Since this blog is partially to help to anyone out there who wants to open their own restaurant figure things out a little faster (learn from my mistakes, please!) I wanted to list the items that were needed in the Health Department submission for remodeling a kitchen (this is not the stuff they need to give you a Health Permit)
- Plan Layout (to scale) that includes all designated areas
- Finish Schedule: Wall and Celing finishes
- Finish samples: This is like an actual 6 inch square of ceiling and floor that you submit
- Equipment: Cut sheets and spec sheets for every item in the kitchen which shows NSF compliance
- Equipment: Location on the layout
- Elevations for the equipment
- Sinks (2 hand washing, one prep, one three compartment and one mop sink) both their specs and placement
- Lighting: A layout of the JUST the lighting, what types of bulbs, how they are housed, how many candle feet you will have (there is a minimum for everything)
- Water Heater: Spec sheet
- Hot Water Demand work sheet
Trash Enclosure Area, if not in the facility then a diagram of where it is - Ventilation: hood details
- A full room ventilation plan
- Storage: minimum 144 sq feet of storage
- Spec sheets for shelves and racks
- Plumbing: full plumbing plan layout for facility
- Indirect waste plan
- Location of all floor drains and sinks
- Hot and cold water pre-mixing faucet layout
- Janitorial facilities
- Grease trap info
I turned in everything but the hood info and the floor and ceiling samples.
NOW, I need to go buy my range/oven and fryer so Brion can do the plan for the fire suppression system so we can get that permit, which takes 4 weeks. David said we should be ready to install the fire suppression system in 4 weeks!
So the ball juggling goes like this
1. Find stove, fryer and possibly smoker so Bri can do the fire suppression planning
2. Find a place to store these items (Probably at Todd/Debbie/Kelly's place)
3. Go buy the used equipment for the Ansul system and order the parts we can't find used, find a place to store those
4. Bri does the bid
5. Bri applies for the permit
6. Wait 4 weeks for approval
And I am really wishing I had just gone in and done the LLC in person two months ago, I am hoping once the name is approved they will let me go ahead and do the ABC stuff... only... ok I went down and paid for a copy of my submission paperwork... and then left without it! and she was adamant that I really needed it! So F*)%#$ I may have to go back to Sac and get that next week. But if it's like... stamped or something, maybe they will let me go ahead and go forward with just that... otherwise, I get the feeling the Sec of State office is trying to make a bit of a point about how butchered their budget is by bringing that part of government to a standstill. If I can't get the LLC approved soon, my liquor license will definitely not be ready when the place opens... FRACK... THIS is why it takes So long to open a restaurant....
The sad thing is... this is a primary reason a lot of restaurants go out of business in their first year and I will explain why...
Let's say you are opening a fancy restaurant in Walnut Creek and you have never owned a restaurant before... you get financing, investors and clean out your savings, write a buisness plan and then get to work with your $1 million dollars. First you find a space, fall in love and sign a lease for $7000 a month. Then you find out you have to get a change of use permit ($10,000.00), this takes months to go thru, meanwhile you buy equipment and store it off site ($200,000.00), hire a fancy Exec chef ($65,000.00 per year) who designs a menu, an accountant ($5,000.00), lawyer ($5,000.00 retainer) an architect to desing your place ($20,000.00), a contractor ($300,000.00) all of which takes 4-6 months... the whole time you are paying to store your equipment, your chef's salary, your lease and for all of the various permitting etc.
As you get closer you realize you don't have a few certifications you need, like your Safeserve cert. So your Exec offers to take the class and test. 3 weeks until the next class, which is a two week class, then another 3 weeks until the test is done and another 6 weeks until you get your results.
Then it takes 6 weeks to pull together the stuff for the Health Department and another 20 days to get thru the process ($1700.00). This whole time you are paying your lease, for your chef and not making any money at all.
One year later, when you open, some of the equipment doesn't work, but the one year warranties are not good any more, so you have to pay out of pocket to fix brand new equipment.
Does that sound far fetched? That is a true story.
Am I losing sleep because any one of the balls I am juggling could fall and every time one does, it seems to set me back 20 days to 4 weeks... yes, absolutely. Thank god my lease is small enough that it won't be too difficult to pay it, but I also have employees who cannot stay out of work forever.
I just have to be on the ball and organized. But doing it on a budget means wearing a lot of hats.
so my current to-do list is something like this:
Check with Sec of State about the copy of the filing
Check with ABC to see if I can get started now
Visit bread places to pick a bread provider
Figure out the f*n coffee thing
Check with my POS leasing office to see if they can so customer loyalty program and gift certificates
Shop for smoker, fryer and range (plus whatever else I can find that I need and can store easily)
Draw out the the garbage recepticle layout for the HD
Fix my menu and reorder
Check on the t-shirts order
Meet with my merchant banker about setting up direct deposit for paychecks
.... and a million other things...
And... I have a hang over... bleh... What I really want is a nap!
What a headache. Good luck!!
ReplyDelete