Restaurant Start-Up and Operations

This unit guides students through translating a restaurant concept into practical operations, covering legal compliance, pricing and financial planning, staffing and vendor relationships, facility layout and cleanliness, and communication and marketing tactics. Students will learn to create operational systems—schedules, inventory, budgets, and PR plans—that keep a small restaurant safe, legal, and profitable while preparing for ongoing evaluation and growth.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze local, state, and health code requirements (including water supply and sanitation) and apply them to ensure legal and safety compliance for a proposed restaurant location or modification.
• Apply pricing, cost-analysis, inventory control, and investor-relations strategies to develop a realistic start-up and six-month operating budget and menu pricing plan.
• Demonstrate effective human-resource and vendor-management practices by creating job postings, conducting interviews, developing staff schedules and onboarding plans, and designing an efficient inventory and ordering system.
• Evaluate front- and back-of-house layout, exterior design, communications, and public-relations approaches to refine a restaurant concept, target customer segments, draw patrons, and establish metrics for ongoing operational improvement.