Foundation, Momentum, Authority
Pick the tier that matches the stage the room is in. You can move up or down at the end of any minimum term with thirty days notice.
Foundation
One venue that is trading and needs a plan, a second opinion and steady oversight of the numbers.
Three month minimum, then rolling
- One venue covered
- Monthly operations review, on site
- Weekly prime cost and labour tracking
- Menu costing for up to 40 dishes
- Supplier price benchmarking each quarter
- Food safety document review
- Email and phone support within one business day
- Annual health inspection readiness check
Best for owner operated restaurants, cafes and single bars doing under two million a year.
Start with FoundationMomentum
Venues in build, in launch, or in a turnaround where somebody needs to be in the building every week.
Six month minimum, then rolling
- Everything in Foundation
- Up to two venues covered
- One full day on site every week
- Kitchen design revisions included
- Unlimited menu costing and quarterly rewrites
- Vendor negotiation handled on your behalf
- Recruitment support and crew training days
- Manager coaching sessions twice monthly
- Same day response during service hours
Best for new openings, relocations and rooms that have lost control of prime cost.
Start with MomentumAuthority
Groups running several rooms that need one operating standard and a partner at board level.
Twelve month minimum, then rolling
- Everything in Momentum
- Up to four venues covered
- Named operations director assigned to the group
- Two on site days per week across the estate
- Group wide operating standards written and maintained
- Board level monthly reporting pack
- Expansion planning and site search support
- Concept development for new formats
- Direct line access seven days a week
Additional venues beyond four are added at 2,600 per room per month.
Start with AuthorityAll retainers include travel within 120 miles of Waco. Rates are in United States dollars and are quoted before applicable taxes.
Fixed fee work, no retainer required
Every item below can be bought on its own. Retainer clients receive these at a twenty percent discount, and anything already covered by their tier is included at no charge.
| Service | What you receive | Typical timeline | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site and operations audit | Two days on site, written findings, prioritised action list and a costed fix plan. | 11 days | $2,900 |
| Commercial kitchen design | Dimensioned layout, equipment schedule, utility loads, ventilation strategy and issued drawing set. | 4 to 9 weeks | from $9,500 |
| Restaurant or bar concept design | Cover model, seating plan, bar layout, lighting and acoustic guidance, material palette. | 5 to 10 weeks | from $12,400 |
| Equipment sourcing package | Full specification, three way quoting, delivery sequencing, install supervision and commissioning. | Runs with the build | $6,800 |
| Menu engineering sprint | Costing of up to 60 dishes from invoices, yield tests, menu mix analysis and a repriced menu. | 3 weeks | $4,200 |
| Feasibility study | Site, catchment and competitor analysis, cover model, capital requirement and break even, lender ready. | 4 weeks | $5,600 |
| Food safety and HACCP build | Written food safety plan, HACCP documentation, log templates and a staff sign off system. | 2 to 3 weeks | $3,300 |
| Crew training day | One full day in your building, on your equipment, back of house or front of house, up to 14 people. | Single day | $1,450 per day |
| Opening support week | Five consecutive days on site through soft opening and first live services, two of our team present. | Launch week | $7,900 |
| Hourly consulting | Ad hoc advice, remote or on site, billed in half hour blocks with no minimum retainer. | On request | $225 per hour |
Travel beyond 120 miles of Waco is charged at cost and agreed in writing before booking. Fixed fees are confirmed in a written scope after the first call, and they do not move unless you change the scope.
What the fee does not cover
Being clear about the edges of the scope is cheaper for everyone than an awkward invoice conversation in month three.
- Equipment, furniture and materials, which you buy directly from the supplier at the quoted price
- Construction, trades and contractor labour, which we coordinate but do not employ
- Permits, licence applications and municipal fees
- Architectural and structural engineering stamps where your jurisdiction requires them
- Payroll for your own staff, including any manager we help you recruit
- Marketing, branding, photography and website work
- Point of sale hardware and software subscriptions
We hold working relationships with architects, engineers, contractors and branding studios across Texas, and we are glad to introduce you. We take no fee for those introductions.
The things owners ask before signing
No. Retainers and project fees are the whole of our income from a client. We do not take a share of turnover, a share of profit, or an equity position. If your sales double, our fee stays the same, which we think keeps the advice honest in both directions.
Never. We accept no rebate, kickback, referral fee or hospitality from manufacturers, dealers or distributors. This is written into our client agreement, and you are welcome to contact any supplier we quote to confirm it. It is the single biggest reason clients trust the specification.
Once the minimum term is served, you can pause or cancel with thirty days written notice. During a pause your documents, plans and cost models stay available to you, and restarting within twelve months does not trigger a new minimum term. If something goes badly wrong before the minimum term ends, call us rather than the lawyers, we have always found a workable arrangement.
Yes. The first call runs about forty five minutes and covers the room, the problem and what we would realistically do about it. If we do not think we are the right studio for the job, we will say so on that call and point you somewhere better. Nothing is invoiced until a written scope is signed.
Most clients do. A typical pattern is a fixed fee kitchen design, followed by Momentum through the build and the first six months of trading, then a step down to Foundation once the numbers are steady. Retainer clients receive twenty percent off any standalone project work booked while the retainer is live.
Retainers are invoiced on the first working day of each month, payable within fourteen days. Project work is invoiced fifty percent on signature and fifty percent on delivery of the final documents, other than builds longer than two months, which move to monthly stage payments. We accept bank transfer and card, and card payments carry the processing fee at cost.
Yes. We have delivered projects in seven states. Design, menu engineering and consulting travel easily. Full management retainers work best within a day of driving, or in rooms where there is already a manager on site for us to coach through a weekly cadence. Travel beyond 120 miles is charged at cost and agreed before it is booked.
We have worked with rooms doing four hundred thousand a year and with groups doing thirty million. Below roughly four hundred thousand a full retainer rarely pays for itself, and we will usually suggest an audit plus a menu engineering sprint instead. That combination costs about seven thousand and tends to move the needle more than a year of light touch oversight.
Get a written scope in one week.
Tell us about the room on a free call, and we will send a scope with a fixed number attached, usually within five business days.