Restaurant Business PlanTemplate for a Casual Restaurant & Bar: Word Plan + Excel Financial Projections + Opening Checklist

The sections lenders, landlords and investors expect: executive summary, concept and value proposition, market analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management and staffing, financial plan, legal requirements and permits, and conclusions with an action plan. This kit gives you those 10 sections already written for a casual restaurant with a bar in Word, plus the Excel financial projections that back them up and a 64-task opening checklist.

Built for a casual, full-service restaurant with a bar: cooking line, convection oven, fryers, refrigerated prep tables, walk-in cooler, Type I hood with fire suppression, dishwasher, sinks with grease interceptor, the bar with beer taps and a wine fridge, tables, stools, glassware, POS and patio in the startup costs; food and beverage sales with the alcohol share in the P&L; seven roles in the staffing sheet (general manager / owner, head chef, line cooks, servers / bartenders, part-time servers, dishwasher / weekend extra and vacation relief); and the permits of a full-service restaurant, liquor license included.

It depends on the space more than on the kitchen equipment: a unit that was already a restaurant, with its hood and grease interceptor in place, needs a fraction of the build-out of an empty shell, and rent, permits and the liquor license vary a lot by city and state. A survey of independent owners by RestaurantOwner.com put the median opening cost at around $375,000. The Startup Costs sheet lists every line — lease review, build-out, architect and permits, cooking line, hood and fire suppression, walk-in cooler, dishwasher, the bar, furniture, POS, patio, brand and launch, LLC and legal, liquor license and opening inventory — plus deposits, pre-opening months, contingency and working capital. The kit's example restaurant needs $528,696 in total cash ($388,700 of startup costs plus $139,996 of working capital); replace each line with your own quotes.

It's an informal rule of thumb for splitting a restaurant's sales between costs and profit, and versions of it vary. Rather than a fixed split, the model checks your own ratios against editable kit benchmarks — gross margin of at least 65%, cost of goods up to 32%, labor up to 35%, rent up to 10% and net margin of at least 5% — and marks each one OK or REVIEW. Add cost of goods and labor and you get your prime cost: full-service restaurants usually aim for about 60-65% of sales.

It can be, but margins are tight and three lines usually decide it: cost of goods, labor and rent. The model checks them against editable kit benchmarks and runs three scenarios (pessimistic, base and optimistic), so you can see whether the plan still works in a slow year before you sign a lease.

Running out of cash before the restaurant finds its rhythm, costs that are too high for the sales it actually makes (usually rent and labor), and a concept or a location the local market doesn't support. Each one has a check in the kit: the 12-month cash flow shows your lowest cash balance and the month it happens, the benchmarks flag the cost lines out of range, and the break-even sheet tells you how many covers a day you need and your margin of safety.

It depends entirely on your state and city: from a few hundred dollars for a beer and wine license in some places to well over $100,000 in states that cap the number of licenses, where you buy an existing one from another business. The kit's startup costs include a liquor license and permits line of $15,000 as an example for a state without a license quota, with a note to replace it with your state's fee or the market price of a transfer, and the plan reminds you to add liquor liability to your insurance.

Test the numbers before you look at spaces, check the zoning before you sign a lease, form your LLC and get your EIN, seller's permit and business license, then go through the health department plan review and building permits before the build-out. Apply for your liquor license early, hire and train your team, pass the final inspections and open with a soft opening. The opening checklist organizes those steps into 64 tasks in 7 phases, from business setup to your first 90 days.

It depends on your state, county and city. The usual list: a business structure (LLC or sole proprietorship), an EIN, a seller's permit and a business license; a zoning check before you sign the lease; building, electrical, plumbing and gas permits for the build-out; a health department plan review and food establishment permit; hood, fire suppression and fire marshal inspections; a certificate of occupancy; a liquor license if you serve alcohol; and sign and sidewalk cafe permits if they apply. The opening checklist covers them in 64 tasks. Treat it as a starting point and confirm the details with your local authorities.

It's built for a restaurant with a full bar, so the bar side is already there: the bar build, beer taps, wine fridge, glassware, bar stock, the alcohol share of beverage sales and the liquor license. If you're opening a bar that serves little or no food, the Excel model still works — lower the food share and adjust the startup costs and staffing — but the written plan describes a restaurant & bar, so you'll rewrite more of the text.

Yes. It follows the format lenders usually ask for: a written plan, a 3-year P&L, break-even, three scenarios, a 12-month cash flow, sources and uses of funds and a loan schedule with the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), checked against 1.25×, a common lender target. The loan schedule and the DSCR cover your main loan (bank or SBA 7(a)), the one you enter in the assumptions; the financing sheet also lists an SBA Microloan (up to $50,000, through nonprofit intermediaries), investors or partners and local grants as sources of funds, without amortizing them. It's a lender-ready format, not a guarantee of approval, and a planning tool, not financial, tax or legal advice.

Yes. The green cells are the ones you type — rent, covers per day, average check, wages and any startup cost line — and more than 700 linked formulas recalculate the rest. Tips aren't modeled: servers and bartenders are budgeted at a full base wage, which keeps the plan on the safe side. To change a calculated cell, use Review → Unprotect Sheet (there is no password). The workbook includes an Instructions tab.

Yes, with notes. Tax rates are editable cells: enter 20% VAT on restaurant sales and the VAT you can reclaim on purchases and on your build-out. The plan and the checklist add UK notes: register your food business with the council at least 28 days before you open, expect a food hygiene rating inspection in your first months, and to sell alcohol you need a premises licence plus a personal licence for your designated premises supervisor (England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own licensing laws). UK minimum wage and employer National Insurance aren't preloaded: enter the current figures from gov.uk.

The price is $39 USD, a one-time payment. At checkout, Stripe can show the amount in your local currency (for example GBP, EUR, CAD or AUD) and converts it for you. The files have no currency symbol: you type amounts in your own currency.

No subscription: you pay once and get lifetime access to the online dashboard. When we improve the plan or the workbooks, you get the new version at no extra cost — just download the files again.

One purchase covers one business, with all of its locations. If you're a consultant or an investor, you can use the files with the projects you advise, but you can't hand them copies: each business buys its own.

Yes. A full 30-day guarantee. If the plan doesn't meet your expectations, we'll refund 100% with no questions asked.