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

As i mentioned in a previous post, the most frustrating part of building a restaurant is waiting on permits and regulators to do their job. Even though we are in a terrible economic slump for building, the time frames for the issuance of permits has remained the same (4 to 5 weeks). It is sad, costly and common.

We have kept busy with projects since the completion of demolition and the filing of the restaurant plans.  In some cases, we have done some construction that was not permitted, but we took the chance of not getting caught. We have now laid tile in the front half of the building, leaving only the kitchen and bathrooms when we get started. Double french doors replaced the old glass commercial door. The plumber has even made cement floor cuts, ready to begin underground drainage as soon as the permits are issued.

Tomorrow will be the beginning of the week. On Friday we were told the “trades” reviewers should be done with the revised plans. It didn’t happen. Hopefully Monday will be the day.

We have also;

• Drafted our restaurant opening marketing plan and will finalize (and post) as soon as we can plug in dates.
• Ordered many of our small equipment when found on sale or a bargain.
• Booths are being built and awaiting an installation date.
• The kitchen hood is ready to be placed when the permit is issued.
• Built an outside enclosure around the back door and walk-in refrigerator/freezer.
• Assembled many of the forms we use in the other two restaurants.
• Tested several products for possible inclusion on the menu.
• Picked wall coverings and beginning to buy some cosmetic decorations.

We are ready to build the restaurant!

The new plans as revised have been filed. The contractor is “99.9%” sure we have covered all of the issues raised during  the county’s plan review. We anticipate the final OK on the plans within a couple of days.

The restaurant start up process continually evolves. Sometimes from necessity and many times for economic reasons. We have made these changes for the reasons given:

• Decided to tile the entire place with ceramic tile. Early plans included part carpet. Made the change because we can get the tile done within a few days while waiting for the plans to save several days.
• Moved the “slop sink” for mops and other things into the kitchen to save a few hundred dollars running piping through the grease trap.
• Changed the location of the dishwasher into a corner machine to accommodate the slop sink above.
• Purchased nearly new equipment at equipment suppliers. A three compartment sink, 6 foot prep refrigerator, 4 foot under counter freezer and 36? 6 burner stove and 30 chairs. The total savings on these items is about $3500 as compared to new equipment. The used restaurant equipment will carry a minimum 30 day full warranty from reputable restaurant equipment suppliers. They have even agreed to store the equipment until we need delivery after construction. We also placed bids on other items held on consignment from other closed restaurants.

We continue to revise our potential menu and test recipes and products from suppliers.