From First Impressions to a Full Furniture Package: ODFC’s Work with Salty Days Fish Company

Some­times, a won­der­ful work­ing rela­tion­ship starts with some­thing as sim­ple as a chair.

While vis­it­ing a restau­rant in Wilm­ing­ton, the own­er of Salty Days Fish Com­pa­ny noticed the chairs and liked what they saw. That first impres­sion prompt­ed an inquiry to Old Domin­ion Fur­ni­ture Co. (ODFC) about seat­ing for a new ven­ture in Mass­a­chu­setts. 

What began as a con­ver­sa­tion about chairs and bar stools soon devel­oped into a much larg­er project, with ODFC help­ing the own­er work through cus­tom restau­rant fur­ni­ture selec­tions, floor plans, and a few unex­pect­ed chal­lenges along the way.

Finding the Right Fit 

Like many restau­rant own­ers prepar­ing to open a new loca­tion, the team at Salty Days had some impor­tant deci­sions to make about the din­ing room. They need­ed to fig­ure out how many guests could be accom­mo­dat­ed, which seat­ing arrange­ments made the most sense, and how to work with­in the avail­able bud­get. 

Rather than get­ting an inte­ri­or design­er involved, the own­er looked to ODFC for guid­ance.

Kel­ly Dews­nap, Busi­ness Devel­op­ment & Sales Spe­cial­ist at ODFC, took the time to learn more about the own­er’s plans for the restau­rant, includ­ing how they envi­sioned the booth seat­ing. As they dis­cussed the pos­si­bil­i­ties, the own­er explored ODFC’s online port­fo­lio and found a booth style that caught their eye. Kel­ly was there to answer ques­tions, offer guid­ance, and help them deter­mine what would work best for the din­ing room. 

One chal­lenge was an awk­ward­ly placed wall that lim­it­ed the seat­ing options. After explor­ing dif­fer­ent options, ODFC sug­gest­ed remov­ing the wall to make room for addi­tion­al seat­ing. With the own­er on board, new pos­si­bil­i­ties opened up for the din­ing room lay­out. 

Bringing the Pieces Together

With a bet­ter sense of how the din­ing room would take shape, ODFC worked close­ly with the own­er to select fur­ni­ture, review sam­ples, and set­tle on col­ors and fin­ish­es. We also brought in long­time part­ners 4Top Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Solu­tions and Boston Show­case, who pro­vid­ed on-site mea­sure­ments and coor­di­nat­ed with the gen­er­al con­trac­tor to help ensure the fur­ni­ture would fit the space. 

The final restau­rant fur­ni­ture pack­age includ­ed chairs, bar stools, booths, and table­tops. Work­ing with Boston Show­case, ODFC helped keep the selec­tions with­in bud­get and found an oppor­tu­ni­ty to save on ship­ping by adding the table­tops to the deliv­ery already planned for the seat­ing.

Through­out the project, Kel­ly served as the own­er’s main con­tact at ODFC, coor­di­nat­ing with the local part­ners and keep­ing every­one informed as ques­tions about fur­ni­ture details, pric­ing, and pro­duc­tion arose.

Turning a Setback Into a Solution

But even with care­ful plan­ning, restau­rant projects don’t always go exact­ly as planned.

After the fur­ni­ture selec­tions had been final­ized and the order was under­way, the uphol­stery mate­r­i­al cho­sen for the booths went on back­o­rder. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the revised avail­abil­i­ty meant it would­n’t arrive in time for the restau­ran­t’s sched­uled open­ing.

With the dead­line quick­ly approach­ing, we moved quick­ly to find an alter­na­tive. Replace­ment uphol­stery sam­ples were sent overnight so the own­er could review the options and make a new selec­tion as soon as pos­si­ble. Mean­while, our pro­duc­tion team con­tin­ued build­ing the booth frames while the own­er chose the replace­ment mate­ri­als. 

Although the uphol­stery back­o­rder was an unex­pect­ed hur­dle, it did­n’t have to mean a pause in pro­duc­tion.

A Successful Opening and a Promising Partnership

By the time Salty Days was ready to open its doors, the fur­ni­ture was in place and the din­ing room was com­plete. Our col­lab­o­ra­tive effort made the most of the space, stayed mind­ful of the bud­get, and even helped the own­er nav­i­gate a few sur­pris­es. And with two addi­tion­al restau­rant loca­tions in the works, the own­er has already expressed inter­est in bring­ing ODFC into the plan­ning process ear­ly on.

For us, that’s one of the most reward­ing parts of what we do: earn­ing the trust that brings cus­tomers back.