Leasing restaurant space
The restaurant space you choose is one of the most important decisions you will make.
You know that location is one of the most important factors in opening a restaurant, but it is far from the only factor. Signing a restaurant lease or rental agreement is a long term commitment—anywhere from 5 to 20 years—so before you begin to look for a space to lease or rent, make sure you’ve gone through a proper business planning process and solidified your concept so that you know exactly what you need in a space.
A strategic business plan is the first step to building the framework for a successful restaurant launch. This planning phase allows you to get a clear understanding of your restaurant needs, start-up costs, and potential return-on-investment. The restaurant space you choose will dramatically affect your daily operations and recurring expenses, as well as determining the number of customers you can serve and how those customers find you.
Concept
A unique and memorable concept will ensure that your brand representation is on point. Equally important, your concept will drive your space needs. A quick service commercial kitchen requires a different layout than a fine-dining kitchen. Open or closed kitchen concept? Do you need a kitchen hood? Air purifiers? How much storage to properly execute your menu? What is the intended guest experience like?
Location
Whether you want to be in an established neighbourhood or up and coming area, finding the right neighbourhood where your target market lives or works is key. Is it a destination location or is local foot traffic important? Who are the nearby competitors and complementary businesses? Is your concept office worker targeted, residential targeted, or both? Is parking necessary or do you want to be close to public transit?
Features
Defining your must-have features and square footage needs upfront will help you narrow down your options. Is an outdoor patio part of your vision? Do you want a bar? Is a private room desirable to your target market? Is take-out important? Are there industry guidelines for seating capacity? How many washrooms do you need - individual stall or communal male/female?
Budget
A detailed financial model will help determine what you can afford to spend on rent and utilities and set your restaurant’s future profitability. It will help you outline startup costs and if you can afford to renovate or need a turnkey solution. You also need to know the optimal size/rent combination to make the ROI make sense. Consider this, a space that is just 400 square feet larger than you need, can cost you more than $300,000 in wasted occupancy expense over the course of your lease.
Interested in learning more about how we can help you develop a strategic business plan and open a successful restaurant operation?
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At The Fifteen Group, we work hand in hand with restaurant owners across North America to create and launch successful new restaurant concepts—from fast-casual to fine dining.
If you are thinking of opening a new restaurant, check out our Opening Handholding Package. Our multifaceted team assists with every aspect of the launch, including:
✓ Concept Development
✓ Brand Development
✓ Menu Development
✓ Operational Systems and Procedures
✓ Kitchen Design and Equipment Selection
✓ Staff Training
✓ Business Plan Development
✓ Profit Modelling/Menu Engineering
See what our clients say:
“Doing a kitchen concept refresh in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic was a big risk, but needed to be done. We needed to take our customer experience to the next level when our doors reopened. The Fifteen Group redesigned our kitchen to maximize output from a tiny kitchen to a large restaurant and built us a menu that was exciting for our customers and achievable for our team.”
“This all-encompassing project removed the guess-work out of the enormous task of opening a restaurant - it was especially beneficial to have The Fifteen Group teams’ expertise on board with us through the entire process given that the two of us are new to the hospitality industry.”
“Their menu engineering expertise has been hugely beneficial to the Cafe’s operation by strengthening our offerings and profit model. The patience and care they put into our staff recruitment process have set us up for success in the long term, with a strong, productive team able to better serve our guests.”
Restaurant Kitchen Design — Things To Consider
