Blueprint Culinary / Opening a new restaurant
New restaurant opening consultant · Tampa Bay
From lease to opening day: kitchen design, equipment, construction oversight, opening playbook and BOH training, from an operator who has opened restaurants for national brands and built a 17-unit concept.
Why openings go sideways
The lease gets signed before anyone checks whether the kitchen fits the menu.
Specced from a cut sheet and a sales rep, not your covers and ticket times.
Timeline, staffing and training get improvised in the last two weeks.
The chef knows the food. Nobody else has it written down.
Flow and code issues surface when fixing them costs the most.
Opening week sets habits the team keeps for years.
When to bring us in
We can tell you whether the space can hold the kitchen your menu needs, before you are committed to it.
The kitchen program drives plumbing, gas, electrical and hood placement. Set it first and everything gets drawn once.
We review against your menu and volume and flag what will cost you daily. Changes are redlines, not demolition.
Rough-in is largely locked. We focus on equipment, station setup and whatever is still movable.
Layout is fixed, but throughput rarely is. Station redesign and workflow usually recover more than owners expect.
What's included
What you are cooking, how much and how fast.
Layout, stations and equipment around the menu.
Kitchen construction checked against flow, code and spec.
Every dish documented with photos, yields and portions.
Timeline, staffing, roles and management structure.
BOH training, food safety, line checks and opening support.
Details
Kitchen design starts at $10,000 and covers menu-driven layout, equipment selection and specification, and construction oversight through opening.
Enterprise starts at $50,000, scoped to your build. It includes everything in our Systems engagement plus the new restaurant opening playbook, kitchen construction oversight, equipment selection and testing, multi-unit systems design, hiring and management structure, and leadership coaching.
Opening in Tampa or St. Petersburg? We are local and on site through the build.
Who you work with
You get the founder, not a junior auditor. Blueprint takes two clients at a time.
Ryan brings 25+ years of chef-led operating experience: classical fine dining, events and banquets at Hound Ears Club; opening multiple P.F. Chang's China Bistro locations during the brand's peak; Regional Partner at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse; then Founding Partner & VP of Culinary at Fresh Kitchen, leading its culinary expansion from 1 unit to 17.
Blueprint Culinary is based in St. Petersburg and works with independent restaurants and growing restaurant groups across Tampa Bay and Florida's west coast.
Operators, not auditors. We work the line with your team until the systems hold.
Questions owners ask
As early as you can, ideally before you sign the lease. We can tell you whether the space can hold the kitchen your menu needs before you are committed. After that, before the architect draws the kitchen is the next best moment.
We take your concept from an idea to an open restaurant: kitchen design and equipment, construction oversight for the kitchen, recipe development and specs, opening playbook with timeline and staffing, BOH training, food safety setup and opening support.
Kitchen design starts at $10,000. Our Enterprise engagement, which includes the new restaurant opening playbook, construction oversight, equipment selection and testing, starts at $50,000 and is scoped to your build. See pricing.
Ryan was an Opening Chef for multiple P.F. Chang's China Bistro locations during the brand's peak and led Fresh Kitchen's culinary expansion from 1 unit to 17. That is a lot of opening days.
Yes. First-time owners usually get the most out of starting early, because the expensive mistakes are made before anyone cooks.
Keep reading
Send us the space, the menu and where you are in the process. We will tell you honestly what is still fixable and what it would take.
Prefer to talk now?