How to Open a Restaurant: The Checklist, Step by Step

Figuring out how to open a restaurant is mostly figuring out what has to happen in what order. Miss one early step, like the liquor license application or the health department's plan review, and your opening date slides by weeks while rent keeps running. This checklist walks through each phase from concept to opening week and flags the items with long lead times, so you can start those first.

Requirements vary by state, county, and city. Use this as a framework, and confirm the details with your local offices, your attorney, and your accountant.

Get the long lead items moving first

Some items take months in many markets, and none of them can be rushed at the end. Put these on the calendar as soon as your concept and location are firm:

How to open a restaurant in nine phases

Work through these in order, knowing some phases overlap. Permits run alongside design, and hiring starts while the contractor is still on site.

Phase 1: Concept, plan, and money

• Define the concept: cuisine, service style, average check, and who your guest is.
• Write the business plan with sales and cost projections. Our guide to the restaurant business plan includes an outline you can follow.
• Build the startup budget, including working capital to carry you through the first months. Our breakdown of how much it costs to open a restaurant covers the line items.
• Form the business entity, get an employer identification number (EIN) from the IRS, and open a business bank account.
• Line up funding from savings, partners, investors, or lenders.

Phase 2: Location and lease

• Screen sites for visibility, parking, foot traffic, neighbors, and zoning that allows your use.
• Check the building itself: the hood and venting path, grease trap, gas service, electrical capacity, restrooms, and accessibility.
• A space that was already a restaurant can save time and money if its kitchen fits your menu. Have a contractor walk it before you sign.
• Negotiate the lease terms that matter most to a restaurant: tenant improvement allowance, free rent during build-out, the personal guarantee, signage rights, exclusivity, and a way out if permits fall through.
• Have a real estate attorney review the lease before you sign.

Phase 3: Permits and licenses

Each of these usually comes from a different office, and some depend on others:

Phase 4: Design and build-out

• Finalize the floor plan: dining room, bar, host stand, kitchen line, dish, storage, and restrooms.
• Spec kitchen equipment around the menu, station by station.
• Choose furniture, lighting, and finishes, and order anything custom early.
• Hire a contractor with restaurant experience, and agree on the schedule, a contingency budget, and how change orders get approved.
• Build inspections into the schedule, including rough-ins, fire, health, and the final.

Phase 5: Systems, vendors, and insurance

• Choose your POS, reservations or waitlist, online ordering, scheduling, payroll, accounting, and inventory tools, and confirm they work together.
• Set up food and beverage suppliers with order guides and par levels.
• Get insurance quotes for general liability, property, workers' compensation, and liquor liability if you serve alcohol. Your broker can tell you what your state and your landlord require.
• Schedule utilities, internet, phones, and music service.

Phase 6: Menu, recipes, and costing

• Lock the opening menu, and keep it tight enough for a new crew to execute well.
• Write recipe cards with exact quantities, plating photos, and prep steps.
• Cost every plate and set prices from the cost and the market.
• Build the allergen matrix from the recipes.
• Run tastings with the full kitchen team.

Phase 7: Hiring and training

• Hire in order: managers and the chef first, then leads, then the rest of the crew.
• Write job descriptions and an employee handbook.
• Handle onboarding paperwork like Form I-9 and Form W-4, plus food handler cards where your state requires them.
• Build role-based training covering the menu, service steps, recipes, the POS, and safety, with a quiz and a trainer sign-off for each role.
• Run mock services so every station works real tickets before guests arrive.

Phase 8: Marketing before you open

• Claim your Google Business Profile early. Google lets you set an opening date up to a year out, and once you're verified, your profile shows up on Google 90 days before that date.
• Launch the website with the menu, hours, location, and reservation link.
• Set up social accounts and share progress from the build-out.
• Collect emails from an opening announcement page.
• Reach out to local press and neighbors, and plan any partnership or launch events.

Phase 9: Soft opening and opening week

• Run friends and family nights with a limited menu.
• Time tickets, watch the pass, and keep a fix list after every service.
• Staff opening week a little heavier than you think you need, then trim as the crew finds its rhythm.
• Hold a short pre-shift every day to fix yesterday's problems.
• Read every review and answer them.

Mistakes that push opening day back

• Signing a lease before a contractor confirms the hood, gas, grease trap, and electrical can support your menu.
• Spending the contingency during build-out and opening with no working capital left.
• Finalizing the floor plan so late that custom furniture can't arrive in time.
• Hiring so late that the crew meets the menu during soft opening.
• Opening with a menu bigger than a new kitchen can execute.
• Saving marketing for the week before the doors open, when the profile, website, and email list all take time to build.
• Skipping mock services because the schedule is tight.

Keep one owner and one calendar

Openings slip when tasks live in five different inboxes. Put every item above on one shared calendar with an owner and a due date, and review it weekly with your contractor, chef, and GM. When a date moves, move everything that depends on it the same day. Keeping that calendar current, and chasing the vendors behind it, is a big part of what our restaurant operations consulting covers for owners who are opening. If you already run a restaurant and you're opening another, our free AI assessment gives you a quick read on your current operation first, and Christy follows up personally.

How Monarch helps

Our operations team can run this checklist with you from the written plan to opening week, coordinating vendors, software, training, and marketing along the way. We do the work. You guide the process.