Sidework

Frank Pfisterer is the co-owner with William Shear of Tine Design, the commercial kitchen design firm behind some of the most famous restaurants in New York and elsewhere. Besides restaurants, Frank has worked his magic on a former juvenile detention center, a Supreme Court building, a ferry or two, an old Rockefeller estate, a landmark NYC skyscraper, and a giant New England garment mill, just to name a few. August Point has worked alongside Tine Design on several projects, including the soon-opening Eckhart Beer Co. in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

How has commercial kitchen design changed over the past decade? What are some of the major trends?

For diners, things like delivery apps have changed the FOH landscape and how we deal with that BOH. For operators and designers, fully electric and ventless kitchens have become more common. On the horizon, probably the most hyped thing in our industry is robotics. Not only because it screams “the future”—but also because it presents itself as a possible solution to what so many operators are actually screaming about: Labor.

What’s one thing you know about designing commercial kitchens that people usually don’t understand coming into a project?

You never have as much space as you think you do. “Extra space” is equivalent to Bigfoot in its believability once I start drawing your project and hearing what you want to do.

Is there a kitchen design challenge that has put you to the test?

The hardest space to design is the "un-space,” the made-up one. We have been hired many times to design fictitious spaces or buildings. I don’t do well with contemplating infinity options, mainly because I know that it is highly unlikely the client is going to build a building from scratch.

What is your creative process/approach to a new project/client? Do you have a guiding principle?

Every project and every client is just so different. What we do just comes from the gut and experience in the field. We have a client who has been in the restaurant business longer than I’ve been alive. While I am humbled someone with 50+ years of success sees the value in having us as part of the team, his business approach is significantly different than that of a millennial with a great idea opening their first place. Both can be super successful, but their visions and how they get there are completely different.

So we do our best to meet the client where they are and fit in their groove as best we can. It is a dance, no doubt. Once we connect with a new client, we are trying to sell doses of reality even before we are contracted. Not every space should be an F&B business and not every person should be in F&B. So trying to do the right thing is our guiding principle.  

You and your partner are nuts and bolts people, and yet the work you do is inherently creative, an art as much as a science. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

William and I really live and breathe art and design. If I could choose themes in the space which attract us most, it would be functional art plus industrial design, particularly late nineteenth and early twentieth century design. In that era, designs were made to last, to be beautiful, and to function well. Over the years, we’ve waxed poetic on everything from art deco clothing irons to stern designs on 1920s yachts. Our text message photo history looks like something more from the pages of pre-war popular science magazines than Eater’s website. You would never know we were commercial kitchen designers by browsing through that.

Finally, because we’re talking about the topic in this issue, what’s something surprising about commercial dishwashing and dishroom design that we probably don’t know?

The same 20x20” dishwashing racks in kitchens all over haven’t changed since at least the 1940s. They were just metal back then instead of the blue and gray plastic. Actually, during WWII, due to metal shortages and wartime rationing, they were being made out of wood!

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Maine’s Virginia Oliver has been lobstering for 96 years.

Heatwaves are making restaurant kitchens unsafe.

The refrigerator basically created modern food and drink.

Speaking of tomato innovation, we’re curious to try out the Rubi.

People are shopping for dinner on Etsy.

“That’s that me espresso” ice cream is happening.