Oak & Ember Kitchen LLC
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Design the room, fit it out, then run it properly.

Six services that cover a hospitality venue from the first sketch to the hundredth week of trading. Take one piece or hand us the whole thing.

01

Commercial kitchen design

Back of house layout, equipment schedules, ventilation and compliant drawings.

 02

Restaurant and bar concept

Front of house planning, bar builds, seating maths and material palette.

 03

Equipment and fit out

Specification, quoting, delivery sequencing, install supervision and commissioning.

 04

Kitchen and venue management

We hold the operating seat: rotas, ordering, cost control and weekly review.

 05

Menu engineering

Costing, yield testing, portioning, pricing and seasonal rewrites that hold margin.

 06

Consulting and training

Feasibility, food safety systems, manager coaching and service standards.

SERVICE 01

Commercial kitchen design

A kitchen that sends the menu on the busiest night you can realistically expect, built inside the square footage and the budget you actually have.

Typical timeline

Four to nine weeks from survey to issued drawing set, depending on whether we are working with an empty shell, a change of use or a room that is still trading while we plan.

We start with the menu, not the room. Every dish is broken into prep steps, hold requirements and pass sequence, which tells us what equipment has to exist and where a cook has to stand. Only then do we place walls, drains and hoods.

You receive a drawing set your contractor can build from and your health inspector can read: dimensioned layout, equipment schedule with model numbers and clearances, utility rough in points with gas, water and electrical loads, ventilation and make up air strategy, plus finish schedules for floors, walls and ceilings that will pass inspection five years from now.

  • Station by station motion and step count study
  • Hood sizing, make up air and grease duct routing
  • Cold and dry storage sized to delivery frequency
  • Wash line and three compartment sink compliance
  • Dimensioned plans, elevations and equipment schedule
  • Utility load schedule for the mechanical and electrical trades
  • Accessibility and egress review of the working areas
  • Phased build options when the room must keep trading

SERVICE 02

Restaurant and bar concept design

The front of house decides how much money the back of house gets a chance to make. We plan the room around covers, service routes and the feeling you want people to leave with.

Bar work is its own discipline

Our beverage lead designs wells, speed rails, glass storage and ice strategy around the drinks list, so a busy bartender is not walking the length of the bar for a garnish.

Concept work begins with arithmetic. How many covers does this rent require, at what average spend, across which dayparts. That number sets the seating plan, and the seating plan sets everything else. A dining room that looks generous but cannot carry its lease is a design failure however good the photographs are.

From there we work through circulation and service routes, host and waiting areas, bar position and length, acoustics, lighting layers for day and night trade, and a material palette chosen for a room that gets cleaned with bleach every night rather than for a mood board.

  • Cover count and revenue model per daypart
  • Seating plan with table mix and turn assumptions
  • Bar layout, wells, rails and ice and glass logistics
  • Service route, expo and runner path planning
  • Lighting layers and acoustic treatment guidance
  • Material and finish palette with durability notes
  • Point of sale and pay station positioning
  • Outdoor, patio and waiting area planning

SERVICE 03

Equipment sourcing and fit out

We specify what the menu needs, get it quoted properly, sequence the deliveries against the build and stand there while it is installed and commissioned.

We take no commission

Oak & Ember accepts no rebate or referral fee from any manufacturer or distributor. Every quote we bring you is one you could have chased yourself, only faster and at better terms.

Most opening delays are equipment delays. A single sixteen week lead time on a hood or a walk in can push a launch a full quarter, and nobody notices until the contractor is standing in an empty gap. We track lead times from the day the specification is signed and build the delivery calendar backwards from your opening date.

The service covers new and refurbished equipment. For tighter budgets we will happily spec a rebuilt range from a reputable dealer and put the saving into the refrigeration, which is where failures actually hurt you.

  • Full equipment specification tied to the menu
  • Competitive quoting across at least three suppliers
  • New, refurbished and lease option comparison
  • Lead time tracking and delivery sequencing
  • Install supervision and utility connection checks
  • Commissioning, calibration and handover testing
  • Warranty and service contract register
  • Preventive maintenance calendar for year one

SERVICE 04

Kitchen and restaurant management

We take the operating seat. Rotas, ordering, cost control, standards, maintenance and a weekly review with the owner that fits on one page.

Two ways to run it

Either we place an Oak & Ember operations lead in the building, or we coach your existing general manager to the same standard with a weekly on site day. The second option costs less and lasts longer.

Management retainers exist because a good design does not defend itself. Six months after opening, portions drift, the prep list gets shortened on a quiet Tuesday, a supplier slips a price increase through, and nobody catches it until the quarter closes badly.

Our operating rhythm is deliberately boring. Weekly inventory and prime cost, published rotas against a forecast, a standing maintenance calendar, documented opening and closing procedures, and a Monday review where the owner sees four numbers and the reason each one moved.

  • Weekly prime cost tracking and variance analysis
  • Rota building against forecast covers
  • Purchasing, par levels and vendor negotiation
  • Inventory counts and waste logging
  • Service standards and secret diner reviews
  • Recruitment, onboarding and manager coaching
  • Maintenance calendar and contractor management
  • One page weekly report to the ownership group

SERVICE 06

Consulting, training and compliance

Feasibility studies before you sign a lease, food safety systems that hold up under inspection, and training built for the crew you can realistically hire.

The most valuable thing we sell

A feasibility study that says no. We have written eleven of them. Every one saved an owner more than our entire fee for the year, and most of those clients came back with a better site.

Consulting engagements are scoped tightly and delivered as documents you own. A feasibility study covers site, catchment, competition, cover model, capital requirement and a break even analysis you can hand to a lender. A compliance engagement leaves you with a written food safety plan, HACCP documentation, temperature and cleaning logs and a staff sign off record.

Training is delivered in the building, on your equipment, during hours your team actually works. We do not run classroom sessions for hospitality staff on a Tuesday morning, because nobody remembers them by Friday.

  • Feasibility and site selection studies
  • Business plan and lender ready financial modelling
  • Food safety plans and HACCP documentation
  • Allergen handling and labelling systems
  • Health inspection readiness and mock audits
  • Line cook and station training programs
  • Front of house service and upsell training
  • Manager development and delegation coaching
How we work

Four stages, in the same order, every time

Whether the job is a single menu rewrite or a full build with a management retainer behind it, the sequence does not change. Only the depth does.

01

Audit

Two days on site, or two days in the numbers if the room does not exist yet. We measure, count, taste, watch a service and read twelve months of invoices.

  • Site survey and measured drawings
  • Service observation across dayparts
  • Invoice and payroll review
  • Written findings within eleven days
02

Blueprint

The plan on paper: drawings, equipment schedule, costed menu, staffing chart and a budget with a contingency line that is honest rather than optimistic.

  • Layout and equipment specification
  • Menu and pricing model
  • Staffing chart and pay bands
  • Capital and cash flow plan
03

Build

Delivery. We coordinate contractors, sequence equipment, supervise install, commission the kitchen and run the training calendar up to the first live service.

  • Contractor and trade coordination
  • Delivery sequencing and install supervision
  • Commissioning and calibration
  • Crew training and soft opening
04

Optimise

The part most studios skip. Weekly numbers, quarterly menu review, standards audits and coaching until your team holds the standard without us in the room.

  • Weekly prime cost review
  • Quarterly menu and pricing pass
  • Standards and compliance audits
  • Manager coaching and handover

Not sure which piece you need?

Most owners are not, at first. Describe the room and the problem, and we will tell you which service actually solves it, including when the answer is none of them.

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