The Restaurant Startup Costs Guide

By Rob Bruni, founder of OpsEdge Hospitality, twenty years running restaurants, bars, clubs and resorts. Updated November 2026.

Most restaurant plans fail on the budget before they fail on the food, and the failure is usually the same: the build-out costs 30 percent more than planned and the working capital line was never there to absorb it. This guide lays out what it actually costs to open an independent restaurant or bar in the United States, line by line, with a worked example for a 70-seat neighborhood restaurant, where you can save, and where cutting costs costs you the business.

What a restaurant costs to open: realistic ranges

The honest answer is that it depends on the space you start with, the city, and how much you do yourself. These ranges come from independent openings we have run or advised and from what operators report, and they are per seat because that is the only comparable unit.

Two things these ranges hide. First, the single biggest decision is first versus second generation. A space that was already a restaurant comes with $150,000 to $400,000 of infrastructure you do not have to buy. Second, these are totals including working capital. A plan that stops at the last invoice from the contractor is not a plan.

Opening a bar rather than a restaurant? The bar startup costs guide covers the liquor license, the draft system, bar equipment and insurance, with a free bar startup cost calculator.

Build-out and construction

Usually 35 to 50 percent of the total. The main lines:

• Design and architecture, including the stamped drawings the city requires: $15,000 to $60,000.
• Mechanical, electrical and plumbing. The expensive and invisible part. A commercial hood with fire suppression alone is $25,000 to $70,000 installed. A grease interceptor that has to go in the ground can be $20,000 to $50,000. Upgrading electrical service for a kitchen can be $15,000 to $40,000.
• Construction and finishes: walls, floors, ceilings, restrooms to code, ADA compliance, the bar itself. $100 to $300 per square foot for a full remodel depending on market and finish level.
• Signage, lighting, sound: $10,000 to $40,000.
• Contingency. Fifteen to twenty percent of the construction line, held separately, not spent on upgrades. Every opening finds something in the walls.

Get three bids, from contractors who have built restaurants. A general contractor who has not done a hood install will learn on your money.

Kitchen, bar and front of house equipment

Usually 15 to 25 percent of the total.

• Cooking line (ranges, flat top, grill, fryers, ovens, salamander): $30,000 to $90,000 new.
• Refrigeration (walk-in, reach-ins, lowboys, freezer): $25,000 to $70,000.
• Prep and dish (tables, sinks, mixer, slicer, dish machine, racks): $20,000 to $45,000.
• Bar (back bar coolers, draft system, ice machine, glass washer, wells, speed rails): $20,000 to $60,000. A twelve-tap draft system with glycol is $15,000 to $30,000 on its own.
• Smallwares (pans, pots, knives, containers, utensils): $8,000 to $20,000. Always more than you think.
• Front of house (tables, chairs, bar stools, host stand, service stations): $25,000 to $70,000 for 70 seats.
• POS, printers, handhelds, network, music, cameras: $8,000 to $25,000 plus monthly fees.
• Glassware, china, flatware at two and a half to three times the seat count for each piece: $12,000 to $30,000.

Used equipment is 40 to 60 percent off and fine for tables, sinks, racks and most cooking equipment. Buy refrigeration, the dish machine and the ice machine new or certified, with a service contract. They fail at 7 p.m. on a Saturday.

Soft costs: deposits, permits, professionals, pre-opening

Usually 15 to 25 percent, and the lines most often missing from first budgets.

• Lease deposit and first months. Two to three months' rent on signing is normal, and you may pay rent for three to six months of build-out before you open. On $9,000 a month, that is $45,000 to $80,000 before the first guest.
• Permits and licenses. Building, health, fire, signage, business license, food handler and manager certifications: $5,000 to $20,000. A liquor license is its own line: from a few thousand in some states to $100,000 to $400,000 in quota states where licenses are bought on the open market.
• Legal and accounting. Entity formation, lease review (never skip this), operating agreement, accounting setup: $5,000 to $20,000.
• Insurance. General liability, property, liquor liability, workers' comp, with first-year premiums partly due up front: $8,000 to $25,000.
• Pre-opening payroll. The chef and GM for two to four months before opening, the full team for two to three weeks of training: $40,000 to $100,000. This is the line most plans cut and most regret.
• Opening inventory: food, beverage, paper and chemicals for the first two weeks: $15,000 to $40,000.
• Marketing and brand: name, logo, menus, website, photography, opening promotion: $8,000 to $30,000.
• Training materials, uniforms, first aid, safety, small operating supplies: $5,000 to $12,000.

Working capital: the line most plans leave out

Working capital is cash held in the bank on opening day to cover the gap between what the restaurant costs to run and what it brings in while sales ramp up. New restaurants do not open at full volume. A realistic ramp is 50 to 70 percent of target sales in month one, 70 to 85 percent in months two and three, and target by month four to six, if the concept works. During that ramp, payroll, rent and vendors are all due in full.

For a restaurant with $43,000 of monthly fixed costs and a four-month ramp, that is $130,000 to $260,000 held back and not spent on the build. The break-even guide shows how to work out the monthly number this is based on. If the total budget does not have this line, the plan is to be undercapitalized and hope. Most restaurants that close in the first year did not run out of customers. They ran out of cash before the customers arrived.

A worked example: a 70-seat neighborhood restaurant

$655,000 to open, $830,000 to survive the opening. That is $9,360 per seat to the door and $11,860 all in. The $175,000 at the bottom is the difference between a restaurant that makes it to month six and one that is for sale in month four with the same food and the same team.

Where to save and where never to

Save here

• Second-generation space over first. This is the biggest lever and it is decided before anything else.
• Used tables, racks, sinks, prep equipment, most cooking equipment, and often the chairs.
• Finishes. Paint, lighting and a good playlist do more than custom millwork.
• Menu size. Every item you do not serve is equipment, inventory and training you do not buy.
• Phased spending. Open with the patio furniture, the second ice machine and the private room next year.

Never here

• The lease review. Personal guarantees, exclusivity, assignment rights and build-out allowances are worth more than any equipment discount.
• Refrigeration, the dish machine, the ice machine and the hood. The things that close you when they fail.
• Pre-opening training. A team that opens untrained loses the regulars you needed in month one.
• Contingency and working capital. Cutting them is not saving, it is borrowing from month five.
• Insurance and licensing. There is no cheap version of being shut down.

Building and holding the opening budget

1. Build it bottom-up, line by line, with quotes, not percentages. The percentages above are for checking the total, not for building it.
2. Add the contingency and the working capital first, then see what is left for the build. Not the other way round.
3. Track committed, not just spent. A signed contract is money gone even before the invoice. Keep three columns: budget, committed, paid.
4. Review weekly during the build with the contractor. Change orders are where budgets die, and they are approved one small one at a time.
5. Hold the operating budget separately from day one, with the P&L structure you will run on, so month one's numbers land in the right lines.

Our Restaurant and Bar Startup System is a bar and restaurant startup costs spreadsheet and playbook: it holds the full opening budget workbook with every line above, the committed-versus-paid tracker and the ramp-up cash model, and the Opening Checklist and Startup Planner covers the timeline from lease to first service.

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