Consulting & Project Planning

The most expensive decision in a food project is usually made before anyone draws anything: signing a lease on the wrong space.

We have reviewed spaces that looked perfect and were not. A unit with no gas service on a menu that needs a six-burner range. A second-floor bakery with no freight access for a deck oven. A location zoned for retail where a restaurant requires a change-of-use application nobody budgeted eight weeks for. A landlord’s base building that provides 200 amps where the equipment list needs 400.

Each of those is survivable if you find it in week one. Each of them is a five-figure problem if you find it in week twelve.

What this stage actually produces

You get a written assessment of whether the concept works in that space, at that budget, on that timeline. Not a sales document — an honest read, including the version where the answer is no.

If the answer is yes, you get the numbers to move on: a preliminary budget broken into design, permits, construction, equipment and contingency, and a schedule with the permitting window sized to the actual municipality rather than a generic estimate.

A recurring mistake is buying a kitchen for the menu you might have in three years. It inflates the equipment package, inflates the electrical and gas service, inflates the hood and make-up air, and inflates the rent you need to cover.

We work backwards from the menu and the covers you actually expect. That usually produces a smaller, cheaper, faster kitchen than the one the operator walked in imagining, and it leaves capacity in the panel for the expansion if it comes.

The consultation is free

The first conversation costs nothing and includes a project review, a timeline estimate and a preliminary cost breakdown. If the project is not viable, we would rather tell you in an hour than bill you for six weeks of drawings first.

What you receive

A written feasibility assessment on the concept, the unit and the budget, with the reasoning set out behind every conclusion so you can test it yourself or hand it to a lender

A site and lease review memo setting out what the base building actually provides — incoming gas service and meter capacity, amperage measured at the panel, a workable route for exhaust and make-up air, water and sanitary drainage — and where each falls short of what the menu needs

A preliminary budget built from real equipment and trade pricing rather than a per-square-foot rule of thumb, with soft costs and the contingency shown as their own lines instead of absorbed into the construction number

A project schedule keyed to the dates that control an opening — when long-lead equipment has to be ordered, when the landlord's work has to finish, and when rent commencement lands relative to the day you can actually trade

A preliminary equipment list sized to the menu and the covers you expect, with the electrical, gas, water and ventilation requirement listed against each piece so the list can be checked against the building before anything is quoted

A block layout of the unit — kitchen, prep, storage, receiving, washrooms and the barrier-free path — used to test whether the concept physically fits before anyone starts drawing

What we need from you

The draft lease or offer to lease, with the landlord's schedule of base building services and any use, exclusivity or restoration clauses

Your menu, or the closest draft you have, plus expected covers, service hours and seat count

The unit address and access to measure it, along with any existing drawings, surveys or fire plans held by the landlord or the previous tenant

Your funding ceiling and the dates the money actually lands — approval, deposit and draw dates shape the schedule as much as the build does

Not included

The architectural, mechanical and electrical drawing set. Feasibility tells that set what to solve for; it does not replace it.

Permit applications and public health plan review submissions. Those begin once a drawing set exists to submit.

Legal advice on the lease. We read it for operational and code risk — service capacity, use clause, landlord work, restoration obligations — and flag what your lawyer should look at.

Questions about this service

What do you actually check before I sign a lease?

Incoming gas service and meter capacity against the equipment list. Electrical service measured at the panel, not the number on the listing. A viable exhaust route from the hood to the roof, and where make-up air comes back in. Sanitary drainage, and whether a grease interceptor can physically be installed and serviced. Zoning and building classification for the use. Barrier-free access, washroom counts and occupant load.

The unit was a restaurant before. Does that make it turnkey?

Rarely. Fit-outs age out of compliance. A hood and its suppression may not meet current requirements, the exhaust fan may have been sized for a different menu, and any work done without permits becomes yours to correct. We verify what was permitted, what was inspected and what is genuinely reusable, then price the gap. Second-generation space is often a real saving — after it has been checked.

Can I take the plan to another builder?

Yes. The assessment, the budget and the schedule are yours. Some owners use them to compare bids, some to support a lender conversation, some to walk away from a space that does not work. We would rather be chosen after you have tested the numbers. If you continue with us, the planning work rolls into the design stage without being redone.