Starting, Owning and Marketing A Restaurant Blog|Starting and Owning a Restaurant - Construction, Planning, Marketing, Opening and Managing a New Restaurant

The demolition permits were posted on Friday and on Saturday one of my employees began some demolition and salvage. Things like good doors, ceiling tiles and a couple of counters were removed and saved to be used in the renovated restaurant.

The landlord’s HVAC contractor was in to give certification that the HVAC system was in working order and there was sufficient cooling for a restaurant. The equipment appears fine, but is borderline on the cooling for our capacity. May need to negotiate with the landlord about future.

One of the key activities this weekend was to layout the floor seating and front of the house, walls and fixtures. By using masking tape on the floor we disovered:

• The seating plan was too agressive. Changes were necessary to make sure the aisles were wide enough.
• The office/sorage area was way to small.
• The entrance needed a few more inches for comfort.

As a result of the changes, our seating went from 77 to 70 people inside. No changes outside.

The new restaurant seating plan will make customers more comfortable and give aisles a little more room. Server traffic pattern was a key factor in the changes.

This week the plans are:

• Contractor to begin demolition on Tuesday.
• Get new seating plan to architect.
• Begin fireproofing ceiling by end of the week.
• Start getting quotes for grease trap.
• Get final booth totals and get ordered, since they have a 6 week production lead time.
• Get quote on moving HVAC.
• Get electrician started to move electrical conduits to allow for fireproofing.

One pleasant surprise was a two door stand up refrigerator, that was presumed to be junk turned out to be in working order. That is about a $4000 savings if it continues to hold temperature.