We signed the lease in March and were serving customers in June. LNB walked the space with our drawings before we committed and told us exactly what the landlord's work letter did not cover.
Marisol Vega
Owner · Independent Cafe
Services
Restaurant Build Out Contractor
A restaurant build out contractor is judged on one date: the day you open with staff already hired. Rent started when you signed, and between you and that date sit the hood, the grease interceptor and the health department.
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- On Site In All 50 States
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A Kitchen Is Not A Finish Package
A restaurant build-out is not a retail build-out with a kitchen in it. It is a mechanical, plumbing and health-code project with a dining room attached, and the schedule is controlled by inspectors, not by drywall.
LNB Construction builds restaurants: QSR, fast casual, full service, coffee, bakery and ice cream. Hoods, grease, floor drains, walk-ins, health department, fire marshal, front of house.
Bars and taprooms, ghost kitchens, commissary space and food hall stalls run on the same rules, with a shorter list of them.
- 20+
- Years In Business
- 250,000+
- Square Feet Built
- 50
- States On Site
- 17+
- Locations Delivered
The Scope That Drives The Budget
Nine systems, and the first four routinely account for more of the number than every finish in the building put together.
- Exhaust Hood And Make-Up Air
- Type I hood, ductwork to roof, fan and tempered make-up air. Roof penetrations need the landlord’s written consent and a structural review. Usually the single biggest mechanical line.
- Grease Interceptor
- Sized by the jurisdiction against your equipment schedule and seating count. Second-generation spaces frequently have one that is too small, which means cutting the slab.
- Floor Drains And Slope
- Kitchen floors need drains and pitch. Retrofitting slope into an existing slab is expensive, and it is not optional.
- Hood Fire Suppression
- Wet chemical system tied into the building alarm and the gas shutoff. Its own permit and its own inspection.
- Walk-In Cooler And Freezer
- Refrigeration lines, condensate, dedicated power, and enough structural clearance to actually get the panels in the door.
- Gas Service
- Load calculation against the full equipment schedule, with meter upsizing where required. Utility lead times can exceed construction.
- Water Heating
- Commercial kitchens use far more hot water than the shell’s water heater was ever sized for.
- Grease-Rated Finishes
- Washable wall and ceiling surfaces, coved base and sealed floors, all to health department specification.
- Front Of House
- Bar, host stand, banquettes, lighting, acoustics, restrooms and ADA compliance.
What Controls Your Opening Date
Three inspections, in this order, and none of them care about your marketing calendar.
Health department plan review.
Submitted before construction, not during. Health looks at equipment schedules, finish schedules, hand sinks, food flow and storage. Comments here can move walls.
Fire marshal inspection.
Hood suppression, exit capacity, occupant load, extinguishers and emergency lighting.
Health department pre-opening inspection.
After construction, before you serve. Everything has to be installed, running and clean, including equipment you might have planned to bring in later.
And the constraint is the inspector, not the trades.
We build the schedule around inspector availability in your jurisdiction, because in most markets that is what actually sets the date. A crew that finishes early still waits.
Types Of Restaurant We Build
The mechanical scope is what separates these from each other, and it separates them by a lot more than the menu does.
QSR and fast casual.
The tightest schedules and usually a franchisor behind them. Fixed opening dates, a prototype kitchen, and an equipment package that ships on a date somebody else set.
Full service dining.
The largest front of house scope. Bar build, banquettes, acoustics, lighting design and restrooms sized for an occupant load that plan review will check.
Coffee, bakery and ice cream.
Lighter on hood and heavier on plumbing, refrigeration and dedicated equipment power than people expect. Stella\u2019s Ice Cream in Phoenix was 2,200 square feet of exactly this.
Bars, taprooms and ghost kitchens.
Bars are a plumbing and glycol problem with a millwork package attached. Ghost kitchens and commissary space strip out the dining room and keep every inspection.
What A Restaurant Build Out Costs
Mechanical, plumbing and equipment routinely make up more than half the construction cost before the equipment itself. Finishes are not what moves this number.
Hood, grease and drains.
Whether the space already has a usable hood, an adequately sized grease interceptor and floor drains with slope. This one factor separates a cheap restaurant from an expensive one.
Utility service.
Gas load against your full equipment schedule, electrical service, and hot water demand a shell heater was never sized for. Meter upsizing has a lead time longer than construction.
Raw shell or second generation.
A raw shell restaurant is among the most expensive commercial build-outs per square foot. A good second-generation space can be a fraction of it.
The equipment schedule.
Not its price, its demands. Every piece drives a circuit, a drain, a gas run or a ventilation requirement, which is why the schedule is a construction document.
The most valuable hour you can spend is a walkthrough before you sign the lease. What is in the slab and on the roof decides your budget more than your design does, and we will look for free.
From Empty Shell To Open Doors
Drag any handle. The first is food and beverage: on the left the condition a landlord hands a space over in, on the right an interior a business can trade out of.
ShellFinished
ShellFinished
ShellFinishedHow A Restaurant Build Out Runs
Same five stages, with the schedule built around inspectors rather than trades. In most markets that is what actually sets your opening date.
Walkthrough And Scope
We walk the roof and the slab before we look at the dining room. Hood route, grease interceptor size and existing floor drains decide more of this budget than anything else.
Budget And Bid
A line-item number with mechanical, plumbing and equipment broken out, because together they will outweigh every finish in the building.
Permits And Drawings
Health department plan review before construction, then building, then fire. Health looks at equipment schedules, hand sinks, food flow and storage, and comments here move walls.
Construction
Rough-in, hood and make-up air, suppression, walk-ins and finishes, sequenced around inspector availability in your jurisdiction rather than around the trades.
Punch List And Handover
Fire marshal, then the health department pre-opening inspection with everything installed, running and clean. Including the equipment you planned to bring in later.
What Owners Say Afterwards
The part that matters is not the bid. It is whether the space opened when they said it would.
Our lender wanted G702s and a schedule of values, not a lump sum. LNB billed the way the bank expected from the first draw, so nothing stalled in underwriting.
Dev Ramaswamy
Franchisee · Fitness Franchise
Four units in three states and every one of them looks like the prototype. That is the part I could never get from hiring a different contractor in each market.
Alicia Brenner
Director of Development · Multi-Site Retail Brand
One superintendent, one number to call, weekly progress against the schedule. We were paying rent on a dark store and they knew it.
Tomasz Kowal
Managing Partner · Retail Group
The permit run in our jurisdiction is where these projects usually die. They tracked it and told us where it sat every week instead of going quiet.
Renée Okafor
Practice Manager · Dental Practice
1 of 5
Related Work
Real square footage, real timelines, real brands.
F&B
Storefront retail. Custom freezer bays.
Stella's Ice Cream · Phoenix, AZ
Retail + custom freezer bays + back kitchen
Automotive
Franchise rolled out. National.
Tint World · National
Service bays + customer lounge + retail
1 of 3
Related Services
The same crews and the same schedule, on a different kind of space.
Restaurant Build Out FAQ
How much does a restaurant build out cost?
Highly variable, driven mostly by whether the space already has hood, grease and drains. Raw shell restaurants are among the most expensive commercial build-outs per square foot; a good second-generation space can be a fraction of that.
How long does a restaurant build out take?
Typically longer than retail. The mechanical scope, the extra permits and the additional inspections all add time, and health department plan review before construction is the step most people forget to schedule.
Do you handle the health department?
Yes. Plan review submittal, comment responses, coordination with fire and building, and the pre-opening inspection.
Can we reuse the previous restaurant’s hood?
Sometimes. It depends on its condition, its size against your equipment schedule, and whether the jurisdiction will let you keep a system installed under an older code. We assess it at the walkthrough.
Do you install the kitchen equipment?
We coordinate and install owner-furnished equipment and manage the vendors. Specialty items like refrigeration and hood suppression are installed by their certified vendors under our contract.
Should I have you look at a space before I sign the lease?
Yes. For restaurants this is the highest-value thing we do, and it is free. What is in the slab and on the roof determines your budget more than anything in your design.
Next step
You Signed The Lease. Let's Get It Open.
Send us the space and the brand standards. You'll get a walkthrough scheduled inside 48 hours and a real number. Not a range, not a “starting at.”
No obligation. No pressure. If we're not the right builder for your project, we'll tell you on the call.
info@lnbconstruction.net
