Five Sinks?

How many sinks does it take to serve a cup of coffee? To start the conversation about the the practical requirements of your new resaurant I might say something just like that,

It takes five sinks to serve a cup o' coffee...

It would be light way to begin a serious conversation about the numerous agencies and detailed regulations that every food service operator must navigate to open their business.  You might be opening a cafe to serve that coffee, you might be opening a culinary adventure studio, like Chef JRoy and Shiso Kitchen, or you might be opening any other food service business.  In any of these places, you'll need those same five sinks.  If you've opened a restaurant or any other food service establishment before, than you'll know all about the five sinks. If not, then the requirement can seem like overkill; it is what it is, required.

Regulations!

Regulations sometimes create unexpected requirements that are costly and time consuming.  Even more so if requirements come as a surpirse during the stress of a work in progress.  To eliminate costly surprises I recommend a to program reguirements for your project as early as possible.  Programming your new resturant or renovation design is a great first step, to include an architectural space program setting out the likely size and equipment requirements for dining and kitchen areas as well as back and front-of-house service spaces.  Local, State and even some Federal regulations apply to your restaurant.  These demand space and require specialized equipment.

Opening a food-service establishment, especially for the first time and even on a small scale can be a daunting task. As an Architect, I hear often from my clients that our business environment is over-regulated and that the permitting process is overly complex.  I understand that point of view!  It is true that public health is taken very seriously, and that getting permission to build, to renovate and to open can sometimes seem arduous the shear quantity of regulations from many different sources.

It is because of this environment that I’ve put-together the following information in two parts; this first part is an outline listing of codes with my introductory comments. This outline gives an overview of the codes that regulate the design of spaces; kitchens, dining rooms, front and back-of-house areas. In a second part I’ve included a sample, regulatory review memorandum, using the same regulations, so that you can see in a bit more detail, the kind of requirements that come from each of the regulatory sources.

Download the outline to see why, it takes five sinks to serve a cup o’ coffee around here…

The following outline lists the major codes that regulate the design of food service establishments in Massachusetts. Restaurant / food service developers, owner, architects, designers and builders should all be familiar with these regulations. I hope that this outline will give you some insight that it will help you to create your excellent new or renovated environment.

Richard Nilsson, Architect & Founder