Restaurant & Bar

Martinkovic Milford Architects will creatively assess every aspect of your restaurant space, both front and back of house. We listen carefully to your vision for the look, feel and function of the restaurant. The end result will be a design that delights your guests and facilitates ease of operation.

Additionally, we know that opening ASAP is probably one of your biggest concerns. Our extensive experience will help ensure that design, permitting, and construction will go as smoothly and quickly as possible. We are experts in building, planning and health codes, and we've developed approaches for streamlining the process.

Costs vary greatly depending on the existing condition of your space and the complexity of the project. Renovating an existing restaurant is often the quickest and least expensive way to get your doors open. We typically see costs for light remodeling come in at about $50-100 per square foot.

For a new restaurant build out in an existing building, front-of-house spaces like dining room, bars, and lounges typically cost $200 to $300 per square foot. Expect kitchen costs to run between $350 and $450 per square foot. Costs may decrease with larger projects due to an advantageous economy of scale.

Coming up with a definitive timeline depends on many different factors, not the least of which is the size and ambition of your restaurant. Good restaurant design takes anywhere from 2 to 4 months to complete and construction can take another 2 to 4 months. The real wildcard is permitting. With some advance planning and smart thinking, we can phase design work to greatly reduce permitting time. We have been able to achieve permit approvals in days, as opposed to months, on past projects.

For a restaurant rollout, Martinkovic Milford Architects will establish design standards for a prototypical restaurant, determining your spatial requirements and getting the look and feel just right. Based on the prototype, we will prepare construction documents for each location, and will coordinate necessary permits. Additionally, we can help streamline the design, bid, permit and construction process, and we can drive down the construction costs by leveraging economies of scale.

It's up to you! We are happy to include green building materials and energy-efficient fixtures into any design-these kinds of initiatives are part of our basic fee and will not substantially increase construction costs. A more ambitious approach, such as aiming for LEED certification, will require additional architectural fees and construction costs. When contemplating the costs and benefits of eco-friendly design, remember that sustainable restaurant design will ultimately save you significant utility costs and will greatly enhance the dining experience.

There are four sequential phases of design. In pre-design, we define the project's scope and gather all relevant information. Schematic design is when we tackle the overall layout of the space, and in design development we focus on the details, including the finishes and fixtures. The final product is the construction documents, which is essentially the instruction book for building the restaurant. It also contains the documentation necessary for acquiring the building and health department permits, and describes any another special instructions to the contractor.

Bring us in early. Ideally, we will visit your space before the lease is signed. That way we can alert to you any capital-intensive upgrades you weren't expecting but that will be required by code. This may include accessibility improvements, exiting requirements and seismic protection. An early preview also gives us a jump on the necessary research, such as permitting, schedule, and storage, delivery, and cooking needs.

Explore the option of moving into existing restaurant space. If the expensive ventilation and utility infrastructure is already in place, you could save a lot of cost. Even if we need to upgrade the systems, portions of the existing systems may be reused.

Contingency, contingency, contingency. Plan for surprises, they always occur. Set aside a healthy construction contingency - we typically recommend about 10% of the construction budget. Also maintain a schedule contingency - we suggest 10% and at least 2 weeks.

It's simple - give us a call. We're eager to hear about your project. We can discuss design, fees, budget and schedule. If it seems as though Martinkovic Milford Architects is a good fit for you, we will then submit a formal proposal for the work.