Launch Plan Builder for Restaurants

① Block A · the launch type and its discards

It is a new location, and that decides everything else. It is not sold to the customers of the two locations already running: it is sold to whoever walks through Laureles and does not yet know Sazón de Origen exists. That is why the count runs 8 weeks and not 4, and why the kitchen front weighs more than the media front.

The two discards, in writing. It is not a new menu: the nine opening dishes are already on the menu at the other two locations and change nothing for the weekday lunch professional or the Sunday family. Treating it that way would have put the effort into the mix instead of into the line, which is where the real risk sits.

Nor is it a new channel, even though your own delivery starts at this location: the channel already exists, already has its delivery zone and already has its economics measured at the other two. Folding it into the same count would have added a second debut on the same day, and debuting a slot and a product at once is the flaw this method rules out first. Laureles' own delivery starts in week two, with the kitchen already broken in.

② Block B · the capacity test and the cap

Two closed-door services, with real product and the 8 people who will work on 15 October. What came out of that rules over the seating plan.

The arithmetic, so it can be argued with: 38 sustained dishes per hour across the 2.5 hours of lunch is 95 dishes, and at 1.3 dishes per cover —the average of the two locations already running— that is 73 covers. The day-one cap was set at 60, 18% under what was measured, because a line that has been together for two weeks does not perform the same with a full room and the door ringing. The 60 are spread across 30-minute booking slots, not a queue.

It opens with 9 dishes out of the 24 on the menu. The three that already carry the sale and six that came out under 12 minutes in both rehearsals.

SUPUESTO: the short menu's target food cost is the 32% you declared for this house, not a sector average. If Sazón de Origen's real target were 35%, the Trucha al ajillo would stop being a finding and the menu price would stay where it is.

A finding on the Trucha al ajillo: at 52,000 COP it will not come down to the declared target without cutting the portion weight, and cutting it on opening day is the worst possible first impression. There the problem is not the offer, it is the menu price: to fit under the target it would have to sell at 58,400 COP, still inside the 28,000 to 72,000 range. It goes on the short menu at its normal price and stays out of any welcome plate. Illustrative figures, built from the data you gave.

③ Block C · the launch account and its cut-off

The new location's monthly fixed costs, all assumed until you confirm them: payroll for 8 people 24,000,000 COP, rent and utilities 11,000,000 COP, other fixed costs —insurance, platforms, maintenance— 4,000,000 COP. That is 39,000,000 COP a month.

With the 48,000 COP average check and the 34% menu food cost, every cover leaves 31,680 COP of contribution margin. The location pays its month with 1,231 covers, which across 26 service days is 48 covers per day. That 48 is the line read every Monday for the following four weeks.

Opening spend is kept apart and never touches the plate: two rehearsals with 120 courtesy covers at raw material cost (1,958,400 COP), three days of line training for 8 people (3,840,000 COP), leafleting and local media within 800 metres (3,200,000 COP), short menu printing and signage (1,400,000 COP) and the corozo lemonade welcome for the first 60 (108,000 COP). Total 10,506,400 COP, recovered with 332 covers above break-even: at week-four pace, some 24 service days.

The decision cut-off lands on Thursday 1 October, and it is read at 9 in the morning.

Postponing by two weeks costs 18,200,000 COP in fixed costs, and that figure goes written next to the decision. It is not there to frighten anyone: it is there so postponing is decided with the number in sight rather than with the gut.