PermitsPros Call (888) 907-9511
Restaurants & Food Service

Opening day doesn't move. Your permits can't either.

A restaurant opening runs through more agencies than almost any other project — building, health, fire, sometimes planning and the state ABC — and every one of them can hold your first service. We scope the whole stack up front and run it as one program, so the permit queue is never the reason you open late.

Scope my restaurant Check an address first

The restaurant permit stack

Everything between the lease and the first seating

Building TI + health department plan review + kitchen hood & suppression + fire alarm and sprinkler + grease interceptor / sanitary + signage + patio or sidewalk seating (encroachment) where you have one + change of use when the last tenant wasn't food + a liquor license if alcohol is on the menu. Miss one and you find out at the worst possible moment — usually from an inspector, weeks in. We map the stack for your city before the first filing.

  • TI packages — $125 per permit in the bundle — building and satellite permits scoped, priced, and filed as one order
  • Fire permits — $250 filed, $495 complete package — alarm, sprinkler, and hood suppression through the fire agency's own track
  • Change of use & entitlements — quoted in writing; the gate most openings actually wait on (see Entitlements)
  • Liquor license support — California ABC Type 41 / 47 applications and transfers, coordinated with the local approvals (see Liquor Licenses)
Liquor licenses Change of use Tenant improvements Retail rollout

How it works

  1. Send the address and the concept. Square footage, seats, kitchen or bar program — a paragraph is enough to scope against.
  2. We map the stack. Every agency, every permit, in filing order — including the slow ones (health, ABC, any change of use) flagged as your critical path, in a written quote.
  3. Filed in sequence, tracked on one board. Long-lead approvals start first; construction permits file same-day when packages are complete; corrections answered within one business day.
  4. Inspections to opening. Final inspections coordinated per agency, so sign-offs stack up in the right order instead of expiring in the wrong one.

Questions

We're taking over a space that was already a restaurant. Easier?

Usually, yes — same use means no change-of-use fight, and existing hoods, interceptors, and sprinklers may carry over. But "was a restaurant" isn't the same as "is permitted as one": we pull the address's permit records first, because an expired or never-finaled permit from the last operator becomes your problem the day you sign.That check is the Due Diligence Report — cheaper than the surprise.

Can the liquor license and the build-out run at the same time?

Yes — and they should. The ABC clock is the longest in the stack, so the application starts early and runs in parallel with the TI, while the local approvals it depends on are coordinated alongside. Done right, the license is the last piece to land, not the reason the dining room sits finished and dark.The ABC decides issuance and timing; we run the paperwork and the coordination. See Liquor Licenses.

What does it cost?

Published flat prices where they apply — $125 per permit in TI bundles, fire permits $250 filed / $495 complete — and a written quote for the program pieces (change of use, liquor) before work begins. Health, building, and fire agency fees are separate, at cost, with receipts.Filing is not approval or issuance — no one can promise those.

Scope the stack before you sign

Give us the address and the concept. We'll map every agency in your way and come back with one plan and one number.

Scope my restaurant

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