How to Open a Food Service Establishment Part 1 – We Show You the First Steps to Opening a Restaurant

Areas of Regulation

To open a restaurant, you must comply with numerous laws and regulations. Many people hesitate to start their own restaurant precisely because of this. However, complying with these requirements and overcoming initial difficulties is not as hard as it might seem. The rules and regulations regarding opening a restaurant can be fundamentally divided into six categories:

• personal requirements (e.g., qualifications, training),
• equipment and technology requirements (prescribed equipment for operational areas and customer spaces),
• safety requirements (e.g., fire protection),
• documentation and permits,
• working conditions and occupational safety,
• operational matters.

How Do You Get Started?

The first and most important step is to plan the type and identity of your food service establishment, as these will form the basis for choosing the right location, hiring the necessary employees, selecting equipment, and later designing the menu.

Checklist for the first steps:

• type of food service establishment (restaurant, lunch counter, ice cream shop, pastry shop, bakery, etc.)
• style of food service establishment (traditional, international, plant-based, with a specialty, etc.)
• brand identity for the establishment (logo, visual elements, messaging)
• business plan and cost and expectation assessment related to the restaurant

It's worth having a professional help you with the last two items, as the style and identity of a restaurant play an increasingly important role in reaching and retaining your target audience. Once these start to take shape, you can begin the search for a location and proceed with official registration.

Choosing the Location and Registration

To authorize a food service facility – whether it's a restaurant, takeout shop, or ice cream parlor – you must start at the relevant local municipality office, specifically at the mayor's office. There, you register your commercial activity, and the mayor's office enters your location in the registry and issues a registration number. You must register the business's operating hours, name, owner information, rental documents, customer logbook (which you need to purchase separately at a print shop), and other basic information when submitting your permit application.

From this point, you have two possible options:

1. We contact the other relevant authorities and agencies (e.g., fire department, police, NÉBIH, consumer protection) to handle the remaining permit applications, or
2. We wait for the local government, as the coordinating authority, to do this.

The regional NÉBIH will conduct an on-site inspection within 30 days to verify that the selected business location meets the requirements for operating a food service facility. The owner will be informed of the inspection results within about a week.

Official Documents and Employees

Before the NÉBIH inspection, you must obtain utility statements from the locally responsible utility providers (water, gas, electricity), which certify that the location is suitable for your intended activities.

If a restaurant has not previously operated in the selected location or building, you must have a water sample taken from the drinking water and analyzed by an accredited water testing laboratory. The water testing results must not be older than 30 days at the time of the inspection!

You must prepare several documents describing the practical aspects of operations, such as a technology description and floor plan, material handling and personnel movement plan, goods delivery plan, and waste management plan, etc. This is also the time to determine which positions require specialized qualifications according to regulations, to prepare certifications of qualifications for those filling the positions, and to determine the planned number of employees. Although separate authorization from the Food Safety Authority was abolished on July 1, 2021, it's important to prepare the aforementioned plans according to regulations (before the restaurant opens), as this information will form the basis for the later-developed HACCP system, which is mandatory for all participants in the food chain. Not to mention that authorities can conduct inspections of the food service facility at any time.

Restaurant Equipment

When planning the restaurant's equipment layout, you must map out the service routes within the facility (supplier, employee, and food delivery routes, as well as typical customer movement patterns and emergency exit routes in the customer area, etc.). This is important because it determines the placement, number, and size of tables. Routes must remain unobstructed and adequate space must be provided for them. The same applies to customers and staff to access various furniture (tables, benches, counters, utensil holders) and doors (kitchen, restrooms, storage areas). Additionally, if you want to incorporate special elements into the space, such as a dance floor, bar counter, or piano, you should plan for these early on.

Why Join Munch from the Beginning?

In the beginning, it's very difficult to gauge actual demand and determine how much food you need to prepare, especially for food service establishments that prepare meals in advance. These include lunch counters, bakeries, and pastry shops. However, there's no need to worry, because Munch was created to solve exactly this problem – you can sell leftover meal portions, and all it takes is just a few clicks.

You can find more information by clicking the button below.

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Regulations Every Restaurant Owner Must Know

• 20/2021. (V. 17.) AM regulation on the production and marketing of foodstuffs and materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs
• 62/2011. (VI. 30.) VM regulation – on food safety conditions for the production and marketing of food service products. It prescribes the main aspects of establishment and required location connections.
• Guideline for Good Hygiene Practice in Food Service and Catering, which is the "Bible" of food service. It summarizes HACCP principles, which every food service business must apply.
• Required Qualifications for Food Service – It's important to know that both food preparation and sales require specialized qualifications.