How to open a restaurant in the US: the 2026 step-by-step checklist

Opening a restaurant in the US is two projects in one. The first is the fun one: the concept, the menu, your name on the awning. The second is the one that actually decides your opening date: entity formation, EIN, business licenses, county health inspections, maybe a liquor license, workers' comp, ADA compliance. Miss one item and your opening slips by weeks, sometimes months.

This guide puts every step in the right order, explains honestly who regulates what (federal, state, county, city), links the official source for each obligation, and ends with the part most checklists skip: the tools to set up BEFORE opening day, like your Google Business Profile and a way to take online reservations for free from day one, because your first weeks depend on your ability to fill the dining room, not just to open the doors.

The eight workstreams, in order:

1. concept, market research and the location (ventilation first);
2. budget and funding, with a professional forecast;
3. business entity and EIN;
4. state and local business licenses, plus sales tax registration;
5. health permits, inspections and food safety certification;
6. the liquor license (start this one early, it can be the slowest and the most expensive);
7. employees: payroll setup, tipped wages, workers' comp;
8. build-out, ADA, insurance, and your day-one tools.

Who actually regulates your restaurant: federal, state, county, city

Most guides pretend there is one list of "restaurant licenses". There is not, and understanding why will save you hours of confusion.

• Federal agencies almost never license your restaurant directly. The FDA publishes the Food Code, a model regulation (the 2022 edition is the latest full edition), but it only applies to you because your state or county adopts a version of it. The IRS gives you your tax ID. The Department of Labor sets wage floors. None of them will inspect your kitchen.
• Your state registers your business entity, issues your sales tax permit, runs (or delegates) the liquor licensing system, and sets employment rules like workers' comp and minimum wage.
• Your county or city is who you will actually deal with the most: the local health department permits and inspects your kitchen, the building department approves your build-out and issues the certificate of occupancy, and the city may require its own business license, signage permit or patio permit.

Practical consequence: any national checklist, including this one, tells you the categories. The exact forms, fees and delays come from your state, county and city websites. Budget time for that research; it is not optional.

Step 1: concept, market research and the location

We will not spend three pages here, but two points deserve to be hammered.

The location cannot be fixed later. A lease can be renegotiated, a menu can change, a location stays. Before signing, walk past the space at different hours: foot traffic at lunch, atmosphere at night, competing options on the block. A street dense with restaurants is not necessarily bad, it proves there is traffic; a street that is dead at 8 pm is.

Verify the space before the lease, not after. Three deal-breakers to check:

• zoning allows restaurant use at that address (ask the city planning department; a change of use can trigger a long approval process);
• kitchen ventilation is feasible: installing a hood and duct in an older building can require landlord and even neighbor approval, and it is the single most common project killer;
• the lease explicitly permits food service, your hours, and any patio plans.

A tired space with an existing commercial hood and grease trap is often a better deal than a beautifully renovated retail space with neither.

Step 2: the budget, without fantasy numbers

You will find plenty of blog posts quoting an "average cost to open a restaurant". Treat them with suspicion: the range between a small counter-service concept in a second-generation space and a full-service build-out in Manhattan is so wide that an average tells you almost nothing about your project.

What you can do is build the budget line by line, with an accountant, before you commit:

The most common fatal mistake is not overspending on the build-out, it is opening with no cash reserve. A restaurant takes months to reach cruising speed, and thin margins leave no room to absorb a slow start; our guide to restaurant profit margins shows why the buffer matters so much.

Step 3: form your business entity and get your EIN

Most restaurants with employees and significant investment are formed as an LLC or a corporation, which separates the business's liabilities from your personal assets. The choice between them (and the tax elections that come with it) belongs in a conversation with a CPA or an attorney, not in a blog post, ours included. Count that meeting in your startup budget; it pays for itself the first year.

The order matters:

1. Form the entity with your state (articles of organization or incorporation, filed with the secretary of state).
2. Then get your EIN from the IRS. The Employer Identification Number is your federal tax ID; you need it to hire employees, open a business bank account and file taxes. Applying is free, online, directly with the IRS, and the number is issued immediately. The IRS itself warns against websites that charge for an EIN: never pay for one. The IRS also notes you should form the entity through your state first, otherwise the application can be delayed.

Do this early: everything cascades from it. Without the EIN, no business bank account, no payroll provider, no insurance policy in the company's name, no supplier accounts.

Step 4: state and local business licenses, and sales tax

The general business license

Depending on your state and city, you may need a state business registration, a city business license, or both. These are usually cheap and fast, but some cities take weeks to process, so file as soon as the entity exists.

The sales tax permit

Prepared food is subject to sales tax in most jurisdictions, and rules (rates, what counts as prepared food, local add-ons) vary by state and sometimes by city. Register for a sales tax permit with your state's department of revenue before you sell your first meal, and let your POS apply the correct rate from day one. Selling without the permit is the kind of mistake that turns into penalties.

Step 5: health permits, inspections and food safety certification

This is the county's territory, and it is the permit that actually lets you serve food.

The health permit. Your county (or city) health department reviews your plans, permits your kitchen and inspects it before opening, then keeps inspecting it for as long as you operate. Most jurisdictions require a plan review BEFORE construction: submitting your kitchen layout after the build-out is finished is a classic and expensive mistake, because the inspector can require changes to work you already paid for.

Food safety rules. Your local code is almost always an adaptation of the FDA Food Code. Since the 2017 edition, the model code requires the person in charge of the establishment to be a Certified Food Protection Manager who passed an exam from an accredited certification program (Section 2-102.12); ServSafe Manager is the best-known of the ANSI/ANAB-accredited options. Whether your jurisdiction enforces exactly this rule depends on its adopted version, but planning for at least one certified manager on staff is the safe default everywhere.

Food handler cards. On top of the manager-level certification, your state or county may require every food employee to complete an accredited food handler course within a set time after hire. Check the health department's page; the courses are short and inexpensive.

If your concept includes allergen-sensitive service, also check your state's allergen disclosure rules before you print the first menu: several states add training or labeling obligations on top of the Food Code baseline.

Step 6: the liquor license, the step that can reshape your whole budget

Alcohol is regulated state by state, and the differences are enormous. Three honest facts to anchor your planning:

Fact 1: the license type depends on what you pour. Most states distinguish beer-and-wine licenses from full-liquor licenses. In California, for example, a restaurant serving only beer and wine needs a Type 41 (On-Sale Beer and Wine, Eating Place) while cocktails require a Type 47 (On-Sale General, Eating Place); both require operating a "bona fide eating place" with real meal sales, per the California ABC license type definitions. If your concept works with beer and wine only, the simpler license can save you a fortune and months of delay.

Fact 2: in some states, licenses are capped, and scarcity sets the price. California caps on-sale general licenses at one per 2,000 county inhabitants (Business and Professions Code section 23816). Where the cap is reached, a new restaurant typically has to buy an existing license on the secondary market or go through a priority drawing, and market prices vary enormously by county and by year. Other quota states work on the same logic. We will not quote a "typical price" here because there is none: get the real number for your county from a license broker or the state agency before you finalize the budget, not after.

Fact 3: the timeline is measured in months. Between application, background checks, posting requirements and local sign-off, alcohol licensing is routinely the slowest permit in the whole project. Start it as soon as you have a signed lease.

And if the numbers do not work, remember that plenty of successful restaurants open with beer and wine only, or fully dry, and add the full bar later.

Step 7: employees, tipped wages and workers' comp

Hiring turns on three administrative switches:

• Payroll and employment taxes. With your EIN in hand, register with your state for employment taxes and unemployment insurance; the SBA's hiring guide lists the obligations and points to each state's tax authority.
• Workers' compensation insurance. Per the same SBA guide, workers' comp is required, through a commercial carrier, self-insurance or a state program, with the exact rules set by each state. Restaurants have real injury exposure (burns, cuts, slips), so this is not a formality.
• Tipped wages. Under federal law, an employer may pay a tipped employee a direct cash wage of $2.13 per hour if that amount plus tips reaches at least the federal minimum wage, and must make up any shortfall, as stated in the Department of Labor's FLSA guidance. Critically, many states set a higher required cash wage or do not allow a tip credit at all, and state law wins when it is more protective. Check your state labor department before you write a single job offer, and decide your tipping and service-charge policy early: it shapes your menu pricing.

Step 8: build-out, ADA, certificate of occupancy and insurance

Building permits and the certificate of occupancy. Any significant construction goes through the city building department: permits, inspections and, at the end, a certificate of occupancy (or equivalent) stating the space is safe for restaurant use. The fire marshal will also weigh in on capacity, exits and suppression systems in the hood. No certificate, no opening night, so sequence the work with your contractor around inspection lead times.

ADA accessibility. Restaurants are public accommodations under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which means providing people with disabilities equal access: entrance, path of travel, seating, restrooms. If you are doing a build-out anyway, designing accessible from the start is dramatically cheaper than retrofitting after a complaint.

Insurance. The core package is general liability plus property coverage, workers' comp (see step 7), and liquor liability if you serve alcohol, which some states and many landlords require. Add business interruption coverage: a kitchen fire that closes you for six weeks should not end the business.

The timeline: from month 9 to opening day

Every project moves at its own pace, especially depending on construction, but this is the backbone of an opening that does not slip.

The logic of the whole schedule: front-load everything with an incompressible delay (funding, permits, liquor license, inspections) and keep the fine-tuning (playlist, paint color, plateware) for the end. It is always the forgotten permit that delays an opening, never the color of the banquettes.

Day-one tools: your restaurant must exist online before it opens

Here is the chapter the administrative checklists skip, and it decides your first weeks of revenue. A restaurant that opens with an empty dining room and zero online visibility starts with a handicap that even great food takes months to overcome.

Create your Google Business Profile before opening, not after. It is the first place future guests will look for you ("restaurant + your neighborhood"), and profile verification can take time. A complete profile with photos, hours and an opening date makes you visible on Google Maps from day one; our guide to setting up a Google Business Profile for your restaurant walks through every step.

Open online reservations two or three weeks before opening day. This is the most underrated lever of a successful launch: announcing "reservations open" ahead of time turns neighborhood curiosity into confirmed covers for the first week, your team can anticipate volumes, and every passerby who checks you out at night can book instead of forgetting.

This is exactly the moment the free plan of ViteUneTable exists for: in an opening budget where every dollar is fighting for its life, your online reservation system costs 0, with no commission per cover and no commitment. You create the account, set up your services and tables, and share the booking link on your Google profile, website and social accounts; confirmation emails to guests are included on the free plan. Let's be honest: at launch you do not need advanced features like automatic email reminders or credit card holds against no-shows, the free plan is enough, and you can move to the Standard pack (€29 excl. VAT per month) or add anti no-show protection (€49 excl. VAT per month) when volume justifies it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to open a restaurant in the US?

There is no universal number: the cost depends on the market, the condition of the space (building a kitchen from scratch costs incomparably more than taking over an equipped one), the concept and the liquor license situation in your county. The sound method is a line-by-line forecast built with a CPA, including deposits, build-out, equipment, licenses, opening inventory and, above all, several months of working capital.

What licenses do you need to open a restaurant?

The usual stack is: a registered business entity with an EIN, state and possibly city business licenses, a sales tax permit from the state, a health permit from the county or city health department (with plan review and inspection), food safety certifications, a certificate of occupancy after the build-out, and a liquor license if you serve alcohol. The exact list and the fees depend on your state, county and city.

How long does it take to open a restaurant?

Plan on roughly 6 to 12 months from decision to opening, longer if you are doing a full conversion of a non-restaurant space or waiting on a liquor license in a capped market. The incompressible delays to respect: health department plan review before construction, the liquor license application, building inspections and the certificate of occupancy.

Can you open a restaurant without a liquor license?

Yes. No license is needed if you serve no alcohol, and in most states a beer-and-wine license is far cheaper and faster to get than a full liquor license (in California, that is the Type 41 versus Type 47 distinction). Many restaurants open with beer and wine only, prove the concept, then invest in the full license later.

Do I need a food safety certification to open?

Almost certainly at the manager level: the FDA Food Code model, which most jurisdictions adapt, requires the person in charge to be a Certified Food Protection Manager who passed an accredited exam. Many states and counties additionally require food handler cards for all employees. Check your local health department's page for the exact rules that apply to you.

When should online reservations open?

Two or three weeks before opening day, at the same time as you announce the date on your Google Business Profile and social accounts. That way you open with covers already booked instead of relying on walk-ins. With the free plan of ViteUneTable, setting it up costs nothing, so do it early and arrive at opening day with a book that has already started to fill.