Scott Adams, who is a very smart guy, and who just happens to own a couple of restaurants, has spent some time analyzing what makes a restaurant successful and writes this post. Excerpt:
When asked about the most important factor for a restaurant’s success, experts often pick lighting. Your first inclination is to laugh that off as absurd, because you’ve probably never made a restaurant decision based on lighting. But if you look at the restaurants that are doing well without being Italian or Mexican or tax cheats or a chain, they generally have excellent lighting. Everything, including your date, looks better with the right lighting. And that can be enough to make you remember the food and service as being better than they were. I pay attention to restaurant lighting, and find it a far better predictor of success than food or service. (I’m working on my restaurant’s lighting too.)
I assume you are not going to start your own restaurant, but nevertheless, it is interesting to read what how that business works.