Return of the Coffee Bar - Money Money Money!

I don't often post a second time so close to the previous, but I just got too excited about this... so here goes :

When the Coffee Bar first hit the stores, it was all the Craze and led to what some may consider the Almond Rush.

After that, it was followed by a disappointing period where folks realised it was just a massive, overhyped stove, and even required a Waiter to attend to it. Based on at least one forum poll, most people were rather disappointed and just felt well, it'll just come and go, or remain as a big Decorative Item with minimal special Use.
Personally, I thought the last post I did with the Coffee Bar (practically only a Picture) would be the last thing I ever blogged about it.

Boy, was I wrong, and never happier to be wrong.

Congratulations to Playfish, you somehow managed to pull the act TOTALLY back together.
The last recipe, Millionaire Shortbread, not only is exquisitely nice to look at - you can see the golden leaf actually glide from side to side beautifully - it actually has the wonderful effect of causing the All Coffee Bar Dishes and Drinks to double the earnings per Customer

Yes, it may not sound like much compared to one extra Worker that many were hoping for.
But, for those disappointed because we didn't get one extra Worker, do note that
properly arranged, Millionaire Shortbread WILL make you MORE money than an extra Worker.

Running at 95 Popularity, I get about 4-6 more Coins per Minute.
This may not sound like much, but that's more than I got from using the Lounge Bar, or Items that increase Waiting Time by 1 Second.

So if you guys been wanting to get a million Coins for the Eiffel Tower (or any other overpriced Popularity item, lol)
Go Get This!

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How To Arrange the Coffee Bar

To get the most Bang for Buck out of the Millionaire Shortbread money effect, we observe that :

• Coffee Bar has the fastest Drink Machine EVER at 30% Speed
• Coffee Bar dishes can net up to 6 coins per Dish
• Coffee Bar cannot serve 5 Seats / Tables well by itself.
• Coffee Bar serving 4 Seats / Tables underuses its Drink Machine.
• Waiter gets very bored at Coffee Bar serving just 4 Seats / Tables

So, we decided to try and make the most out of the Bar (and also our Waiter), by making the following changes, and utilising our earlier 2 Cooks 1 Waiter layout (if you don't know what that is, click here ) :

• Use the Coffee Bar to serve as 1 Stove and 1 Drink Machine
• Place 1 More Stove so that the place can handle 9 Seats / Tables

However, the following issues will come up...

1) The Extra Stove seems to be serving more Customers
It may sound weird, but for once, do consider using a Slower Stove.

2) Keeping the Island to 3x1 allows Only 8 Seats / Tables
Note that the Coffee Bar front, with the Basket of bread, takes up 1 space
hence Hold the Ctrl button Down and Move the Stove onto the Basket, and then use the Stove's space for another Table / Customer.

So your final set up might look like this...

In the Pic, the whole Coffee Bar is raised a little off the ground, you can see that by comparing against the uppermost table. Hence, Alex's stove is actually occupying the exact same square as the Basket.
Yes, the furniture looks a little mismatched, but we just wanted to maximise our gains first, and fix Aesthetics later.

Note your Coffee Bar can be on one side of the seats, it can look more like a long Coffee bar.
But your Waiter will have to walk longer to reach all 9 Tables.

PS : if you have difficulty getting your Waiter into the Island, please look at the end of the post here

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Since I did post so close to previous, just a lil note to make sure the previous Post and its Freebies are not lost, just a little note :

FREE 9 Coffee Bar Ingredients : Just add Our Profile.

Many More Happy Days in Restaurant City!
See you soon with hopefully much more Coins!

Life without Janitors - One Extra Worker through Efficiency

First Up - To those who have been sending crates my way, sorry I have been away for a couple of days, did not expect to be this busy about a Conference, nor to spend a night sleeping in the Office, but oh well the Event was fun.

Meantime, I was a little surprised to see notes in the forum about how having enough Toilets for the Restaurant Popularity to be kept at Max. Just for the Record, I'll devote a post to clearing this thing up.

And to you that means - One Extra Worker for either Cooking or Serving

1) Only 50% of Served Customers Use the Toilet

Yes, only about One out of Two Customers who have eaten or drank, need to use the toilet. Its really not that many.

2) Max Popularity = Thumbs-Up MORE Than Thumbs-Down

Assuming you already have Max Popularity, you only need 1 or more Thumbs-Up for 1 Thumbs-Down to remain at Max.

3) Without Toilets, Two Satisfied Customer = 1 Thumbs-Up
Hence, we get...

4) Max Popularity = Two Satisfied Customer for One Thumbs-Down

"Eh, so what?" some may say.

Simply put, if you can serve 66% of your Customers, you do NOT need Toilets to maintain Max Popularity.

While you could use the layout here, the following tips from the same post should also serve you reasonably.

1. One Stove can serve 3-4 tables effectively.
2. A Waiter can handle 3 Stoves or 2 Stoves 1 Drink Effectively while serving 8-9 Tables
3. Make the Islands for the Waiter Smaller, preferably 1x3.

So, there you go - Max Popularity Without Janitor!
Which also means you get One Extra Worker to Cook / Serve!

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Here come some other tricky bits without Janitors

1) Use Sushi Bar & Bowling Alley / Reduce Arcades

Like Toilets, over time Arcades WILL break down. Since you have no Janitor now, you won't want to Rely only on Arcades to keep Customers Busy.

If you have the Sushi Bar, and the Bowling Alley that is no longer Breakable (ie with the Display Signs), feel free to use them.

Meantime, for your Testing Purposes, you should not include any Arcades, or block off the Arcades, so you can collect coins but Customers can't use them.

You will probably want to provide a few more chairs as well.
As a general guideline, put 3 chair/table every 10 Popularity you have, rounded up, and of course ensure there is a waiter able to serve these tables quickly.
This is roughly 1 Chair per 1 Customer Entering every Minute.

2) Junk

Junk WILL Accumulate, and quite quickly, about 1 per hour for the first 4 hours, and slightly slower after that.
Without a Janitor, there'll be little you can do, except to clear manually. To help you in this :

1. If you Can't See a square, and its Not used for Walking / Serving, Block up the Square / Put something there so Junk can't accumulate. Candles and Water are both good.
2. If Popularity drops more than 1.0 from Max, when it was previously fine, look for Junk
3. Try to check for Junk every 8-12 Hours. Beyond this time, especially if you're on a 24 hour Shift, Popularity will start to drop.
4. If you still Can't Find Junk, AND its causing your Popularity to drop rapidly, switch to a Blank Layout, clear it, then switch back

3) Raising Popularity Quickly

It is likely that there will be times your Popularity falls, could be due to switching layout to one without Obelisks, or for other Reasons.
Regardless, you probably want your Popularity back to Max before you log off, so you can make more money while Offline.

To make that faster, its good to have a few toilets, say 5-6 around. Just clean Toilets manually to make Popularity increase faster.

Once Popularity is Maxed, let the Toilets get choked again.

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Ensuring it Works

So, how do you know it works / get it to work? There's only one way to be sure - TEST IT.

After you have changed your Layout to one that is relatively efficient, you should observe around 75% Efficiency, ie 3 out of 4 Customers being satisfied and giving Thumbs-Up, and Popularity is Maxed. At this point you can start to test.

1. Clear the Junk / Trash in your Restaurant.
2. Get Popularity Back up to Max, if required.
3. Remove / Block off all Arcades and Toilets.
4. Place 3 Chairs per 10 Popularity, rounded up.
5. Swap your Janitor to his new Role as Waiter / Cook, if required

Let your Restaurant run for about 3-4 minutes, or longer if you like.
If Popularity drops and remains low, then your design might not be efficient enough.

Yes, don't blame the number of Toilets, think about how to Tighten the Design as per the Tips above.
If it still doesn't work, stick closer to the Layout/Tips here.

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Well, that's about it, hope that helped you understand better and hopefully, get an Extra Worker by Converting your Janitor!

Cheers and Happy Halloween! :)

Debunking the Popularity Myth / some Coffee Bar Notes

When max Popularity in Restaurant City was 50, it was all the craze to be a 50 Popularity layout. Now its much higher, folks are still spending huge amounts of coins on Popularity Items, and talking about "oh my 95 Popularity Layout" like its a very important thing to get.
Question is - is it really doing YOU Any Good?

This post assumes that what you ultimately want from Popularity is Coins.

1) 10 Popularity = 3 Customers Entering per Minute

So at level 40, you have 80 Popularity, you get 24 Customers Per Minute.

"Awesome! 24 Customers every minute!"
Hold your horses. The next question to be asking is :

2) How Many Customers Can I Serve?

That's "Serve". Not "Entertain", as customers using Arcades, Bowling Alleys etc, don't give you any Coins now.

3) But my Popularity is Max! It shows I'm handling Most of my Customers and Need more Popularity!

Well, having Max Popularity only means only means that you are Upsetting Less Customers than you are Serving
ie. for each 1 Customer giving a thumb down, you have at least 1 Customer that gives you a thumbs up.
You could have just 1-2 seats, 1-2 stoves, 1 Waiter and lots of Arcade Machines & Janitors. No Thumbs-down = Max Popularity
Hence, Popularity keeps going higher and is eventually Maxed.
BUT - are you making as Many Coins as you could?

4) So, How can I Make More Coins / Serve More Customers?

As long as your Max Popularity is above 70, and you apply variations of the Layout here with the Relevant Tips, you should be doing fine.

If you have Customers that can't find a Seat, use your "Servables" first, meaning your Lounge Bar (if you have a spare worker) and your Sushi Bar.
After that, toss on the entertaining functionals like Bowling Alley and get a few Arcades off the side

Edit on 25 Sep 10 : Inserted the above portion in Bold, realised I forgot to mention them. They're obvious, but also easy to miss out when you've been making a lot of design adjustments for too long lol

And yes, that means you Never Have to Buy ANY Popularity Items, which have terrible Return-On-Investment.

For those who aren't familiar with the ROI term, it means
Popularity Items (Soups, Obelisks) Cost FAR MORE Coins than they will help you Earn.

Note that I may be making a separate, very technical post on Efficiency & Popularity that is really just for personal interest's sake.

PS : as of 25 Sep 2010, found out that Popularity actually does help you make more Coins when the Restaurant is not open / offline.
The increase in coins is probably minimal, making ROI still pretty much horrible, but I would like to get more concrete data before closing the case :) will update in future with a separate post when data is in!
Cheers!

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Bonus : Coffee Bar Capacity

It isn't really related, but oh well just going to post here :)

The Coffee Bar can handle 4 Seats efficiently, if
- fully upgraded (as of 22 Sep 2010)
- Waiter can only move 2 squares : 1 square at the Coffee Machine, and 1 square to serve some tables. Just like this...

Note there's 5 chairs but only 4 can be used to eat, and 2 of the usable seats do not require the Waiter to move at all.

Otherwise, stick to 3 Seats, meaning the Waiter should/can always remain in 1 square.

Update : Posted pic up :)

Best Stove & Worker Layout

An Ideal Layout in Restaurant City will ensure that you have the highest number of customers served per minute.
ie. It makes you the most money per minute

Just because it maintains Popularity / causes Popularity to go up, does not make it efficient. Of course, a good layout should also be Aesthetically pleasing :)

This post assumes that :

• you are not using PF Cash to purchase any stoves / drink machines
• there are no Drink Bars
• you have a max of 9 workers
• there are no Arcade Machines
• there are no Time-Extenders (Mariachi Band, Giant TV, Statue of Cookery, Bubble Drink Tower)

So how do I measure Efficiency?

1. Let the restaurant run for 1-2 minutes, until the customer flow is consistent.
2. Write down the amount of money
3. Wait another few minutes (2-3 minutes)
4. Write down the new amount of money
5. No. of Customers Served per Minute = ( New $ Amt - Old $ Amt ) / (Number of Minutes * $2 per Customer)

All the tests were done with the same account running at 70 Popularity, with 9 Staff. There's also a Sushi Bar I forgot to remove, but it probably didn't affect very much since no one ever goes to it. The stoves operate at about 3-4% improved speed (ie less than 1 second faster), and the drinks 4-5% improved speed.

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BEST Layout - 6 Cooks, 3 Workers (3 sets of 3 Workers)

9 Staff, having 3 sets of 3 workers (2 Cooks, 1 Waiter) each handling 9 tables.
Result = 17.5 Customers Served per Minute

Note that I'm only getting 21 customers entering per minute.
Plus, its without any other knick knacks like Giant TV, Mariachi Band, etc.

Its worth noting that due to improved speed of stoves & drinks on that account of mine, handling 9 became feasible. If using all regular stoves and drinks, suggest handling 8 seats or so.

For those who just want the answer to this Post, you can stop reading now :)

Note that if you're levelling a new account, at low levels before your Drinks are unlocked, you can have 1 waiter handle 3 stoves serving 9 tables while boxed into 3 squares. It should be more efficient than 1 waiter 2 stoves 1 drink, so it can directly handle 9 customers.

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Alternate Layout - 5 Cooks, 4 Workers

5 Cooks 4 Waiters in a Row, each Waiter having access to 2 stoves.
Result = 16.0 Customers Served per Minute

OR

5 Cooks 4 Waiters in a Rectangle, each Waiter having access to 3 Stoves.
Result = 15.5 Customers Served per Minute

There doesn't seem to be much difference in effectiveness of these 2, so yeah its really up to how you want to arrange it. This layout is really only an option for those who like to cluster up their entire cooking / eating area.

The principle of these 2 layouts is that each Waiter serves from more than 1 stove to 5 seats or so, so there's less chance at any one time that any customer will be dissatisfied and leave.
Regardless, its significantly behind the 3x3 Layout.

There's of course many other 5 Cooks 4 Waiter layouts, but these 2 are (theoretically) in my mind, the most efficient. The Row layout restricts the Waiter 2x1 squares each, the Rectangle keeps the waiter to 3x1 squares each. That may explain the better efficiency, though the difference of 0.5 Customer Served per minute is still pretty close.

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Waiter Efficiency Tips

• "Box Up" Waiter into an area of max 3x1 squares, or if you want to for aesthetics, 2x2 squares.
• When your Waiter is in the Centre square (for 3x1 squares), he can use the Drink Machine and both Stoves and serve at least 3 tables.
• Buy a few items that Extend Waiting Time (eg. Statue of Cookery, Mariachi Band, Giant TV, Drink Tower).
• Get Faster Drink Machines and Stoves (duh). I feel that faster Drink Machines are more crucial.

If you follow the above, you can serve 9 tables / chairs decently with 1 waiter, 2 cooks.

Other General Notes / Rules of Thumb

• One Stove can serve 3-4 tables effectively.
• A normal Stove takes 20 seconds to Cook a Meal.
• Hence using 6 Cooks, you can achieve max 18 Customers Served per minute, assuming NO drinks are ordered and Waiters INSTANTLY lift the food off the stove.
• At 17.5 Customers Served per minute, the 3x3 layout gets pretty close to that.
• Having many Tables / Chairs lead to many disappointed Customers. Use Arcades instead.
• If you can't afford Arcades (yet), put Chairs with no table in front of them for Customers to Wait

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Help, I can't get Waiters in the Right Places!

1. Arrange the whole set up, less Stoves
2. Place 1 Stove down for each 1 Waiter. The Waiter will appear directly in front of the Stove.
3. Save the Layout, Save the Game, Refresh.
4. After the game reloads, add in the remaining stoves. Do NOT touch the first few Stoves.
5. Save the Layout (waiters may be at wrong places at this time). Save the Game, Refresh.

Voila!

If you still have difficulty with the Waiters, see Playfish's guide on Island Layouts.