A concept that earns its seats on a Tuesday, not only on a full Friday.
We write the brand down from three descriptions: the founder’s, told the way they would tell a friend over a drink; the one its best regular would give (for a new concept, the regular it is built for); and what a guest notices without being able to name it, like the ceiling height or the weight of the menu.
The rules come next: what has to hold every Tuesday at 2 p.m. in every location, the shortcuts the brand refuses (frozen where the menu promises fresh, a pre-batched cocktail where the menu promises one made to order), and the three things a new GM will ask to change.
Each rule carries the reason behind it, so a GM or chef handed a cost cut that would change the brand can turn it down with the page in hand.
Tell us what’s next.
Bring the idea, the site if there is one, and the numbers so far.
Book a call with Jon (opens in a new tab)Concepts fail on the operating model, long after the tastings pass.
Two pieces of work catch that before the design is locked, and both start from the occasion: which meal, and for which guest.
The first is a sales test: the sales per square foot and per seat the format has to reach to carry its prime cost and occupancy at the planned check, set against what your open units already do. A format that fails it is reworked on its check, seats, hours or dayparts and run again before any design money is spent; if it still fails, we say so.
The second is the pre-opening pro forma, run month by month to steady volume. A new concept has no sales history of its own, so its ramp, product mix and labor per cover come from comparable concepts, each marked as an assumption and checked against the first months of real sales.
A concept that has drifted gets the sales test and a peak test on the menu it has now: every item held to its ticket time at a full-house peak and to gross profit per plate at or above its category’s average on the menus you run today. It moves faster than a new build because the product mix, ticket times and daypart sales already exist.
Example scope of work
Examples of what the scope can include; yours is written to the problem you bring.
The brand
- Competitive set by occasion: what the concept competes with on a weeknight and on a weekend, mapped by price and service style.
- The written brand: its named traits, each turned into what a guest sees, hears and orders, from the host stand to the last plate.
- Culinary and beverage direction: the three dishes that tell the story, the three the menu will never carry, and whether the drinks lead the food or follow it.
- Service direction by role: how present the team is, how a regular gets made, and each trait written for the host, reservationist, server, bartender and busser.
- Sourcing story: where each protein and key ingredient comes from, told in the menu copy and in one sentence by every server.
The numbers
- Sales model: the planned check, seats, hours and dayparts worked through to sales per square foot and per seat, and rerun whenever one of them changes.
- Pre-opening pro forma: sales, prime cost and occupancy by month, with the comparable concept behind every borrowed number named beside it.
The build
- Branding partner: yours, or the agency or creative studio we judge fits the concept, briefed from the written brand to make the name, the mark and the look.
- Physical brief for the build: square footage, what the space should make a guest feel and the dayparts it has to serve, handed to the site search as its first criteria.
- Tabletop standards: china, glassware, flatware, menus and check presenters, each specified from the written brand before opening.
- Uniform standards by role: pieces drawn from the brand palette, with a lookbook and an order guide for each position.
Once it is open
- Brand standards after opening: taught at orientation, written into the managers’ style guide, scored in each hourly review and on the monthly ops visit, and the non-negotiables printed on shift cards.
- Concept-evolution review: for a concept already open, the sales model rerun and a peak test run on its own product mix and ticket times, the competitive set shopped again, and what the menu adds and drops.
How it runs: a standing weekly call with the founder and the chef, and time on site where the work needs it.
Fees are set by the scope and the value of the outcome, agreed before the work starts, with any time on site built in, never by the hour, the day or the visit.
The order of the work
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 01 | The occasion is settled and the brand written down before anything is designed |
| 02 | The format passes the sales test before the design brief is written |
| 03 | The brief goes to your branding partner only after the pre-opening pro forma holds |
| 04 | Done when your GMs run the brand standards without us |
If this is what’s next, bring it.
The call works out where the work starts.
Book a call with Jon (opens in a new tab)Further reading
Why a concept needs a written specCommon questions
What do you need from us to start a concept or brand build?
We already have a designer we trust. Where does their work end and yours begin?
Who runs it
RANGE was founded by Jon Peck, who spent twenty years running multi-unit restaurant groups: eight brands built and scaled, twelve openings across six concepts in three years, and more than $100 million of annual P&L owned.