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

We are officially a statistic. A licensed restaurant in Florida. After 5 grueling months of construction, delays, inspections and all the emotions that went with the daily hurdles, we received our Certificate of Occupancy from Pinellas county on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 and our state restaurant inspection and licensing on Wednesday, December 31, 2008.

Now the real work starts! Our tasks in the next few days before the doors open include:

• Hiring and training staff.
• Finalizing menu.
• Ordering smallwares, food and dry goods.
• Testing recipes.
• Implementing our marketing plan (some of which started weeks ago).
• Developing procedures, recipe manual, POS materials and forms.

There is nothing more difficult than marketing your operation and putting butts in seats. New restaurants are a dime a dozen with an average of over 55,000 started each year in the United States. Unfortunately, an equal number close each year. While the many details listed above are necessary to open the new restaurant, the priority is to make certain we start communicating our message to potential guests.

Choosing suppliers, pricing menu items and organizing storage and focusing on each step to create maximum efficiency for staff will reduce waiting time for customers and increase table turns on a busy day.

Each plate of food must go through the line in an orderly progressive manner without retracing steps as menu items are produced. The end of the process is the server window where food is ready for delivery.

The frustration with opening a new restaurant ends when you can’t keep up with the tasks you have worked hard to get moving. Here are just some of the things that have occurred in the last few days.

• Demolition is done. Waiting for the inspection.
• Started putting channels on roof trusses where two layers of 5/8 sheet rock will be installed as a fireproof barrier to the upstairs.
• Received the restaurant’s electrical plan from the architect. Need to make minor changes.
• Refrigeration contractor was out to evaluate the walk-in and refrigerator left on site a year ago. Two door refrigerator is fine. Freezer side of walk-in OK. Refrigerator side needs a little work.
• Gas company faxing a document to sign to get natural gas into the location.
• One plumbing contractor was at the site to give opinion about how to install proper drainage to sewer and grease trap. Marked floors for cutting through to bury pipes.
• Marked areas on the floor where we can save tile and areas (kitchen) where we must install new tile.
• Talked to electrical contractor about potential starting date.
• Got a sign bid for lighted back awning style sign.

In the next few days we need to:

• Get permits for fireproofing, electrical work.
• Get plumbing bids.
• Decide on location and size of grease trap.
• File a restaurant license application with the state along with plans they approve.
• Set time plan for ordering various things that have long lead times like booths (6 to 8 weeks), hood (4 weeks), special equipment (2 to 4 weeks).
• Get quote on high volume ice machine. (may lease this along with dishwasher due to service limitations if purchased).
• Decide on flooring once final plan is delivered.
• Waiting on “Coming Soon” signs for windows to build buzz.

Keep in mind this is in addition to keeping two other restaurants moving. You can’t sacrifice your existing operations while building a new restaurant.