How to open a restaurant in the US: traditional method vs Masterestaurant method

What do you decide before looking for a location in the United States?

You decide the model before the location, and the deliverable is a one-page Restaurant Model Canvas with the value proposition, the guest, the channels and the revenue and cost structure written out with example numbers.

I put it first because the usual order is backwards: owners arriving in the United States tend to fall for a space in a neighborhood they like and then try to force the menu and the average check to fit that rent, when sound logic runs the other way and the model dictates how many square feet, how many seats and what rent you can carry. At Masterestaurant we check it with a simple test, because if you cannot explain in two minutes who buys from you, why they come back and at what margin, the Canvas is not finished and NO lease should be on the table.

Immigration status, legal entity and documented capital

The second step ends with a folder that a bank or a landlord would accept without questions, and that takes four documents: your immigration or investor status confirmed in writing by an immigration attorney, the entity formed in the state where you will operate, the Employer Identification Number (EIN) and the statements that prove your own capital for the pre-opening phase. The capital point deserves a warning, because money that cannot be traced back to its source does NOT exist for any American counterparty, no matter how much sits in your account. Alongside the folder goes the pre-opening budget, line by line, with a real quote behind each item (build-out, equipment, licenses, deposit, opening inventory), plus a reserve for the months when sales still do not cover fixed costs. Here is how you verify it: if a single line is estimated from memory, the budget goes back to your desk.

Should you open an independent restaurant or a franchise?

Open independent when the concept is your own and you have capital to pay for your learning curve, and choose a franchise when what you want is a proven system in exchange for royalties and less freedom.

The tension looks unsolvable, since the independent gains margin and control while the franchisee gains method and brand, but it resolves once you look at what you are missing rather than at what the model offers. The market matters too: about 74% of chain locations, more than 191,000 units, are run by franchisees (Restroworks). The deliverable of this step is a written decision with your candidate city and a serious alternative, each with a trade-area study that measures foot traffic during service hours, direct competitors within the delivery radius and quoted rent per square foot. If the two cities are not compared on the same criteria, the choice is still a personal preference.

Restaurant permits: what to check and who confirms it

Permits are not solved with a national list, because every state, county and city sets its own and changes them often, so this guide uses New York and Texas as reference points and tells you what to check before signing anything. The matrix you need to build has one row per authority: the local health department for the food establishment license, the zoning and buildings office for land use and the certificate of occupancy, the fire department, the state alcoholic beverage authority if you will serve alcohol and the sales tax agency. Each row carries the contact, the requirement and the status of the filing, with a note next to every source saying it was current when the source was consulted and that it must be confirmed on the official link. The matrix is validated by a local permit expediter or attorney, never by a forum, and the step closes when that professional signs off on it.

How to cost the menu under American labor costs?

The menu is costed with the method's rule:

the ingredient cost of each dish never goes above the Masterestaurant ceiling, which is a MAXIMUM and not a target, while payroll and rent, like utilities, stay off the plate because they belong to the break-even point. For example, if a dish takes 6 dollars of ingredients and sells for 22, its food cost sits around 27% and leaves room for purchasing mistakes. Now suppose the opposite, that you load American payroll onto every recipe card: the apparent cost shoots up, you raise prices to compensate, the check prices you out of the neighborhood, volume drops and the fixed costs, which were the real problem, get spread across fewer covers. The deliverable is two documents, recipe cards for every dish with portion weights and the monthly break-even sales figure, and it is verified when both match the budget from the second step.

Revenue beyond the dining room: catering and delivery with judgment

Part of your revenue should be planned outside the dining room from day one, and catering is the natural candidate, with annual revenue growth of 6.7% in 2026 according to IBISWorld's analysis of catering services in the US. It also carries a cash advantage the dining room lacks, because it is paid with a deposit and purchased knowing exactly how many covers will go out. Third-party delivery is another story. It brings volume, but the platform commission takes a good share of the dish's margin, so it comes in once the menu has dishes designed to travel and its own prices for that channel, not before. The deliverable is a channel mix projected for the first twelve months, with the contribution margin of each channel shown separately, and it is approved only if the dining room on its own reaches break-even without help from the other two.

The most common mistakes when opening a restaurant in the United States

The mistake that repeats most is signing the lease before having the model, and nearly all the others grow out of it. Next comes treating the market's median food cost as a goal, when we already explained why it is a ceiling. Then there is building the calendar with no slack for permits, which in large cities stretch out after a failed inspection or a returned floor plan, and with rent running, every week of delay comes out of the reserve capital. I got this wrong for years, I admit it, because I also helped plan openings with a fixed date and learned that the date is promised only when the last permit is in hand. At Masterestaurant we add a fourth mistake to the list, hiring the full crew for opening day, when it pays to start with the minimum team that covers service and grow at the pace of real sales in the first weeks.

How do you know everything is ready before opening?

Everything is ready when each step has its deliverable verified by someone other than you and none of them rests on a verbal promise.

The final review in Diego F. Parra's method walks through the guide in order: the Canvas explains in two minutes who buys and at what margin, the legal folder is complete with the attorney's opinion, the chosen city beat its alternative on the same criteria, the permit matrix carries the expediter's signature and every filing shows as approved, the recipe cards respect the food cost ceiling and break-even sales match the budget. One check is still missing, and almost nobody runs it: rerun the budget with sales at half for the first quarter. If the capital holds, you are opening a business. If it does not, the concrete action is to go back to the Canvas before you sign the lease.

What really separates one method from the other?

The first mistake I correct is a misreading:

median food cost in full service landed at 32.0% in 2024, per the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Operations Data Abstract, and many new owners treat it as a target when at Masterestaurant it is exactly the CEILING no dish may cross. It sounds contradictory that the market average is our maximum, but a median includes the operators losing money, and someone opening in a new country, with no brand and no supplier history, needs extra margin on the plate to pay for their own learning curve. The second is the channel. Joining the apps from month one looks like cheap volume and the cost shows up in the payout: the typical commission runs 20% to 30% (Restaurant Dive, 2024, with NCR Voyix data), which on a menu costed to the edge leaves the order in the red.

What really separates one method from the other — in practice?

My position is firm: a dark kitchen or delivery comes in once the menu has been costed for that channel, with its own prices.

And what happens if you flip the order and sign before mapping permits? Rent starts the day you sign; the health permit depends on an inspection, the inspection on a finished build-out, the build-out on an approved plan, so every delayed link pushes opening back while working capital drains into rent with no sales, and by month three the owner cuts the team he has not even hired. That is why Diego F. Parra insists the traditional method does not fail for lack of effort, it fails on sequence.