RE: Turn Ristorante Della Piazza into a full service restaurant?
Well if Ristorante Della Plaza must be turned into a full-service restaurant, here is my rendition of ideas of how I would implement it with as least money as possible spent.
First we must deal with seating. The small space reserved for show only guests is way too small and limited to abe the only offered seating area for the show. You need more space. Not sure if you ever saw Dig It Up on a Saturday night? But I can tell you it can gather crowds like Fiends in Abbeystone or Monster Stomp Revamped. I think if you must use any of the pavilion seating, use only the side closest to the restaurant. Keep in mind, a full-service restaurant may not get a large amount of people right away, so limited seating is something to have, but you can always expand seating based on the demand later. But for the first season, just have the side closest to the restaurant be restaurant seating as well as like Shane mentioned have some indoor seating. Of course, guests should be able to ask if they can view the show while eating or indoors if the seats are readily available.
Guests can walk up to Ristorante Della Plaza on through the doorway furthest from the bathroom, and the host/ess will either seat them inside there or walk them to their seats across the pathway to the reserved seating I mentioned.
The menu can more or less stay the same, with a few additions, etc. Just like with any full-time restaurant, I think reservations can be made online before visiting the park, at Guest Relations or at the restaurant in advanced, or you can walk-up whenever as long as the seats are available.
Also, I wouldn't skimp on the plates and dinning-ware. I want to see really silverware and porcelain plates.
Those are just a few of the major problems I saw and addressed that I believe would make this idea work; however trying to convert a theater seating area into a full-service restaurant and theater seating, would be rather difficult and a nightmare and I hope it never happens for these reasons.