SIGHTS
A front counter with cashiers manning registers, a kitchen in the back, a drive-thru window, menu boards containing products and prices, customers handing over cash or credit cards, people carrying trays of food and drinks, a condiment station (offering packets of ketchup and mustard, napkins, plastic cutlery), a soda dispenser with beverage supplies (cups, straws, lids), a children’s play area, posters on the walls advertising different products, images of a mascot or some other symbol for the restaurant, garbage cans hidden in cabinets, stacks of used trays, tables and booths spaced at equal distances, rolling high chairs, stacks of booster seats, stray wrappers and receipts on the floor, dirty tables with crumbs and ketchup smudges, caution cones to indicate a spill on the floor, restrooms, workers wiping tables or mopping floors, managers supervising, kids running to the restroom
SOUNDS
The sizzle of burgers and fries cooking, customers giving orders, cashiers calling corrections back to the kitchen employees, receipt machines spitting out paper, fryers and ovens beeping, salt being shaken over fries, the scrape of a scoop through the fry bin, the drive-thru worker talking into a headset, drink machines dispensing gurgling soda, fridge doors closing, the crinkle of cellophane-wrapped plastic cutlery, food being placed in bags, straw wrappers being ripped open, ice falling into a cup, squeaking swivel chairs, chairs scraping over the tile floor, running feet, kids laughing or yelling, babies crying, parents reprimanding too-loud children, customers greeting each other, people talking on cell phones, noisy eaters chewing their food, someone slurping drink through a straw or shaking ice in a cup, shrieks and shouts coming from the play area
SMELLS
Meat cooking, oil and grease, tart dressings on salads, hand wipes, ketchup
TASTES
Burgers and fries, fried and grilled chicken, onion rings, fruit, sandwiches and wraps, salads and dressings, milk shakes, ice cream, cookies, soda, water, coffee, fruit juice, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, barbeque and other sauces, ice
TEXTURES AND SENSATIONS
Greasy hands, licking sauce off one’s fingers, brushing crumbs of salt from a table, slurping a cold liquid through a straw, ice cream melting over the edge of a cone, sticky ketchup, condensation on a cup wetting one’s palm when one grips it, balancing a tray full of food and drinks, soda overflowing onto one’s hands, too-hot food burning the mouth, wiping at one’s mouth with a paper napkin, crumpling a sandwich wrapper and tossing it onto the tray, struggling to cut a child’s meat with a plastic knife
POSSIBLE SOURCES OF CONFLICT
Customers who can’t make up their minds or who have a long list of customizations
Long lines and understaffed counters
Food taking forever to be served
Employees getting one’s order wrong
The kitchen running out of things and being unable to serve certain menu items
Unclean restrooms
Rude or inept employees
Parents letting their kids run riot
Kids throwing fits
Finding something gross in one’s food
Attending the restaurant at someone else’s request when it isn’t one’s favorite place
Liking the food but not liking the calories or ingredients that go along with it
A car dying in the drive-thru lane
A loud children’s birthday party that disturbs the entire restaurant
A diaper explosion in the play area
RELATED SETTINGS THAT MAY TIE IN WITH THIS ONE
PEOPLE COMMONLY FOUND HERE
Children attending a birthday party, families with kids, members of an athletic team hanging out after an event, retirees gathering to socialize over coffee and breakfast, road crews and construction workers on lunch break, single diners
SETTING NOTES AND TIPS
Because people spend a fair amount of their time eating, both in real life and in stories, it’s natural to write scenes that happen around the dinner table. But because mealtime scenes are sedentary and low-action, they can slow the pace of the story or become dumping grounds for chunks of backstory. When writing a scene that unfolds at the table, whether it’s in the kitchen of a house or at a restaurant, keep it upbeat by including some action. Children running, people excusing themselves from the table, someone getting up to refill a drink—interspersing the dialogue with movement will give the scene an active feel, and it will read as less passive. Also ensure that you have a good reason for choosing this particular setting, and that this chaotic, busy space makes sense for the important events about to take place.
SETTING DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE
Ed grabbed a table in the corner for us, but this was one scenario where location didn’t seem to matter. Kids’ shouting in the play area vied with the volume of noise of the crowded dining room. The floor shook with the stomp of little feet, accompanying the headache that had started thumping in my skull. I stood at the counter and scanned the menu, but the smell of sweaty kids killed whatever appetite I’d come in with. When the bored cashier asked if I’d made up my mind, I rubbed at the ache behind my eye. “Beer?” I asked, without much hope.
Techniques and Devices Used: Multisensory descriptions
Resulting Effects: Establishing mood, reinforcing emotion