Mirror Mirror:

Paco Underhill’s wonderful book “Why We Buy”, lists mirrors as a way to slow people down and maybe get them to notice your café or restaurant. The reason that mirrors work is two fold, 1) human brain is genetically wired to notice motion. This feature enables survival on the savannahs of Africa. If you can notice motion from a distant, you can access whether lunch is walking toward you or a predator looking to you for their next meal. This early warning mechanism allows you to make a fight or flight decision when the danger is still reasonably far away. 2) Human beings like to look at themselves, because it is a friendly face.

Mirrors in your restaurant enhance the experience by providing friendly faces looking back at your guest and also creates the illusion of a lot of activity which also creates positive feelings in your guests. The place seems livelier and a lot more populated when you strategically place mirrors throughout your restaurant.

Always a good design element…mirror mirror.