Categories
Pre-Opening & Real Estate
Regulatory Compliance Consultant
A regulatory compliance consultant is a hired expediter / lawyer-adjacent fixer who navigates DOB filings, SLA applications, DOH complaints, FDNY paperwork, sidewalk café permits, and DCA inspections. For a new NYC venue they shave months off opening; for an operating venue they kill violations and keep your COIs and licenses current.
View vendors →Expeditor
An expeditor (filing rep) walks your DOB, FDNY, DOH, and SLA paperwork through the agencies — pre-filing strategy, plan submission, RFI responses, sign-offs, and the Letter of No Objection chain that lets you get to TCO. Every restaurant, bar, or hotel buildout in NYC needs one. A typical restaurant Alt-2 with Pro Cert, PA, LAA1, LAA sprinkler, and FDNY fire alarm runs $8K-$25K in expediter fees, separate from DOB filing fees (2026 minimum $130 + $13 per $1,000 of construction cost); post-City of Yes use-group rules require fresh diligence on every filing.
View briefing →Liquor License Attorney
A liquor license attorney files your SLA application — full on-premises, beer/wine, hotel, catering, manufacturer — and handles the 500-foot rule, community board notice, and the disciplinary cases when they come. Every venue serving alcohol in NYC needs one for the initial application and the every-two-year renewal. NYC 2026 attorney fees run $320-$640/hr; on-premises licenses renew every 2 years and the Agarunov Law and FWDRE 2026 NYC Liquor License Guides are useful pre-engagement reading for any operator.
View briefing →Business Broker
A business broker brokers the sale or acquisition of an operating restaurant, bar, or hotel — packages financials, runs the buyer outreach, manages diligence, and shepherds the closing. You hire one when you're selling your operation or buying an existing one rather than building from scratch. The 2024-2026 NYC market saw watershed closures (LAVO January 23, 2024) and pending redevelopments like the 1,025-key Roosevelt Hotel (Pakistan-owned, NY Post Feb 2026 reported a White House-Pakistan deal); deal sizes typically run $500K-$10M+ for serious hospitality.
View briefing →Commercial Real Estate Broker
A commercial real estate broker finds your space, runs the market comps, gets you in front of landlords, and negotiates the LOI before the lease attorney takes over. Hire one for any new restaurant, bar, or hotel deal where you don't already have an off-market source. Manhattan retail availability hit a multi-year low in Q1 2026 (Cushman, CBRE, Newmark, JLL all converging on the same signal), which makes broker quality more decisive — fee is typically 4-6% of total lease value paid by the landlord on success.
View briefing →Franchise Consultant
A franchise consultant guides you through buying or selling a franchise — FDD review, territory analysis, ROI modeling, and the operational realities of running a unit under a brand's playbook. Operators hire one before signing an FDD, before opening a unit, or when planning a multi-unit area development deal. NYC franchise startup costs run $139K-$342K for a typical mid-market QSR; NYS S.4641A (re-introduced April 6, 2026) would ban most worker non-competes — verify status with counsel before structuring, since the FTC non-compete ban died at the 5th Circuit September 5, 2025.
View briefing →Kitchen Design Consultant
A kitchen design consultant lays out your BoH — equipment selection, ventilation spec, plumbing, electrical, workflow, and the DOH-compliant CAD set that the GC builds from. Hire one for any new restaurant, ghost kitchen, or major BoH renovation. The federal AIM Act ER&R rule (effective January 1, 2026) drops the leak-detection threshold for HFC refrigerant systems from 50 lb to 15 lb of charge — your designer must spec around it; 2025 NYS Mechanical Code is queued for adoption with NYC alignment expected in the 2026 cycle.
View briefing →Lease Attorney
A lease attorney negotiates and drafts your lease — rent escalations, personal guaranty caps, COVID-style force majeure, assignment rights, sublease terms, and the landlord work letter that determines who pays for what. Every restaurant or hospitality lease should have one on the tenant side; the cost is dwarfed by the downside of a one-sided lease. NYC hospitality lease attorneys bill $400-$1,200/hr; the NYC personal-guaranty law (LL 1-2021) is still actively litigated with constitutional challenges live in 2026, so every NYC operator signing in 2026 should rewrite their guaranty language.
View briefing →Restaurant Consultant
A restaurant consultant works on your concept, menu engineering, ops design, opening playbook, or turnaround — the strategic and operational layer that goes deeper than a recruiter and broader than an EC. Hire one for an opening, a renovation, a multi-unit rollout, or a struggling unit that needs an outside diagnostic. NYC consulting fees run $15K-$25K for a focused engagement up to $100K+ for a full opening package; the L3 distinguishes from Food & Beverage Consultant (#211) which is a separate audited bible.
View briefing →Other Operations sub-areas
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