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The Owner's Manual · Restaurants & Hospitality

The Restaurant Buildout, Without the Heartburn

Restaurants are the most equipment-driven, most inspected, most schedule-sensitive buildout in commercial construction. Also the most fun. Here's what changes when there's a kitchen involved.

New to construction entirely? Start with Guide No. 1: lease signing to grand opening — the six stages every project shares. This page covers what CHANGES when it's restaurants & hospitality.

What's different here

The parts that aren't like other buildouts

The hood runs the show

Grease-producing cooking requires a Type I hood with fire suppression and make-up air — a system that touches the roof, structure, gas, and fire marshal all at once. Hood design should start the week you start; it gates everything behind it.

The grease interceptor decides fast or slow

Sizing and placing the interceptor (sometimes underground, outside) can be a minor plumbing item or a saw-cut-the-parking-lot event. Second-generation spaces with one already in the ground are worth real money.

You have two reviewers, not one

The health department reviews your plans separately from the building department — layout, sinks, finishes, equipment spec. Sequencing the two wrong adds months. This is core GC work; ask how they run it.

Utilities make or break the lease

Kitchens are gas- and power-hungry. If the space's electrical service or gas line can't feed your equipment schedule, the upgrade is expensive and slow. Verify capacity BEFORE the lease — it's a one-hour check that prevents a five-figure surprise.

Equipment is its own project

Walk-ins, hoods, and cooklines are long-lead and vendor-installed, which means a coordination scope between your equipment dealer and your GC. Unassigned coordination is a scope gap with a delivery truck attached.

Timeline reality

A straightforward second-generation restaurant space can move fast; a first-generation space in a new building is a much longer road, dominated by hood/mechanical work and the two-agency review cycle. The single biggest schedule lever: order kitchen equipment early and get health department review started with the building permit, not after it.

The three mistakes

Signing the lease before checking the gutsHood path to the roof, grease interceptor, gas and electrical capacity — an hour of due diligence beats a renegotiation you can't win.
Treating health review as an afterthoughtIt's a parallel permit with its own comments cycle. Start it with plan check, or watch it become the critical path.
Ordering equipment when the walls are upWalk-ins and hoods can outwait your patience. Equipment gets ordered in Stage 3, not Stage 4.

Terms you’ll meet on this one

Second-Generation SpaceLong-Lead ItemsAHJScope GapTI Allowance

When you're ready — or just curious

See what we've built in restaurants.

The expertise page has the process, the past projects, and a no-sales-call ballpark form. Or bring the 12 Questions and interview us properly — we like it.

Our Restaurants work The 12 Questions