What we build · Café & Bakery
Lighter, Until There Is an Oven
The lightest food service buildout available, right up until the menu includes something that needs a hood.
Before you sign. We will tell you what the landlord has actually delivered and what it will cost to make it a restaurant.
Pre-lease
We will walk the space before you sign it
Rent clock
Every week of delay is a week of paying for a closed room
Grease
Routing checked before design, not discovered at permit
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
The menu decides the project
A café serving espresso and pre-made food is close to a retail fit-out. Add a deck oven, a panini press used heavily, or anything that produces grease-laden vapour and it becomes a full commercial kitchen with a Type I hood — which is a different budget, a different program and possibly a different space.
Menus also drift. A café opens serving pastries and coffee, adds toasted sandwiches because customers ask, then adds a hot breakfast, and at some point crosses the line into requiring a hood without anybody making a decision that they were crossing it. It is worth knowing where that line is before approaching it.
What changes the category
- Whether any cooking produces grease-laden vapour.
- Ovens, and what they need for exhaust.
- Water treatment for espresso, which affects equipment life.
- Drainage under and behind the bar.
- Electrical load, which espresso equipment consumes more of than expected.
What espresso equipment actually needs
A commercial espresso machine draws considerably more power than people expect, needs treated water to survive, and needs drainage at the bar rather than a bucket. All three are straightforward to provide during a fit-out and awkward to add afterwards.
Water treatment is the one most often skipped. Untreated Florida water will scale a machine quickly, and the resulting repair bills and downtime cost more within a couple of years than the treatment would have.
How we handle it
- 01Settle the menu before design, because it decides the category.
- 02Confirm hood requirements with the authority rather than assuming.
- 03Coordinate equipment, water treatment and drainage together.
- 04Provide electrical capacity for the actual equipment schedule.
- 05Build to the opening date, and be honest about it.
Settle the menu before design. A bakery that adds hot sandwiches after the plans are drawn has just changed the entire mechanical scope, and that change is far cheaper on paper than in a finished shop.
Said plainly
Where we stop
If you may add cooking later, tell us now. Providing an exhaust route during the build costs comparatively little; adding one to a trading café is disruptive and sometimes impossible.
FAQ
Common questions
- Do we need a hood?
- It depends entirely on the menu. Anything producing grease-laden vapour does.
- Can we add cooking later?
- Tell us now. Providing the exhaust route during the build is cheap; adding it later may be impossible.
- Does espresso need special water?
- Treatment protects the equipment and it is worth doing properly.
- Is a café cheaper than a restaurant?
- Considerably — until the menu requires a hood, at which point the gap narrows sharply.
The hard parts
The Hood & Make-Up Air
commercial kitchen hood exhaust makeup air cost
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Grease & Drainage
grease interceptor restaurant requirement florida
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Health Department Review
restaurant plan review health department florida
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The Landlord's Delivered Condition
restaurant lease landlord work letter tenant improvement
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The Rent Clock
restaurant construction delay cost rent commencement
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.