Restaurant opening Gantt chart template: licences, build-out and soft opening
An editable restaurant opening Gantt chart: food and alcohol licences, building permit review, kitchen build-out and equipment, inspection, menu, hiring and a friends and family soft opening, with dependencies and milestones.
What the restaurant opening gantt chart template: licences, build-out and soft opening process is
A restaurant can have a menu, a head chef and a full booking list and still not open, because the date is held by things the owner does not control: the licensing authority's review of the food business and alcohol licences, the building authority's review of the works, the lead time on kitchen equipment and extraction, and an inspection once the kitchen is built. Menu work and hiring are quick by comparison and fit around them. A timeline shows which of the slow items sets the opening day, and how much room the others have, before you announce a date.
This template has five groups: Licences and permits, Build-out and kitchen, Menu and suppliers, Restaurant team, and Opening. "Sign lease and confirm concept" (5 working days) is the only starting task, and four streams start when it is done: "Apply for food business and alcohol licences" (3), "Design kitchen and dining room" (10), "Develop and test the menu" (15) and "Recruit head chef and general manager" (15). The first milestone is "Licences granted", at the end of the 30-day "Licence review", and it holds only one thing: the soft opening. The building work waits for the design instead, since "Apply for building and change-of-use permits" (3) and "Order kitchen equipment and extraction" (2) both follow it.
With the illustrative numbers, the chain that sets the date runs through the building permit, not the licences: "Design kitchen and dining room" (10), the permit application (3), "Building permit review" (15), "Carry out build-out" (20), "Build-out complete" and then "Train staff and run kitchen trials" (6). The 30-day "Licence review" is the longest single wait in the plan, but it has slack: the licences are granted around working day 38 and are not needed until the soft opening starts around working day 59. A longer licence wait would move the opening day once it used up those 21 working days, and the gap between "Licences granted" and the soft opening on the chart is how much longer it could take before it does. The kitchen equipment runs alongside: "Kitchen equipment lead time" (25) ends while the build-out is under way, and "Install kitchen equipment and extraction" (6) starts 12 days into "Carry out build-out".
The end of the plan is a set of gates. "Health and fire safety inspection" (3) waits for "Build-out complete" and runs while the staff train, so "Inspection passed" falls three working days before the soft opening. "Announce the opening and take bookings" (10) starts 10 days into the build-out. "Friends and family soft opening" (3) waits for the training, "Licences granted", "Inspection passed" and the announcement, and "Adjust menu and service" (3) leads to "Opening day" around working day 65. The menu and team groups finish early: the final tasting and the staff hire are done weeks before the kitchen trials, which leaves room to hire later if you prefer. All durations are illustrative. Replace them with quotes from your contractor and suppliers and with what the licensing and building authorities tell you.
A timeline schedules the work. It does not obtain a licence, pass an inspection or make a kitchen safe to serve food. For the food safety procedures the kitchen needs, see /templates/haccp-process-flowchart. For the steps inside the permit bar, see /templates/building-permit-application-process, and for how to draw permits and inspections as waiting time and gates, see /guides/opening-permits-and-inspections-gantt-chart. For who runs the kitchen and the floor, see /org-templates/restaurant-business-organizational-chart.
What this flowchart covers
In this template
- Five groups, Licences and permits, Build-out and kitchen, Menu and suppliers, Restaurant team and Opening, with 24 tasks including four milestones: "Licences granted", "Build-out complete", "Inspection passed" and "Opening day".
- Two waits on the authorities: a 30-day "Licence review" after "Apply for food business and alcohol licences", and a 15-day "Building permit review" after "Apply for building and change-of-use permits", which gates "Carry out build-out".
- A kitchen stream in which "Kitchen equipment lead time" (25 working days) runs during the permit review and "Install kitchen equipment and extraction" starts 12 days into "Carry out build-out".
- An inspection gate: "Health and fire safety inspection" waits for "Build-out complete" and runs while "Train staff and run kitchen trials" is under way, and "Inspection passed" and "Licences granted" both hold the "Friends and family soft opening".
- Menu and team work that starts at the lease: "Develop and test the menu", "Set up suppliers and accounts", "Cost recipes and run the final tasting", "Recruit head chef and general manager" and "Hire kitchen and floor staff", all finished well before the kitchen trials.
When to use this template
- You are opening a restaurant, café or bar and need one plan for the landlord, the contractor, the head chef and the people you are hiring.
- You want to see whether the licences, the building permit or the build-out decides your opening day.
- You have a target opening day and want to compare the finish date with the date you need before you take bookings.
- You want a skeleton you can resize for a second site or a smaller unit.
The plan, task by task
Every task in the chart with its length in working days and what it waits for. A dependency is a step number; SS is start-to-start, FF is finish-to-finish, and +n is a lag in working days.
| # | Task | Group | Working days | Depends on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sign lease and confirm concept | Licences and permits | 5 | |
| 2 | Apply for food business and alcohol licences | Licences and permits | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | Licence review | Licences and permits | 30 | 2 |
| 4 | Licences granted | Licences and permits | Milestone | 3 |
| 5 | Design kitchen and dining room | Build-out and kitchen | 10 | 1 |
| 6 | Apply for building and change-of-use permits | Licences and permits | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | Building permit review | Licences and permits | 15 | 6 |
| 8 | Order kitchen equipment and extraction | Build-out and kitchen | 2 | 5 |
| 9 | Kitchen equipment lead time | Build-out and kitchen | 25 | 8 |
| 10 | Carry out build-out | Build-out and kitchen | 20 | 7 |
| 11 | Install kitchen equipment and extraction | Build-out and kitchen | 6 | 9, 10SS+12 |
| 12 | Build-out complete | Build-out and kitchen | Milestone | 10, 11 |
| 13 | Health and fire safety inspection | Licences and permits | 3 | 12 |
| 14 | Inspection passed | Licences and permits | Milestone | 13 |
| 15 | Develop and test the menu | Menu and suppliers | 15 | 1 |
| 16 | Set up suppliers and accounts | Menu and suppliers | 8 | 15SS+5 |
| 17 | Cost recipes and run the final tasting | Menu and suppliers | 4 | 15, 16 |
| 18 | Recruit head chef and general manager | Restaurant team | 15 | 1 |
| 19 | Hire kitchen and floor staff | Restaurant team | 12 | 18SS+8 |
| 20 | Train staff and run kitchen trials | Restaurant team | 6 | 12, 17, 19 |
| 21 | Announce the opening and take bookings | Opening | 10 | 10SS+10 |
| 22 | Friends and family soft opening | Opening | 3 | 4, 14, 20, 21 |
| 23 | Adjust menu and service | Opening | 3 | 22 |
| 24 | Opening day | Opening | Milestone | 23 |
How it works
Replace the authority waits
Set "Licence review" and "Building permit review" from what the licensing and building authorities tell you or from local experience. These waits vary widely, so check them before any other duration.
Watch the licence slack
Switch on View > Critical path. While "Licence review" is not lit it still has room. Lengthen it past the gap before the soft opening and it joins the chain and moves "Opening day".
Set the kitchen lead time
Set "Kitchen equipment lead time" from your supplier's quote. "Install kitchen equipment and extraction" is linked start-to-start with a lag of 12 days to "Carry out build-out". Change the lag to match when your contractor can take the equipment.
Time the hiring
"Hire kitchen and floor staff" starts 8 days after "Recruit head chef and general manager" starts. If you would rather hire closer to the kitchen trials, make the lag longer in its Depends on cell, for example 18SS+20 instead of 18SS+8. The dependency stays and the hire moves with the head chef's recruitment.
Keep the gates in front of the soft opening
Leave "Licences granted", "Inspection passed" and "Train staff and run kitchen trials" as dependencies of "Friends and family soft opening", and add any other check you need before the first guests sit down.
Add owners, share and export
Put the responsible person in People. Durations count Monday to Friday and there is no holiday calendar, so add public holidays as extra days. Share the chart with the contractor and the team, and export a PDF or CSV when you need a copy.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to open a restaurant?
It depends on the premises, the licences, the building works and how long kitchen equipment takes to arrive. With the template's illustrative durations the plan runs about 65 working days from the signed lease to "Opening day". Replace them with your own numbers and read the finish date from the chart.
Why doesn't the 30-day licence review set the opening day?
Because with these numbers the building permit review and the build-out take longer. The licences are granted around working day 38 and are needed at the soft opening around working day 59. If your licence review runs more than about 21 working days longer, it moves the opening day. For more on drawing these waits, see /guides/opening-permits-and-inspections-gantt-chart.
Does the chart tell me when the licences come through or remind me to book the inspection?
No. It schedules the work and what each task waits for, and it sends no alerts. It does not obtain a licence or book an inspection. Record progress and notes on the task, and change the duration when the authority gives you a date.
Can I plan to a fixed opening day?
Yes. Give "Sign lease and confirm concept" a fixed Start on the day work begins and "Opening day" a fixed Start on your date; the plan starts on the earliest fixed Start, so the first task needs one too. If that date is later than the dependencies allow, the chart leaves a gap before it. If it is earlier, the chart flags a conflict and names the earliest date the dependencies allow. Shorten what you can, overlap tasks or change dependencies until the conflict clears.
Can I use it for a café, a bar or a franchised restaurant?
Yes. Rename the licence tasks to the licences you need, resize the build-out and keep the gates. For a franchised unit with approvals from the franchisor, see /templates/franchise-opening-gantt-chart, and for the method across every kind of opening, see /guides/new-location-opening-gantt-chart.