Six weeks to fit out a corner café

When Lena and Tomás took possession of a former phone repair shop on a Toronto corner, the space was a white box with a drop ceiling, one washroom and a single sink in the back. Six weeks later it was a café with a counter, a coffee bar, twenty seats and a line out the door on opening Saturday. People in the neighbourhood assumed it had been a fast job. It was not. It was a slow job with a fast ending.

The couple are a composite of several first-time operators, but the sequence below is a fair picture of how a small food fit-out comes together when it goes well. The details, especially permits and inspections, vary by municipality, so treat this as a map rather than a rulebook.

Before the keys: the four months nobody sees

The most important decision happened before the lease was signed. Lena and Tomás hired a designer who had done restaurants before, and asked a contractor to walk the space with them. Together they checked three things that make or break a café: whether the electrical service could handle an espresso machine, ovens and refrigeration; whether there was a practical route for venting; and where plumbing could go, including any grease interceptor the municipality might require.

They also asked about the things a listing never mentions: whether the previous tenant’s equipment or fixtures belonged to the landlord, whether the building allowed cooking odours to be vented at the rear, and what hours trades could work without disturbing the apartments upstairs. Each answer changed either the budget or the schedule, and it was far cheaper to learn them before signing than after.

Those findings went into the lease negotiation. The landlord agreed to upgrade the electrical service as part of the landlord’s work, and the lease gave the couple a fixturing period, a stretch of time in the space before rent started, to build out. Many leases include a schedule setting out which work the landlord does and which the tenant does. Read it line by line; it decides who pays for what.

Then came drawings, the landlord’s approval of those drawings, and permit applications. Food premises typically need a building permit for the alterations and approval or inspection from the local public health unit before opening, and a sign may need its own permit. Long-lead equipment, the espresso machine, the refrigerated display case and the hood if one is needed, was ordered as soon as the layout was fixed, because delivery times can run to many weeks.

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Six weeks on site is a promise you make four months earlier, with drawings, approvals and purchase orders.

Weeks one and two: opening up

Demolition took three days: the old counter, the drop ceiling and a partition wall came out. With the ceiling open, the contractor found an old duct run that was not on any drawing and had to be rerouted. This is normal. Every fit-out budget should carry a contingency for what turns up once walls and ceilings come off; many contractors suggest something in the range of ten to fifteen per cent of the build cost for a small job, more for an older building.

By the end of week two, the plumber and electrician had roughed in: new water and drain lines to the coffee bar and prep sink, floor drains where required, and new circuits for the equipment. Rough-in inspections were booked ahead so the walls could be closed without waiting.

Weeks three and four: closing in

With inspections passed, the drywall went up and the new ceiling went in. The floor was the next big decision. The couple had wanted polished concrete, but the slab was uneven and grinding it would have cost more than expected, so they switched to a commercial vinyl that cleans easily and suits food service. The counter was built off site by a millwork shop from the approved drawings, and installed at the end of week four.

Lena spent much of this period on things that were not construction at all: setting up the point-of-sale system, ordering cups and lids, arranging internet installation, which can take weeks to schedule, and confirming the business insurance the lease required before the couple could even begin work.

Weeks five and six: equipment, inspections, opening

The espresso machine arrived in week five, a few days late, and was connected by a technician. The rest of the equipment followed. Painters and the sign installer worked around each other. Final building inspections and the public health inspection were booked as early as the inspectors would allow, and the couple did a deep clean the night before each one.

With approvals in hand, they ran two soft-opening days for friends and neighbours to test the menu and the workflow, which revealed that the pastry case blocked the line at the till. A carpenter moved it in an afternoon. The café opened on a Saturday at the end of week six, two days before rent began.

What made six weeks possible