People love to eat. We find the social environment of restaurants the perfect break from cooking, and relish the adventure of tasting new menus. If you’re seeking the life of haute cuisine, and are wondering how to start a restaurant, we’ve listed our resources and tools that will help you effectively write a restaurant business plan and get your business cooking.

Restaurant Sample Business Plans

Looking for inspiration? Check out the Bplans gallery of sample business plans for restaurant, cafe, coffee shop, bakery, bar, and other food service companies. See how others like you got started and turned their business idea into a reality. These plans can be read fully online.

Organic restaurant business plan (Full Plan Online)
Get started with this sample business plan for Studio 67, a restaurant focusing on organic foods and an intriguing atmosphere in a prime neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.

Steak buffet restaurant business plan (Full Plan Online)
See a realistic business plan example for Sagebrush Sam’s, which offers a unique combination of excellent food at value pricing with a fun and entertaining atmosphere.

Pizzeria Franchise Business Plan (Full Plan Online)
In this sample business plan 4 Moons Pizzeria follows a successful franchise formula in opening a new pizza restaurant, the first of this chain in the state. Profitability is forecast in year one of the plan.

Shave Ice Beverage Business Plan (Full Plan Online)
Shave ice is the hottest new dessert since frozen yogurt! Ice Dreams will sell shave ice as its primary product in addition to soft drinks and frosty Latin drinks called licuados. This sample shows how a new product is introduced into the market place.

Dessert Bakery Business Plan (Full Plan Online)
Rutabaga Sweets is a dessert bar and bakery located in the Business Improvement District (BID) of Washington DC. We can loosely be described as a quick-service restaurant where customers sit around a bar and watch their desserts being made.

Dinner Theater Business Plan (Full Plan Online)
In this sample business plan see how Belle Epoque Dinner Theatre celebrates the era of cultural refinement, social elegance, and general prosperity and exuberance of the “Gay 90s”. They model the restaurant on the establishments of the Montmartre district of Paris such as the famous Moulin de la Galette.

See 46 complete sample restaurant plans in the Bplans gallery.

Restaurant marketing plan

Grow your restaurant start-up with a practical, action-oriented marketing plan that you can start executing on day 1.
Franchise marketing plan
Get a better understanding of what needs to be in a restaurant marketing plan with this realistic example for a sandwich shop franchise.

Starting a restaurant — a success story

The founders of Cafe Yumm! in Eugene, OR, started a successful restaurant franchise by focusing on healthy eating — and careful business planning. Read more about their successful restaurant startup.

Start a business resource kit

Looking for more resources to help you start a restaurant? This free online business planning toolkit includes a presentation by business planning guru Tim Berry, a selection of sample business plans, a set of business calculators, and more. Launch the toolkit

Additional Sample Business Plans

Forty-plus Restaurant and Cafe sample business plans are available in Business Plan Pro and LivePlan software.

Delicatessen and Bakery Business Plan

Executive summary (excerpt)
The Bronx Deli and Bakery will offer customers New York City-style deli bakery items and sandwiches. It is a restaurant, a bakery and a coffeehouse all rolled into one. Located in the heart of the growing Willow Creek section of Richmond, the Bronx Deli and Bakery will serve a community of 25,000 residents that is made up of students attending State University and families attracted to the new home construction in the area.

Franchise Sandwich Shop Business Plan

Executive summary (excerpt)
The purpose of this business plan is to secure additional, long-term funding to open a QSR (Quick Service Retail) franchise in our town. The owners of the company are willing to invest $30,000, and assume over $110,000 in short-term liability to secure the funding for inventory, and early operations. The SBA 504 loan we seek is in the amount of $200,000, and if approved, will be amortized to 10 years.

Movie Theater Restaurant Business Plan

Executive summary (excerpt)
Second Run Pizza is a theater/restaurant business that believes there is a significant number of theater-goers that are craving a more satisfying and enjoyable way to catch a movie and a bit to eat. Second Run Pizza is renovating the downtown Majestic Theater and creating a medium-size restaurant that will show second-run movies that have proven to still be popular to our target market. We will offer a totally unique dining and movie experience at a affordable price that will fill the theater space with repeat customers.

Mediterranean Restaurant Shop Business Plan

Executive summary (excerpt)
On the Water is a new Mediterranean restaurant on the Sunset Strip. On the Water will target both fun-seeking as well as sophisticated diners looking for good food in a fascinating atmosphere. On the Water will seek to earn 85% gross margins through an innovative setting, a wonderful menu, and an experienced restaurateur.

Restaurant start-up kit

This informative business binder provides the essential knowledge you need to plan and start a restaurant, cafe, bakery, or other food business. It covers such basics of the food service business as location considerations, facility requirements, personnel needs, legal requirements, finance, marketing, operations, and more. Also included in this start-up kit is a copy of Business Plan Pro software, the world bestselling business plan software.

Restaurant industry research

Get valuable financial intelligence and industry trends for restaurants and related businesses in a restaurant industry research report. We provide detailed reports with five years of financials, business ratios, and more. Better yet, our restaurant industry reports are available at the U.S. national, state, and even county level, so you can really understand the local competitive environment. Start your market research the easy way.

Browse and purchase industry research reports for “Eating and Drinking Places”, code 5812.

Ensure your plan is supported by data by adding custom industry and market research to your LivePlan account.