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.

On Wednesday, December 24th, we had four inspections that went very well.  Electrical, plumbing, chemical and HVAC are all done and passed by the county. Tomorrow, Monday December 28th, we have our hood inspection, fire suppression system inspection and building inspection. After all three of those are done and passed, we can get our Certificate of Occupancy.

The final step is to have an inspection by the state of Florida, Hotels and Restaurant Division, which issues the license to operate as a restaurant. We will schedule the state on Wednesday. At that point we need a full week, minimum, in the kitchen perfecting recipes, procedures and prep work.

Its hard to believe that the last six months have gone by so quickly in retrospect. However, it seemed very slow at the time. We are six weeks behind our projected opening date.

Opening a new restaurant is no easy task. If possible, always buy an existing restaurant if remotely possible. You can save time and money in most instances. Of course,  the mitigating factors such as location, amount of remodeling and type of structure must be considered in the equation.

While each state has their own requirements, there are some common elements they look for. Generally, as soon as you have your plans fairly well completed, you should apply for any state and local licenses needed.

In this case, we have solidified the major components of the formal plans. A few things may change, but from this point it is a matter of getting the construction moving. Next week we apply for a state restaurant license and include the general drawing. The state is not looking for construction issues, but safety and sanitary concerns will be reviewed. Here are a few things they look for:

• Hand sinks. If you look at the drawing linked above, we have a hand sink at almost every work area. When the state comes in to inspect us prior to opening, we will have hand sanitizing dispensers in each location also.
• They want to make certain you have enough bathrooms for the seating.
• Some will want to know what is on the floor and ceiling. A washable surface on the kitchen walls may be required on new construction.
• In some cases they will make certain there are two exits and non-obstructed paths with ailses at least 42 inches wide.
• Many times the number of seats will determine certain required components. In this case we are showing a total of 64. Outside seating is not shown.

Most states have their requirements online. You should review those before submitting a plan.