standard booths and configurable booths are the two types to compare.

The booth is one line and its table is another

Booths are sold apart from tables, so the seating and the table never share a line. The table side of the bay gets two lines of its own, a top and a base, unless a listing is sold as a complete table or a set. A single bay therefore sits on three lines: the booth, the top, and the base.

Write those three lines side by side and the pairing shows. Bases match a height: standard-height bases suit a 30-inch table, bar-height bases suit 42 inches, and a few listings are marked for both. A bar-height booth beside a 30-inch table is a mismatch you want to catch on the schedule, not at the dock. Tops are listed in round, square, and rectangular shapes, so give each bay the shape that fits its booth and write it on the line beside that booth.

Where a booth listing prints a seat height, set it against the table: the seat should sit 10 to 12 inches below the underside of the top. Listings differ on what they show, so when the number is missing, ask on the callback form instead of guessing. A full review of the booth and table as one fit question goes deeper than a schedule line can.

What a booth line carries that a chair line doesn't

A chair line is short. It holds an item, a finish, a quantity, and a spares count, and the quantity scales with the seat target. A booth line asks more of the writer. It has to answer three questions, and a blank on any of them sends the schedule back for a rewrite:

• Quantity: how many booths of each type the room takes.
• Wall run: the wall or room position the booths occupy, using the length you measured on site instead of the length on the drawing.
• Table pairing: the top and base lines that go with the booth, written under the same room label.

Here's a worked line for the window wall of a corner room. It reads: L-shaped booth, left-hand, vinyl, quantity one, window wall, paired with a round top on a standard base. Each part settles a question before anyone has to ask it.

Group the lines by wall, not by type. Two L-shaped booths on different walls are two lines, because each line answers for its own wall run and table pairing. Total the booths by type at the bottom of the sheet for the order itself.

Spares belong to the chair line, where a few per room cover repairs and additions. The booth line has a different discipline: a room label on every line, so each booth stays matched to its wall from the schedule through the order.

Minimums, lead time, and freight

Booths carry no piece minimum, and they don't add to the count either. Every table, top, base, and chair beside them still counts toward the 8 pieces, with bar stools tallied as chairs.

Three booths with three small tables behind them fall short of 8 on the table side, whether each table is a complete listing or a separate top and base. The room's chairs, stools, and other tables have to make up the difference.

Lead time on a line runs 14 to 21 business days before freight transit. Custom upholstery or a special finish can stretch that to as many as 8 weeks, so a booth with a chosen fabric belongs on the longer clock. Request free samples in the upholstery you're considering, along with the wood or metal that sits beside it, and settle the choice before you start counting weeks.

Freight moves by LTL to a loading dock or the curb. A liftgate or inside delivery is billed on top, and either one has to be requested when the order is placed, so keep the delivery page open beside the schedule. Before the truck arrives, walk the route from the dock to each wall. Booth delivery access gets its own review along the packaged route.

Upholstery care written onto the line

For vinyl, the care line reads mild soap and water, then dry. Bleach and solvents are out. For fabric, the cleaning code on the cloth sets the method. Copy both onto the booth line as notes, because the person who orders a booth rarely holds the cloth afterward.

See the materials page for the upholstery, wood, and metal choices themselves. Choosing upholstery with later serviceability in mind starts from those same care notes, which is why they belong on the line and not in someone's memory.

Walk the wall, then write the line

Stand at the first wall with a tape and the plan. Write down what's actually there: the run, the corner, the door swing, and the spot where the table will sit. Every booth line you write afterward is a copy of that measurement with a type, a quantity, and a table attached.

When the lines are done, save them to a project list so the next room or location starts from the same booth schedule instead of a blank page. Then ask a second person to read it before anything goes to the basket. A blank wall run is quick to spot with fresh eyes, and it's far easier to fix on paper than on a dock. If a type or fabric question stays open, a specialist is one callback form away.