Restaurant Staff Uniforms: A Role-By-Role Guide To Getting It Right Ask most venues how they want their team uniformed and the brief is usually underpinned with the same objective: make the whole crew look unified. In practice, front of house, bar and kitchen each need something different to do the job, so treating all three as identical only works against the venue. Good restaurant staff uniforms solve both. They are distinct enough that each role can do its job and consistent enough that the whole team reads as one venue. Table Manners in Bronte put that balance into practice for its second birthday. The venue chose a different garment for each role and let personalisation and a shared colour palette carry the look across the team, from the front of house shirts through to the tees worn behind the bar and venue owner Alex Cameron’s Oat Utility Chore Coat. The kitchen wore white Springfield Chefs Jackets and Chef Works aprons in Hunter Green, complementing the neutral tones worn by the broader team. Here’s how each piece was chosen, and how to apply the same approach to branded restaurant uniforms for your own venue. Front of House: A relaxed shirt that still holds a line The Table Manners floor team wore the Pismo Camp Shirt in Oat, a new Chef Works style coming soon. A camp collar suits a room like this. It reads more relaxed than a traditional collar, which matches the feel of a coastal neighbourhood venue, and the open neckline still holds a clean line hours into a service. The short sleeve works in a warm dining room, and the easy cut sits well whether it’s worn loose or tucked. The Owner: Iconic artwork on a statement piece The Table Manners artwork is a line drawing of a messy table that plays against the restaurant’s own name, and it’s become recognisable to regulars in the Bronte area. Table Manners owner, Alex, wore the Chef Works Utility Chore Coat from the 25Seven collection, carrying this drawing as a statement piece that subtly identified him as the owner in an understated way. The Utility Chore Coat suits a venue owner because the role moves between the pass, the floor and the bar, and needs to hold up whether he’s expediting service, walking the room or catching up with a regular. A chef jacket is too overstated, but a shirt alone doesn’t carry enough weight for a milestone event. The chore coat sits in between. It’s single-breasted with a metal button front closure, has a left chest pocket with a pen pocket overlay, an internal right chest pocket and four hip pockets. It’s finished with double-needle stitching and reinforced stress points throughout. The Bar: Artwork to marry not match A t-shirt works well behind a bar, where staff are reaching, stretching and lifting through service in a way a floor team generally isn’t. The Chef Works Staple Tee is made from 100% combed cotton with a regular unisex fit, built to hold up through repeat washing without losing shape. Table Manners paired the ‘messy table’ with a spilt martini glass design which kept the theme without an identical match. Splitting the bar into its own uniform also helps the room read itself. In a busy room, guests can easily differentiate who they need to ask for a drink and who to ask for the table. The Kitchen: Plain jackets and a statement apron The Table Manners kitchen worked in traditional white Springfield Chef Jackets under Chef Works Bib Aprons in Hunter Green. The Springfield is a staple for many chefs, with short-sleeves and a zip-front jacket in a lightweight polyester-cotton blend with Cool Vent side panels, built to move through a full service without adding heat. The Bib Apron has an adjustable neck strap, reinforced stress points and multiple front pockets. Leaving the kitchen unbranded was a deliberate styling choice on Table Manners’ part, keeping the kitchen looking clean and professional. The Hunter Green Bib Apron against the white chef jackets does the cohesive work, trying the kitchen back into the rest of the restaurant through colour. That approach shifts if your kitchen isn’t out of sight. For an open kitchen, a sushi bar, a pizza counter, a live-fire station or a chef’s table, it’s worth putting your branding on their uniforms too. An embroidered chef jacket or apron carrying your logo, artwork or venue name pulls the kitchen and broader team together into one considered and unified look. Planning custom hospitality uniforms for your venue Start by deciding where the print or embroidery needs to go. A small, discreet design can work well as embroidery, while a larger design, especially anything hand-drawn, usually needs to be printed. The next step is supplying vector artwork at the highest resolution available as hand-drawn or intricate design needs clean vectorising for the best result. Decide ink and thread colours against physical garment samples rather than a screen, since colour can differ once it’s on fabric. Check sizing across the full team before committing to a print run, and order spares in the most common sizes. Three sets per person covers most full-time front of house roles, allowing one in wear, one in the wash, and one spare. Kitchen roles usually need more, since jackets and aprons are changed between services. Chef Works applies personalisation through its Personalise option at the point of order, covering both name and logo work across most of the range. Frequently Asked Questions Should all restaurant staff wear the same uniform? Not necessarily. Guests can use uniform differences to work out who does what, so it can be helpful to have differences within the uniforms for each role. Consistency can then come from a shared artwork, colours and placements rather than identical garments, which lets each role wear something suited to its job. Where should a logo be placed on a restaurant uniform? Left chest in the standard placement because it stays visible across a table and survives an apron being tied over the top. A back placement suits floor staff, who are most often seen walking away. Aprons carry branding better on the bib than the pocket, where tools can cover it. Is embroidery or printing better for hospitality uniforms? Embroidery is better on smaller designs and on woven and structured garments such as chef jackets, chore coats and aprons, because it holds stitch definition and survives commercial laundering. Printing is better for large or hand-drawn artwork that would be costly to digitise as stitch and for jersey garments. Do kitchen uniforms need branding? Kitchen garments are covered, splashed and changed mid-service so branding on an apron may not be seen by guests. In this instance, apron colour instead can distinguish the kitchen and achieve the same recognition without personalisation. If you have an open kitchen or are doing live cooking where your kitchen team are in front of guests, embroidery can achieve a collective look across all staff. Can you add a venue logo to Chef Works uniforms? Yes. Chef Works offers name and logo personalisation, selected using the Personalise option at the point of order. Vector artwork produces the best result. Chef Works works with Australian venues on custom hospitality uniforms and full team fit-outs, from single role orders through to complete branded restaurant uniforms with personalisation. Explore the 25Seven collection, browse aprons and chef jackets, or speak to us about personalisation for your team.
