9 Reasons Why Restaurants Are So Cold

Let’s admit that some of us are always cold no matter what season it is. We are the ones that wear a sweater on a record breaking hot summer day. Alright, but in all seriousness restaurants do get pretty cold sometimes, but what is the real reason that they are so cold?

There are many reasons and here are some of them:

1. The owner or manager on duty is hot and has the air conditioning set on high everyday for their own convenience.
   • It sucks whenever you have one individual regulating the temperature in a restaurant everyday and won’t change it no matter what. Unfortunately this does happen sometimes, and that person seems to always set the air conditioning way too low, even in cold weather.
   • The temperature may also be preset by the owner that doesn’t even work at the restaurant everyday, but just visits every now and then. There are cases where some restaurants actually cannot change the temperature because the panel requires a key or code that only the general manager or owner has/knows.
   • Unfortunately with panel like this, the heater can even be deactivated until the cold season begins. This means that if it arrives suddenly or a littler earlier than expected, then the restaurant only has air conditioning until corporate or the owner activates it.
2. The crew members are hot in the kitchen.
   • When the store actually opens and the ovens, warmers, deep fryers, and steam tables are ready to go, it can get very hot very fast. This can make all of the crew members very hot. They will often ask the manager on duty to adjust the air conditioning to make it colder in the restaurant.
   • It can get so hot in the kitchen sometimes, that employees may walk out of the kitchen frequently to go and cool off in the walk-in commercial refrigerators or freezers. This can slow down the pace of the restaurant, causing the management to turn up the air conditioning regardless of the outside temperatures.
3. The employees are working hard.
   • When the employees in the restaurant are working hard, they rarely notice the temperature in the restaurant when it gets too cold. Most of their cooking and serving days is spent breaking a sweat all, or most of the day underneath hats, gloves, and aprons that they can’t take off. The employees are often seeking relief from the stuffy apparel they have to work in.
   • All of the crew members in restaurants are required to wear uniforms, hats and aprons in the kitchen. The extra clothing covering vital areas (the head, hands and chest) where the cold can affect the most, keeps them warm. When they start working, they easily begin to sweat and may turn the AC on to lower the temperatures.
4. None of the restaurant employees ever sit in the dining area.
   • If the restaurant has two separate controls for the air conditioning for the kitchen area and the dining area, they may not notice that it is cold in the dining area until they sit out there like the customers do. This is the problem sometimes. They usually will come in to work and immediately clock in and go to the back area to start their job. Because of this, they may not even know that the lobby is cold.
   • The temperature is always getting adjusted for the employees so they won’t get agitated and quit their job, but not for the customers. They may not be aware that the dining area of the restaurant is cold until one of the customers brings it to their attention.
   • Since the air conditioning is usually set on the same temperature everyday in the restaurant for the customers, if the customers never tell them it is too cold, then it won’t change. They will just assume that the current settings are fine just how they are.
5. Their refrigerators and coolers are making the restaurant cold.
   • In some cases where the restaurant serves a lot of cold foods that don’t need to be heated (like salads and icecream), the temperature will begin to drop because of the temperature of the commercial coolers that the food is setting in. The cold escapes the coolers and makes its way into the rest of the restaurant, making it really cold.
   • The excessive coolers they are using to keep the foods cold is under 41 degrees Fahrenheit for their set temperatures. Even when the air conditioning isn’t on, they can sometimes act as a replacement for the AC, making the restaurant inevitably really cold throughout the day.
6. Their doors or windows are open.
   • A restaurant that has no choice but to open their drive-thru windows constantly throughout the business hours, will inevitably get cold in the cold weather. The heat from the heater can’t catch up to temperature of the restaurant because it escapes everytime the drive-thru windows are opened.
   • The same goes for when the customers are constantly entering the restaurant and leaving through the front door unfortunately.
7. The restaurant is too big.
   • A bigger restaurant can take a longer time to heat up or cool down when the temperatures change too drastically. It may just need some time for the temperatures to adjust before it gets a little warmer.
   • Sometimes a few degrees will only change, even with the heaters on max, because the restaurant is so big. It’s possible for some restaurants to only have a few degrees in the temperature change every hour. If this is the case, then the restaurant won’t heat up until the cold customer finishes eating.
8. It’s cold outside.
   • If it is just plain cold outside, then that cold will easily leak into the restaurant building.
   • At the close of the restaurant, managers often shut off the heater/air conditioning before leaving and locking the store. Overnight, the temperatures outside leak into the restaurant and make it cold or hot (depending on the outside weather). In the morning when it is time to open back up, inside of the restaurant may be really cold and take a long time to heat up after this happens.
   • If this is combined with the delivery stock that they get before store hours, it can get really cold. When restaurants get their shipments of meat and produce, they have to be stored in the freezer or refrigerator. That combined with the outside cold, will make the rest restaurant really cold before they open up, and possibly cold later on during the early business hours.
9. Their heater isn’t working.
   • Sometimes the heater breaks and needs to be fixed. The restaurant just hasn’t called anyone yet to fix it (maybe due to money issues). They may even turn off the heater or AC on purpose just to save money on their utility bill, disregarding both the customers and the employees to save a nickel. This usually doesn’t happen, but it certainly does.