Directing Food & Beverage and Hospitality projects.
From concept to launch we coordinate expertise, timing, resources and goals, so that your investment becomes a business that truly works.
30 minutes online, free of charge.
- Bar counter elevationBar counter elevation
- In designBuilt
- Kalìa ConsultingKalìa Consulting
You have €300,000 and an idea. Who do you call first?
You have found the right premises and you are ready to start. The first decision looks simple: who should you bring in first?
- The architect?
- The accountant?
- The F&B manager?
- The chef?
The question that too often goes unanswered is a different one: who will direct the whole process, making sure every choice is consistent with the business, operational and financial goals?
That direction is “the missing piece” in so many F&B projects.
The domino effect
A restaurant designed for a hundred covers, with one-metre square tables perfectly in keeping with its look. Then comes the first service.
100 covers
The business plan is built, among other things, on seating a hundred guests.
Tight aisles
With a full room the clearances are not enough: staff struggle to move and guests are not as comfortable as planned.
70 covers
To deliver the intended service, covers drop from a hundred to seventy.
80 cm tables
Smaller tables win back space, but the plates the chef chose, already bought, no longer leave room for glasses and cutlery.
The problem is never the single choice: it is not having weighed its consequences on the whole system in advance.
When decisions start to lock into each other badly, one word keeps coming back in every project. In Italian it is ormai: “by now, it’s too late”.
Ormai.
“It’s been decided by now.”“We’ve already ordered it.”“The systems are already in.”“The place is already open.”
That “by now” can be very expensive: at that point you are no longer choosing the best solution, only the one that is cheapest to change.
An F&B Project Manager cannot remove every surprise, but can greatly reduce the risk of reaching decisions that are hard to reverse.
Four languages, one direction
One of the most important skills of an F&B and Hospitality Project Manager is translating between different professional languages.
The architect
Thinks in terms of space, proportion and aesthetics.
The chef
Considers production processes, preparation and timing.
The floor staff
Weigh movement, service organisation and the guest experience.
The owner
Looks at the project through financial sustainability and return on investment.
The F&B Project Manager does not replace any of them: they understand each language, connect the expertise and steer the process towards a shared goal.
The Kalìa method
Listening, vision, execution: from concept to launch, through opening night and beyond.
See the methodListening
Every project starts with careful listening.
Vision
We turn ideas into concrete strategies.
Execution
We turn the strategy into action.
What we do
We design strategies, spaces and processes for fine hospitality: from the concept to the choice of equipment, from the menu to staff training.
All servicesStrategy
Concept, Menu Engineering & Beverage Strategy, Start-up & Business Design
Design
Technical and permit support, Professional equipment & furniture, Bar & Workstation Design, Back-of-house areas
Launch
Recruitment & staff training, Processes & operational training, Marketing & launch
From drawing to dining room
Restaurants, cocktail bars and hospitality spaces we followed from design to opening.
One studio, one network
Kalìa brings together Food & Beverage and Hospitality professionals under the creative direction of Maria Pia Pinelli.
Meet the studio- years of experience in hospitality and restaurants
- 10+years of experience in hospitality and restaurants
- types of venue, from restaurants and cocktail bars to street food
- 5types of venue, from restaurants and cocktail bars to street food
Journal
All articles
What F&B projects are missing: someone to direct them
The role of the F&B and Hospitality Project Manager in the birth of a restaurant: coordinating expertise, preventing mistakes and turning an investment into a truly sustainable project.
Dignity at work: the invisible investment that shapes a business’s future
An F&B budget counts equipment, building work and permits. It almost never counts the human investment of the first months: the very thing that makes everything else work.
The best time to solve a problem is not when the restaurant is open. It is before you have created it.
30 minutes online, free of charge.