How to Start a Farm-to-Table Restaurant in 15 Steps

Restaurant owners and investors often consider the idea of opening a farm-to-table restaurant. But what’s in an ideal menu for this type of eatery? Realistically, it can be quite difficult to accomplish without ample funding and good resources. Because of these obstacles, most restaurants fail before ever launching their first dish – but not all hope is lost! This guide will help you discover how to start your own farm-to-table restaurant from scratch.

The “farm-to-table process” is how a farm-to-table restaurant starts. The steps are as follows: find and lease land, build the restaurant, get financing, choose suppliers, open the doors, decide on menu items, hire staff members and create a marketing plan. Read more in detail here: farm to table process.

Farm-to-table restaurants rely on strong ties with local farmers to run their businesses, so restaurant owners will need to set aside more time to discover suppliers and develop robust supply chains. Farm-to-table restaurants are distinguished from restaurants that depend on a few major suppliers by their capacity to maintain a continual supply of fresh, local foods.

The Workings of Farm-to-Table Restaurants

Farm-to-table is a dietary concept that emphasizes the taste and nutritional benefits of locally produced fresh foods. Creating a consistent supply chain may need more effort on the part of restaurant owners, but it may be well worth the effort. According to a recent Nielsen poll, 51 percent of customers prefer to eat locally while eating out. Most farm-to-table restaurants purchase meats, vegetables, and dairy products from within a 50- to 200-mile radius of the restaurant.

Starting a Farm-to-Table Restaurant: A Step-by-Step Guide

Starting a farm-to-table restaurant from the ground up is more difficult than converting an established restaurant to a farm-to-table concept. However, compared to a restaurant that depends on traditional suppliers, starting this kind of restaurant needs just a few distinct tactics. The time spent studying farms and cultivating vendor connections will be the most noticeable change for restaurant owners.

Many farm-to-table restaurant operators start looking for agricultural partners a year before they expect to launch. Due of the time constraints, studying and contacting farmers will most likely be an activity you do in the background while completing the next tasks below.

Starting your hunt for a farm early assures that your restaurant is ready for harvest. Pexels photo courtesy of Joo Jesus

1. Give Your Restaurant a Name

The first thing you’ll need for your restaurant is a name that accurately portrays your idea and service approach. A fine dining farm-to-table restaurant and a casual grab-and-go café will have distinct characters, which should be reflected in their titles. The Lost Kitchen, for example, is a gourmet dining farm-to-table restaurant in rural Maine. Dig Inn, on the other hand, is a quick casual farm-to-table cuisine in the Northeast. The titles quickly convey the ambience that consumers may anticipate from each location.

Because you’ll be spending a lot of time marketing your idea to prospective farm partners, using a name that inspires you and reminds you of your objective is a fantastic idea. Once you’ve decided on a name, check to see whether the website domain name is accessible on a site like GoDaddy. You should also use social media to promote your business. If you’re having trouble coming up with a name, try using our Restaurant Name Generator to spark some ideas.

2. Look for a restaurant that is in a good location.

Farm-to-table restaurants, unlike traditional concepts, must consider accessibility to local farmers while picking a site. This might entail being near to a major highway in a suburban neighborhood. In cities, this may include having access to a loading dock, being near a popular farmers market, or being in a business corridor that is not disturbed by early morning deliveries. Danny Meyer’s landmark Union Square Cafe exemplifies all of these characteristics.

Another factor to consider while picking a place is demographics. Diners of the Millennial and Gen X generations put a higher value on the sources of the food they buy than earlier generations. As a result, a farm-to-table concept would thrive in a community with a high concentration of young professionals. Later stages of the launching process will benefit from having a profile of probable consumers who reside near your business.

When researching sites, keep in mind that establishing a business based on locally produced foods might result in greater food expenses than those based on conventionally cultivated goods. You can save money on building expenditures if you choose a property that already has a commercial kitchen.

A farm-to-table restaurant would be well-suited to a position near a farmers market. Pexels photo by Mark Dalton.

3. Evaluate the Competition in Farm-to-Table Restaurants

Consider what other surrounding companies will complement or compete with your restaurant as part of starting a restaurant and choosing your perfect site. A bustling farmers market within a block of your restaurant might provide supplies as well as attract locavore guests to the area. However, if it provides a wide range of prepared take-away meals, this market may become a rival.

Being near other food service outlets is not necessarily a negative thing in the restaurant sector. A “restaurant row” is a length of roadway or an area of a neighborhood recognized for having a large number of restaurants in many places. When considering sites with a high density of food service companies, the quantity of consumer traffic in the neighborhood should be your primary consideration. If the block is a high-traffic area, a densely packed neighborhood with multiple eateries might be a wonderful site for a new restaurant.

Consider your target client while evaluating your competitors. Consider their age, financial level, and the cuisine or subjects that they are passionate about. Consider whether restaurants in the area already cater to that consumer. Take careful note of how those businesses function, their pricing point, the menu items they provide, what they seem to excel at, and where they have room for improvement.

Then think about the market niche that your company will occupy. What decisions did you make to set your restaurant distinct from the competitors in the area? This data will help you acquire a better understanding of your firm, and much of it will be useful when writing your business plan.

4. Create a menu for a farm-to-table restaurant

At its core, the farm-to-table idea is about authenticity. A farm-to-table restaurant’s majority of food should originate from a local source, rather than only showing the origins of a few. The ethos of farm-to-table is not just planting a menu with a few local foods. Customers who are prepared to pay greater costs for local items are unlikely to support this method.

To appeal to this demographic, your farm-to-table menu should include a majority of items sourced locally. It’s advisable to start by doing some research to see what kinds of foods grow well in the restaurant’s area. Local farm organizations are typically glad to assist and may have a wealth of internet information. The Southland Farmers’ Market Association in California, for example, produces a seasonal reference to the fruits and vegetables of southern California on their website.

The Southland Farmers’ Market Association’s list of in-season fruits and vegetables is a wonderful resource for area eateries.

A simple online search for “fruits in season” or “vegetables in season” along with your area is a wonderful place to start. Restaurant owners may get a good understanding of what area farms are already farming by contacting Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) firms or chatting to sellers at local farmers markets.

It’s a good idea to think about your menu alongside your predicted client volume once you’ve written a menu using local items. Consider how much of each dish you anticipate selling on a weekly basis. Then figure out how much of each item you’ll need to maintain that level of business. This will set you up for success in the following stage if you do it now.

5. Locate Farm-to-Table Restaurant Vendors

Crops take a long time to mature. It’s possible that a plant you wish to consume in September was planted months ago. As a result, many farm-to-table restaurant owners start seeking suppliers a year in advance of their opening date.

Buying directly from local farmers and growing your own vegetables are the two major techniques for acquiring farm-to-table products. Many eateries offer a combination of the two. In the end, whatever technique you pick, you’ll incorporate the costs and advantages in your company plan.

Locating Farmers’ Markets

When you created your menu, you should have already established some broad links to your local farm sector. If you’re just getting started, one of the greatest ways to get in touch with farmers is to go to farmers markets or agricultural events in person. Getting basic information on farms in your area that deal directly with restaurants may also be obtained by contacting your state farm bureau.

Set up meetings with local farmers or agricultural organizations with your projected inventory list in hand, and inquire whether their activities can fulfill your demands. You’ll need to figure out whether they cultivate the things you need, if they can offer them in the quantities you need, and how they’ll get them to you.

The majority of farmers that directly feed restaurants follow a similar practice. They give a list of the fresh items that will be available once or twice a week. They intend to accept orders for these things until a particular deadline, after which they will deliver the items on a certain day. When it comes to smaller farms, the farmer or a member of his family is generally the one who writes the new sheet, receives the orders, and delivers the goods.

Foragers and Restaurant Supported Agriculture (RSA) organizations are examples of non-farm local food sellers. Foragers are people who have a thorough understanding of plants and can identify and gather edible wild plants. They’re excellent sources for mushrooms, wild ramps, and wild ginger, among other things. Farm cooperatives known as RSAs combine their crops in order to sell to restaurants. This sort of organization typically has a small number of restaurant members whose membership dues assist pay the expenses of planting and maintaining crops.

While treating all vendors with the same respect you show your customers is usually a good idea, it’s especially crucial when dealing with local agricultural suppliers and foragers. These companies usually collaborate with restaurants because they have a personal objective. If your business is chaotic, late with payments, or otherwise difficult to satisfy, they may simply sell their harvests to food manufacturers or competitor restaurants.

Produce You Can Grow Yourself

Many eateries grow some of their own plants. This may range from a few potted herbs behind the bar to a full-fledged farm, such as Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barn. Farm-and-table may be a term used by some of these large-scale enterprises.

You may guarantee that you always have the products you need by growing part of your own vegetables. Even tiny city eateries may produce food inside using rooftop areas or hydroponic systems. Hydroponics is a way of growing plants in a nutrient-rich water-based solution rather than in soil. These systems enable you to grow crops all year and produce a significant quantity of goods in a short area.

Farmshelf’s hydroponic technology enables restaurants of any size to grow food outside of season.

Before starting with a design, restaurant owners should verify building regulations, health ordinances, and local nuisance rules (you’d be amazed what some neighbors would label an eyesore). If you want to build a rooftop garden, you’ll need to hire an architect to guarantee that the area can support the weight of water and growth media while also allowing for efficient drainage.

6. Recruit a Management Team

A new farm-to-table restaurant’s management staff should ideally have some expertise with the concept. Due to the great amount of menu flexibility, continuously changing culinary information, and detailed detail that orders may demand, real enthusiasm might be more beneficial than expertise in this scenario.

Owners should search for managers that are good at educating workers and have a strategy for efficiently presenting information on the fly in the front of the house (FOH). Kitchen supervisors at the back of the house (BOH) should be familiar with typical ingredient replacements and keen to experiment with new recipes on a regular basis.

Individuals with expertise may be found on industry-specific job posting sites, such as Good Food Jobs, which is particularly useful for finding FOH and BOH staff that shares the local dining ethos. Good Food Jobs charges $60 for a single ad, but it also provides packages that include up to 30 vacant opportunities.

7. Projections for Farm-to-Table Restaurants

A farm-to-table operation’s restaurant metrics differ differently from those of a traditional restaurant. The cost of target foods varies from month to month. When you purchase a surplus of fruit in the summer to preserve and serve in the leaner winter months, for example, your food prices will be greater in the summer but cheaper in the winter. Restaurants that opt to grow their own produce will incur labor expenses to care for the plants, as well as extra equipment or Construction expenditures to get the crop up and running.

Farm-to-table restaurant proprietors should set aside time before launching to evaluate their operating expenses and forecast sales. The estimated client count, revenue, food cost, labor cost, and break-even point are all important factors.

Customer Count Estimates

To figure your Customer Count Estimates, divide the number of hours your restaurant is in service by the average amount of time a customer will spend there, commonly called the turn time. Then multiply the result by the number of available seats. So, a restaurant that is open eight hours a day, with a 90-minute turn time and 30 seats would project 160 daily customers, or (480/90) x 30 = 160.

Estimated Sales

The Estimated Sales number illustrates how much money projected customers are likely to spend based on your menu and menu prices. It is a good idea to figure each day of the week individually as some days may be busier than others, then combine them to expand to weekly, monthly, and annual projections.

Food Costs Expected

Food Costs Expected shows how much money you expect to spend on ingredients as a percentage of your total food sales. The costs should be calculated from the actual ingredient prices that suppliers quote you. Conventional restaurants generally target a food cost of no more than 30%. For farm-to-table restaurants, this may creep up to 35%.

Labor Costs Estimated

To calculate Labor Costs Estimateds, combine all the salaries of your management team as well as the money you expect to pay hourly staff. For accuracy you should also add an additional 30% to account for payroll taxes and workers’ comp insurance. Conventional restaurants target a labor cost of 20% to 30% of their total sales. Considering the potential higher food costs for a farm-to-table model, you should aim to keep labor down as much as possible.

Break-Even Point Assumed

This is the most dynamic number in the set; it essentially predicts how much your restaurant must sell before it becomes profitable. To figure your break-even point, you need your total expenses (rent, utilities, and equipment purchases), total projected costs, total projected labor, and total Estimated Sales.

Subtract your overall expenditures and labor from your whole sales first. Divide the result by the total number of sales. Then divide the result by the entire amount spent.

Total Expenses / [(Total Sales – Total Costs – Total Labor) / Total Sales] Total Expenses / [(Total Sales – Total Costs – Total Labor) / Total Sales] = Point of No Return

If your total Estimated Sales for the year are $1 million, and you project to pay $300,000 in food and labor, and $320,000 in expenses, your break-even point is $842,105.26, or:

$1,000,000 / $320,000 / [($1,000,000 – $300,000 – $320,000)] = $842,105.26 $$$$$$$

Compare this number to your monthly Estimated Sales to determine a ballpark of how long it will take your restaurant to start showing profit. For example, if you expect to sell $85,000 per month, you are predicting to break-even about 10 months into your operation.

8. Come up with a business plan

Now is the time to assemble all of the information you’ve obtained so far and present it in a way that investors and banks will be interested in investing in your restaurant. A business plan is a statement of your restaurant’s goals and objectives. To pitch investors and qualify for business financing, you’ll need a business plan. Farm-to-table restaurants, in particular, should highlight their strategy for maximizing their farmer partnerships and seasonal items in their business plans.

A restaurant business plan should include the following elements:

• Summary of findings: This is a one-page overview of your company. It should be a brief read that covers all of the following areas. A few lines of delicious language or evocative agricultural photos may set the tone for the remainder of your pitch.
• This is a list of basic information such as your name, the name of your company, the business address, phone number, email address, website, and social media handles if you have any. You should also provide the hours of operation that you want to operate here.
• Description of Your Concept: This is where you may persuade investors to invest in your idea. Describe your cuisine, drinks, and service manner in great detail to entice them. Include any drawings of the final facility, as well as images and profiles of your farm partners.
• Sample Menu: You don’t have to use the sample menu as your final menu; it’s natural that the menu will change before you open. This example meal is a chance to whet the appetites of prospective investors while demonstrating your creative use of seasonal foods. Here, photos of completed food may make a big difference.
• Include the street address and lease details in your company plan if you have discovered your ideal site. You may, however, continue ahead with your chosen area and a list of presently available spaces that fit your criteria and price in some extremely competitive markets.
• Describe your management hierarchy in your operational plan. Include profiles for yourself and any existing major collaborators or workers, such as a chef, general manager, or head bartender. This is also the spot to show off your whole list of farm merchants and talk about how you’ll display their goods.
• Market analysis: A thorough description of your target client and market should be included in your market study. It should also contain a description of your possible rivals as well as the benefits that might provide your company a competitive advantage.
• Financial Analysis: This portion of the business plan includes your Estimated Sales, profits and losses, startup costs, and operational costs. This is where you show potential investors that you have done the math and prove that your restaurant can be profitable. This section should definitely include a break-even analysis that predicts the date when your business has recouped startup costs and begun to turn a profit.

Most restaurant owners depend on collaborators such as chefs, CPAs, and front-of-house management for guidance and help. Easy-to-use templates for generating a business plan are available in software like LivePlan. The website asks you questions and then utilizes the information you provide to produce a professional-looking plan, which includes putting income and spending estimates into charts and graphs. You may also get a free template from our guide on drafting a restaurant business plan.

9. Look for funding

Small restaurant entrepreneurs who mortgaged their homes and maxed up their credit cards to get their restaurants off the ground abound in the restaurant sector. Though many restaurant operators start with personal finances, they commonly add outside capital from investors and small business loans. Now that you have your business plan in hand, it’s time to start raising funds.

Consult your friends and family.

Friends and relatives are often the first individuals that small restaurant owners seek for funding. While no one wants to consider the possibility of their company failing before it even gets off the ground, it is prudent to consider if a relationship will survive if a friend or family fails to see a return on their investment and cannot afford to live without it for two years.

Some small company owners may decide that maintaining a connection with someone is more important than a prospective financial investment. A crowdfunding campaign for the purchase of a single piece of pricey equipment, such as a hydroponic system or irrigation for a rooftop garden, might be a fantastic outlet for their well wishes if you want to offer friends and family a chance to feel engaged in your endeavor.

Pitch your restaurant to a group of private investors.

Restaurants contribute to the vitality and activity of a neighborhood or community. As a consequence, many restaurants discover that other local company owners or entrepreneurs are interested in investing in them. Restaurants may have a number of different investors who each put in a different amount of money. Dining discounts and the ability to always secure a seat at a popular restaurant on a busy night are common rewards of such investments.

It is a good idea to hire a lawyer who is experienced with the restaurant sector when reaching out to independent investors. These experts can assist you in determining the parameters of an investment and ensuring that they are a suitable match for your company.

Obtain a Small Business Loan or Credit Line

Most small restaurant entrepreneurs seek small business loans even after raising some capital from family, friends, and investors. Private lender loans and loans from the Small Business Administration might take weeks or months to complete. A clever small restaurant owner will apply for these funding three to six months before to their anticipated opening date.

A small company loan often has a lower interest rate than a line of credit for the same amount of money. The interest clock on a line of credit, on the other hand, doesn’t start ticking until you use it, and then just on the part you use. If you have a $100,000 line of credit but only use $20,000, you will only be charged interest on the $20,000 you spent. In contrast, regardless matter how much of a $100,000 loan you have utilized, the interest will accrue.

10. Design & Construct Your Restaurant Layout

When it comes to planning a floor plan, a farm-to-table restaurant confronts the same issues as any other restaurant, such as conforming to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as building and health requirements, while providing for sufficient ventilation of cooking and refrigeration equipment. Most restaurants allocate 60% of their floor space to the dining room, or front of house (FOH), and 40% to the kitchen, or back of house (BOH) (BOH).

The layout of your restaurant will give it character. Pexels photo by Marcus Herzberg

Layout for Front of House

The more seats in your dining room you have, the more clients you can serve at once. Every table and seat has the potential to be a paying client. However, although you want to make the most of this area, you should keep your visitors’ comfort and service demands in mind.

In general, allow a little more than 4 feet per table, including chair space, and provide at least an 18-inch wide walkway between occupied seats. This provides for a smooth flow of foot traffic between tables while also providing a clear aisle in the event of a fire or earthquake.

It’s also a good idea to think about the table’s form. Round tables are warm and welcoming, and they’re ideal for family meals. They are also the simplest to get into and out of in the corners of a room. Square tables, on the other hand, may be pulled together more readily to accommodate big gatherings. To make the most of their area, most restaurant floor designs have a combination of square and round tables.

If your restaurant produces its own vegetables, put it on display in the dining area for visitors to enjoy. A green wall is a common addition to hydroponically grown lettuces and plants. Green walls are especially useful in restaurants in city centers since the plants function as natural air filters.

Produce planted in raised beds and window boxes may form a promenade around the front door, creating a welcoming ambience for your visitors. If space permits, potted ferns and tiny trees may also be used as room separators for patios or even inside dining rooms.

For farm-to-table restaurants, using plants as screens and room separators is a brilliant design concept.

Layout of the BOH

You must consider the demands of your equipment and employees in addition to your eating space. In your area, you’ll need an administrative office where managers may use a back-office computer to place orders or count and save cash. Your ovens, stoves, freezers, and icemakers will all require space to exhaust heat in the kitchen. Floor drains will be required for ice machines, freezers, and sinks.

Pre-existing water lines, electrical wiring, and certain Construction codes may limit or restrict the location of some equipment; for example, wood-burning ovens may be prohibited in heavily populated regions. Remember to incorporate storage places, toilets, staff hand-wash sinks, fire exits, and ADA-compliant doors, corridors, bathrooms, and bar tops.

Because you’ll be washing and processing a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, you’ll need a lot of room. A huge produce washing sink, as well as a long stainless steel countertop or prep table, are excellent additions. Having a designated area for receiving vegetables helps you to catch any pests that may have made their way from the farm to your restaurant.

Construction

Construction is a necessary part of opening a new restaurant. If you’ve decided to open a restaurant in a prior restaurant location, you may simply need to make small changes like replacing Decorative lighting and painting the walls. In a raw area, you’ll need to hire a contractor and maybe an architect, depending on how much existing structures need to be changed.

The fewer items you alter, the less money you’ll spend. The less changes you make, the faster your building project will be. If you’re on a restricted budget, keep in mind that you may always alter your area when your business starts to make money.

11. Obtain Permits & Licenses

Any new restaurant must register with the state where it is located. The processes and costs will vary by state and are dependent on the sort of company you’re starting. Some jurisdictions require firms to pay a single yearly flat fee, while others charge a percentage of sales as a fee. A simple internet search for “Business License” and the state in which you operate will lead you to the appropriate.gov homepage for your state.

It’s a good idea to start looking into this as soon as possible, since obtaining a business license in certain states might take several weeks. Costs might range anywhere from $200 to $1,200. You will also need to secure the following basic business licenses in addition to the state-issued business license:

• The Internal Revenue Service issues an Employer Identification Number (EIN), which may be obtained online. Obtaining an EIN is free of charge.
• Certificate of Occupancy: The procedure for obtaining a certificate of occupancy from a local building authority differs depending on where you are. Search online for “Certificate of Occupancy” together with your city and state to find information for your region. These are usually approximately $100.
• Resale Authorization: This state-issued permit allows your company to acquire things that may be resold without paying sales tax. The average cost is less than $50.
• Seller’s Permit: A seller’s permit recognizes your company as a tax collector for the state; this state-issued permit is usually free. Most states, on the other hand, demand a security deposit to guarantee that sales taxes are paid in the event that a firm shuts abruptly.
• Sign Permit: Most local governments have requirements for the size of any signage displayed outside of restaurants. The price ranges from $20 to $50.

Health and sanitation licenses are also required. Many localities demand permits for dumpsters and grease traps in addition to licensing from the local health department to enforce health rules. Grease traps are a kind of plumbing appliance that collects wastewater from food preparation in order to prevent grease and oil from clogging municipal sewage systems. Various local health and sanitation interests grant these licenses:

• Food Service Permits: The cost of these health department-issued licenses varies depending on the size of your business, but it normally runs between $100 and $1000. The Health Department must check your restaurant in person before final clearance to confirm that you are following local health regulations.
• One form of health permit protects your structure, while the other covers the personnel who handle the food. In certain areas, every employee who works with food must have their own Food Handlers Certification. The cost varies between $100 and $500; your local health agency will have a list of criteria in your region.
• Dumpster Permission: This permit is provided by municipal sanitation bureaus; prices vary by city and are based on dumpster size.
• Grease Trap Permit: Grease trap permits are normally given by municipal water or sewerage boards and cost roughly $100. Before obtaining a permit, a plumbing inspector may need to approve the size of your grease trap.

Grease traps are required in commercial kitchens to collect grease and oils.

Many restaurants will additionally need licenses to cover extra restaurant services in addition to the standard permits and licenses.

• Liquor licenses are issued by state liquor control boards or alcohol beverage commissions (ABC). Depending on whether you want to offer wine, beer, or liquor, costs might range from $10,000 to $400,000.
• Cabaret License: Cabaret licenses are required in certain cities for establishments that provide live dancing and/or live music (including karaoke). The cost of issuing bodies varies by area (in Los Angeles, they are provided by the police department), and they normally involve submitting a complete set of fingerprints of the company owner.

There are extra licensing requirements in certain cities. If you want to run a bar during a catered event, you may require an extra “off-site” liquor license. Additional licensing requirements may be discovered on the websites of your local state, municipal, or county governments, just as they can be found on the websites of numerous of the licenses listed above.

12. Purchase Fixtures, Furniture & Equipment (FF&E)

For a restaurant that depends on local goods, the greater cost of procuring local foods coupled with the additional labor expenses of preparing entire items might result in slim profit margins. Smart business owners will use lower-cost furnishings, fixtures, and equipment to offset some of the higher expenditures.

Smallwares such as silverware, glasses, and plates may also be purchased at this time. Farm-to-table restaurants might have a cozy ambiance with mismatched table sets. Purchase assorted packs of plates and serving pieces from restaurant supply companies, vintage shops, or Etsy sellers to save money.

Tables, chairs, and other furnishings are just what you’d expect. Lighting, bars, and banquettes are examples of installed goods and built-in surfaces. All of the equipment required in the restaurant industry is included, including commercial ovens and Dishwashers, as well as a point of sale (POS) system.

Front of House FF&E and Smallwares

The dining room is where all the most visible FF&E items are located, so they may be the most familiar. Common FOH components include:

• Chairs and tables
• Decorative lighting
• a bar (if needed)
• Flatware
• Glassware
• Napkins and tablecloths (if using)
• POS (Point of Sale) System

Many of these things are available from a number of physical and online retailers. The majority of flatware and glassware manufacturers have showrooms in big cities and will deliver samples to restaurants farther afield. Exposed pipes and other industrial aspects are common in farm-to-table venues as well. Farm-to-table shelving units and lighting fixtures made of pipes and salvaged wood are common in farm-to-table locations and are quite affordable to construct.

The most crucial FOH equipment selection will be the point-of-sale system to utilize. These systems are more than just cash registers; they’re full-featured restaurant management platforms with a wide range of customization options. Restaurant owners should call POS sales representatives from multiple manufacturers to view the systems in operation and get tailored quotations in order to identify the best match. Because the systems have so many potential add-ons and modules, quoted pricing don’t offer restaurant owners a good indication of what they’ll pay in the end.

For farm-to-table eateries, Square for restaurants is a cost-effective alternative.

Because prices may vary greatly, it may be a good idea to start with a lower-cost POS system like Lavu or Square for Restaurants. Square for Restaurants is an especially ideal match since it works on iPads and only costs $60 per month for a single terminal. Additional terminals cost $40 apiece, and unlike other POS systems, Square for Restaurants does not demand a long-term commitment.

BOH FF&E and Smallwares

The kitchen houses most of the FF&E that deals with storing and cooking food as well as washing dishes. These are items that guests rarely see, but will be the workhorses of your operation. Kitchen FF&E and smallwares include items like:

• Oven and cooking range for commercial use
• Fryer (deep) (if needed)
• Freezers, refrigerators, and deep freezers are all types of freezers.
• Dishwasher
• Sink with three compartments
• Tables for steam and food preparation
• Containers for storing food
• Pans and pots
• Utensils for cooking
• Various sizes of baking sheets

Take a look around.

More locations now sell stoves, ovens, dishwashers, freezers, deep fryers, and grease traps than at any previous point in restaurant history. Check out websites like Web Restaurant Store and Katom Restaurant Supply to find local restaurant suppliers and compare rates. You could also think about renting cooking equipment.

You won’t be bitten by shipping costs no matter where you purchase. Renting a vehicle and picking up equipment from a local distribution center may save you money in certain situations. If you’re having the equipment delivered, double-check that everything is in working order before signing the delivery receipt.

Take into account second-hand equipment.

When you’re trying to save money, used equipment is an excellent choice. Bring a chef, manager, or handyman with you if you don’t know what you’re looking at when it comes to walk-in refrigerators or commercial dishwashers. Make that all of the electrical and gas connections are operating properly, as well as the circuits, compressors, and gaskets. Request to witness the equipment in operation if at all feasible.

Request assistance from vendors.

If you agree to promote their goods, most beverage companies will provide a soda machine. The coffee roaster may loan you an espresso machine if you are happy to provide a certain brand of coffee and don’t mind showing their branding in your restaurant.

When you’re enthusiastic with a vendor’s or supplier’s goods, let them know. Small suppliers and sales staff will almost always find a way to assist your restaurant display their items. If it means lending you equipment or assisting you in finding anything you need, they will usually go out of their way to assist you.

13. Hire & Train Line-Level Staff

On numerous of the same websites where you found managers, you can discover hourly personnel that are passionate about the farm-to-table principle. Choosing front-of-house personnel with a farm background is a fantastic choice if you have a casual restaurant or are able to instruct rookie serving staff on the finer details of carrying dishes and arranging tables. Those employees will arrive with food expertise that you would have to educate them otherwise.

Candidates with expertise dealing with local dishes are excellent in the kitchen. These items are often more mature when they arrive and have a shorter shelf life than those derived from traditional sources. It’s a good idea for you and your chefs to promote inventive ideas for utilizing every portion of the fruits, vegetables, and meats that come from local farmers if you’re educating inexperienced cooks.

Pesto may be made from carrot tops. Rich soup broths may be made from roasted bones and trimmings from onions, celery, and tomatoes. You’ll want to teach your culinary staff how to get the most out of these higher-priced local delicacies. This approach may come naturally to certain chefs, but it’s a terrific concept to establish across a restaurant with tight margins.

In a farm-to-table approach, chefs should be able to utilize every component of an item. Cottonbro contributed this photo to Pexels.

14. Advertise & Build Community

Your big opening is just around the corner now that your crew has been trained and your goods have been stocked. Set a day and time for your restaurant’s launch, and reach out to your neighborhood. Tell them who you are and what you have to give. For your local newspaper, look for local restaurant critics or writers. Look for local food bloggers on the internet. Patronize local companies and inform them of your upcoming opening.

Advertising on social media is a fantastic, low-cost method to reach out to local consumers. Spend a few dollars on a Facebook or Instagram ad. Request that your employees, neighbors, and agricultural partners spread the information to their networks. Because farming communities are sometimes as close-knit as restaurant communities, the chance to sample a neighbor’s—or their own—products is a significant draw.

15. Hold a soft launch

Take the time to arrange a soft opening before you open to the public. This is the time to invite family and friends to sample the cuisine, have a peek around the area, and engage with your staff. This is also a good moment to demonstrate your agricultural suppliers how you’ve highlighted their fantastic goods. Few things in life are more emotional than witnessing a farmer’s or forager’s face light up when they see their heirloom carrots or wild morels proudly displayed on a platter.

Most soft openings are “hosted” in some way, with the restaurant paying for all of the food and non-alcoholic drinks. A soft opening should be enjoyable and exciting for your visitors, but it is not intended to be a large celebration. A soft opening is the greatest way to ensure that everything you meticulously prepared will operate well before you open, for both personnel and owners.

A soft opening is a terrific method to put your restaurant’s systems to the test. Pexels photo courtesy of ELEVATE

Examine Your Systems

Create a strategy ahead of time for your soft opening to guarantee that all of your menu items are ordered many times during the service. You’ll be able to test the procedures in the kitchen, bar, and dining area as a result.

Some restaurants print menus with various items highlighted for each table and request that diners purchase those items (unless they have a dietary restriction or food allergy that prohibits this). With a model like this, your kitchen and dining room personnel may practice complete service by answering inquiries about several meals, ringing them into the POS, and seeing them plated.

Practice discussing the food and beverage options, as well as ringing goods into the POS, with your serving team. The kitchen crew should work from the POS tickets and take notes on any things that seem to be unclear or inaccurate. You and your management should check in with the different service regions on a regular basis and make real-time modifications as appropriate.

Organize your feedback

Before your visitors go, invite them to provide constructive comments on their time with you. Ask specific inquiries, such as, “Did you have a favorite or least favorite dish?” “Did you find the menu to be simple to comprehend?” “Did the menu seem to be reasonably priced?” Encourage your visitors to provide candid criticism, even if it means doing so anonymously.

Praise is nice to hear, but their honesty will help you optimize your organization the most. To promote honest feedback, prepare feedback sheets ahead of time or build a free Google Forms survey so you can collect comments in writing and refer to it afterwards.

Changing a Traditional Restaurant to a Farm-to-Table Restaurant

Converting a traditional restaurant to a farm-to-table one is a somewhat different procedure than starting from scratch. A converting restaurant should establish a new menu, study local food suppliers, and build new standard operating procedures (SOPs) for buying items, rather of writing a business plan or finding a new site. It may also be required to schedule time for staff training on new foods and culinary techniques.

Your Menu Should Be Updated

The first item of business is to alter the restaurant’s menu to reflect the seasonal availability of local delicacies. This may need a reduction in the menu’s overall size. It’s crucial to keep in mind that your objective is to concentrate your restaurant’s menu; a smaller menu does not imply a worse selection.

Updating your menu is the first step in rebranding your restaurant as farm-to-table. Pexels photo by Humphrey Muleba

Compare your new menu to your prior menu’s sales patterns when you’ve finished constructing it. Make forecasts for what you think will sell the most. Use these forecasts to create ingredient lists and calculate how much of each component you’ll need each week to maintain your current level of business.

Locate Vendors

Read on for tips on how to connect with farm-to-table providers in step five: Suppliers of Farm-to-Table Restaurants may be found here. Show them the inventory sheets you produced after you’ve found some dealer leads. Ask whether they can deliver the quantity of merchandise you’ll need on a weekly basis, and let them know how much inventory you’ll require.

You should also ask detailed questions regarding the vendor’s delivery method and how long it takes them to turn around an order at this time. For a local food supplier, a fully running restaurant with sales statistics to back up their sales estimates is clearly a less hazardous possibility. In this instance, you’re in a good position to inquire whether farmers will cultivate a certain item for your restaurant.

SOPs should be updated.

If your management staff is accustomed to dealing with mainline suppliers that can provide any product at any time of year, your menu may need them to adjust their mentality as well. During some seasons, local items may be restricted, and orders may have a lengthier turnaround time.

SOPs for placing orders will need to be rewritten, and recipes will need to be updated to include a list of seasonal replacements. A menu that changes more regularly will need a high degree of communication from the kitchen to the front of the house. You may need to start holding daily pre-shift meetings to communicate menu changes and new dishes if you don’t already.

Your Team Should Be Trained

All of these changes lead to the next step: training your employees. Make time for both the front-of-house and back-of-house personnel to master the new menu and SOPs. The majority of establishments do this by shutting for lunch. The kitchen crew prepares all of the new menu items at this time, and the whole restaurant team sits down to sample them and take remarks.

This is also a good opportunity for front-of-house and back-of-house personnel to learn about new foods and food preparation methods like pickling and preserving that may not have been on the previous menu. Bringing in one of your farm suppliers to speak about the goods and excite the staff with the new farm-to-table purpose is a terrific idea.

Over the course of a few weeks, you may need to arrange more hours with line and prep cooks in the BOH. Fresh ingredients are usually more ripe when they arrive and have a shorter shelf life than conventional produce. Fermentation, jam-making, and confiture training for your staff may help you prolong the shelf life of your products while also allowing you to take advantage of bumper harvests in the late spring and summer.

Organize a Soft Reopening

The final step before you debut your new concept to an adoring public is to Organize a Soft Reopening. This should be just like the soft opening you probably held before you opened your initial restaurant. Just like when you first opened your doors, a soft reopening will allow you and your staff to test every system you just updated. For a refresher on hosting a soft opening, see step 15 above: Host a Soft Opening.

By the Numbers: Farm-to-Table Restaurants

Consumers are increasingly defining healthy food as food produced locally. Consumers love the farm-to-table idea, according to many recent surveys. The USDA’s data further demonstrates the effect of this popularity on small farmers.

According to USDA studies, the local food movement is closely connected to the creation of employment in agricultural areas. Farm-to-table restaurants and their customers actively generate employment farther up the food chain by supporting local farms.

Finally, here’s how to open a farm-to-table restaurant.

It takes a lot of effort to open a farm-to-table restaurant, but it can be quite gratifying. The restaurant design not only supports local food producers in your town, but it also appeals to an eating audience that is becoming more interested in purchasing local foods. Farm-to-table restaurateurs can expect to spend many months researching local farmers and foragers and creating connections with them, in addition to the traditional responsibilities of finding a great restaurant site and drafting a business plan.

In the “farm-to-table destinations” article, you will find 15 steps on how to start a farm-to-table restaurant. The steps are broken down by the different stages of the process.

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• farm-to-table concept
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