New York City Restaurants Swapping Traditional Seating For Stools To Increase Turnover

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Many bars and restaurants are ditching traditional dining chairs in favor of stools to increase turnover and profits.

At the Gristmill in Brooklyn, stools make up half the seating.

"Outside of like Bay Ridge, every restaurant is tiny," said owner Jake Novick-Finder.

When he opened the restaurant two years ago, he furnished it with a different kind of stool.

"You can't have backs to barstools in a New York City-sized restaurant," he said.

Novick-Finder had a carpenter specifically design stools for the eatery that are small enough to fit six people to a table that's intended for four. He promises they won't hurt your back.

"For years, architects have designed restaurant seating and quick casual places intentionally make your back hurt so you get up quicker, so you turn over that table. We are trying to be a little more hospitable, inviting, encouraging," he said.

In New York City, it's common for restaurants to seat customers right on top of each other to make enough profit for the day.

"Restaurants are really gigantic real estate businesses. They're selling or leasing seats for the night," said Stephen Zagor, lead instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education.

He said a check is like a customer paying rent for their seat, and the more bodies a place can fit, the better.

"If I can count on someone coming to that seat and spending X amount of money, that would be a real value to me," Zagor said.

The Open Table app even has a feature to reserve a seat at a restaurant's bar and says high-tops make up roughly 15 percent of the country's restaurant inventory.

Many were all-for the idea Friday.

"If you're having a quick bite, you can pop in and hop on a bar stool," one man said.

"It helps with the space, yes," said a woman.

But not everyone was on board.

"It's easy for the kids to fall off," a Park Slope mom said.

According to the Culinary Institute of America, some restaurants have found they can increase profits by more than 50 percent when using bar stools vs. regular chairs and tables.