Restaurant Build-Out Cost in DFW

Cafe or coffee refresh, second-generation food space: $45 to $90/SF. Cafe or bakery in a vanilla shell, no Type I hood: $140 to $200/SF. Cafe or bakery from a cold shell, no Type I hood: $220 to $300/SF. Full-service restaurant, second-generation remodel: $100 to $160/SF. Full-service restaurant build-out from shell: $265 to $380/SF. These are budgeting ranges, not a quote; every restaurant and cafe is scoped and priced per project after a site walk. The hood, the grease interceptor, the electrical service and the rooftop unit are priced separately on this page, because none of them scale with square footage and most cafes trigger none of them.

Often no. Electric ovens and espresso machines usually do not need a Type I hood when the specific appliance is listed to UL 710B, or when it runs inside a listed ventless unit. Griddles, crepe machines, fryers and anything that renders fat usually do. The city decides from your equipment schedule, not from the words on your sign, so get your equipment list confirmed before you sign the lease. A hood is $45,000 to $75,000 and it is the single largest thing standing between a cafe and a restaurant number.

Because of four things, and none of them scale with square footage: the Type I hood, the grease interceptor, the electrical service, and the rooftop HVAC. A cafe running electric ovens and espresso usually triggers none of them. A full-service kitchen triggers most of them. That is the whole gap between a cafe in a shell and a restaurant from shell, and each of those four is published on this page with a price and the condition that triggers it.

Because the expensive infrastructure is already in the building. A space a restaurant already operated in usually has the hood and makeup-air, the grease interceptor, gas service, and floor drains. Those are the items that separate a second-generation refresh from a build-out from shell, and they are published on this page with prices. Before you sign a lease, have the space walked to confirm what is actually there rather than what the listing implies.

Permits and standard city inspections are in the range. Priced separately and named as their own line in the written scope: kitchen equipment and FF&E, design and engineering, landlord fees, health-department plan review fees, and the four adders published on this page. Hidden conditions are excluded by default and surfaced as a change order rather than absorbed quietly or discovered on the invoice.

That is the deadline we build the schedule around, the same way we treat a lease commencement. We give you a written scope with a real completion date before you pay a deposit. Where a date requires overtime or larger crews to hit, that shows up in the scope as a cost, not as a promise we quietly miss.

Yes, written scope, locked at signing. Change orders only happen if you request a scope change, and they are priced and approved in writing before work proceeds. Hidden conditions (failed MEP behind walls, mold, code corrections unrelated to your scope) are excluded by default and surfaced as change orders if discovered.

Included: labor, materials listed in the written scope, permits and standard city inspections, project management, mobilization, protection of adjacent areas, cleanup, one-year workmanship warranty. Priced separately and named as its own line in the written scope: ff&e and equipment, design and engineering, landlord fees, health-department plan review fees, the category adders listed on this page.