Start a Restaurant

Learn where a restaurant starts: pick a concept, test your market, check the location and zoning, read the whole lease, count every startup cost, and plan a cash cushion with a one-page plan.

Learn the order of restaurant permits: business basics and sales tax, health department plan review before construction, the building and fire side, staff credentials, liquor licenses, music licensing, and food truck extras.

Learn the health code basics behind restaurant food safety: the FDA's model Food Code, the danger zone, cooking and cooling temperatures, handwashing and sinks, keeping raw food apart, the nine major allergens, inspections, and when a HACCP plan is needed.

Learn the building, safety, and labor rules behind a restaurant: Type I hoods and fire suppression, grease interceptors, ADA access, OSHA hazards, minimum wage and tips, the tip-pool rule, hiring teens, workers' compensation, and required posters.

Learn to equip a restaurant kitchen the right way: start from the menu, plan cold storage and the cooking line, use certified commercial equipment, choose new, used, or leased, and get your list approved before you buy.

Learn where a restaurant can buy its food and supplies: the approved source rule, the main kinds of suppliers, ordering to a par level, checking deliveries at the door, first in first out, and how net terms can help cash flow and business credit.

Learn to price a menu from the plate up: what food cost percent means, how to cost a plate with a recipe card, how to set a price from a target food cost, why dollars kept matter more than the lowest percent, menu engineering, and how to check your real food cost each month.

Learn the profit math behind a restaurant: how a simple P&L works, what prime cost and occupancy cost mean, how to find your daily break-even guest count, why profit isn't the same as cash, and common ways new restaurants fund their opening.