Violet & Sheraz were working together in a café in strip of food outlets when they noticed that the Indian restaurant next door was not trading very well despite having a good location.

They decided to approach the owner to see if he would be interested in selling the business.  They wanted to totally reinvent the space to create a lively Greek restaurant to fill a cuisine gap in the local area.

Once negotiations with the business owner and the landlord were underway Violet & Sheraz realised they needed help to work through the process of renovating the premises.

They didn't want to spend a lot of money, but the premises needed a complete overhaul.

Challenge: this could be a money pit!
Solution: build a pricing menu and deliver best bang for buck.

Because we needed to have the new space up and running in 8 weeks, we didn't have time to complete detailed drawings and have the project fully tendered as we would normally recommend. But the existing fitout was in quite a sorry state and needed a lot of work.

So we drew up a list of things that needed to happen to get up and trading as Opa and figured out 1) what had to be done regardless, 2) what were nice to haves, and 3) what could wait until later.

Then we created a detailed scope list and went to a couple of trades on each item to ensure we were getting best pricing.

With prices in hand we worked through the list with Violet and Sheraz to determine the final  contract works, and let the trades.

Our clients had many other things to do before opening - finalising the menu, hiring staff, organising marketing, buying crockery, linens etc etc etc - opening a restaurant is hard work!  So Setting Up Shop looked after the build work, maintaining a presence on site, dealing with all queries, and ensuring quality and timely delivery.  We even put together all of their tables!

The result is a fresh Mediterranean styled restaurant that is consistently booked out and has set a high benchmark for the impending renovations of the other food outlets in the strip.

Customers comment on not just the food and service, but also the decor and ambience which are so different to the previous incarnations of the space

By working through the options and determining where the client's money would be best spent, we kept the price of the building works to under $50k, leaving enough money for the rest of the restaurant set-up.  And we delivered the whole project in only 8 weeks!

A word from centre management:

“Many congratulations on the opening of Opa Greek Cuzina.  You’ve certainly put in a huge effort to get open and trading prior to Christmas and your restaurant appears to be a big hit with many customers.”

— Bronwyn Seeto, All Commerical Properties Queensland

To find out more about our process and how our experience can make yours easier, head to our tenancy coordination or project management pages, or get in touch.