Choosing a location for your café: foot traffic, lease basics and questions to ask a landlord

This is part 2 of our 7-part series Opening a café: from idea to first day. Earlier: the concept and the one-page plan.

The space is the biggest promise you make before opening. A lease usually runs for years, the build-out goes into someone else's building, and a café can't move across the street when it finds out the morning crowd walks on the other side.

This post covers how to judge a space for a café: the street, the rules, the building and the lease. It's general information, not legal advice. Have a lawyer who handles commercial leases read the lease before you sign it, and ask an accountant to check the numbers.

Start from the plan, not the listing

Your one-page plan already says what the space has to do. Turn it into a short list before you tour anything:

• The daypart. A morning café wants the side of the street people walk on to the train, the office or the school.
• Seats and service style. Counter service with 20 seats needs room for a line and a pickup shelf. Laptop seating needs outlets and more square feet per guest.
• The menu. Espresso and pastries need water, drains and power at the bar. Cooking needs a hood, and maybe a grease interceptor. The menu decides the building.
• The rent you can carry. From the break-even work in the plan, not from what the listing asks.

The SBA's location guide adds that "Costs that can vary significantly by location include standard salaries, minimum wage laws, property values, rental rates, business insurance rates, utilities, and government licenses and fees" (SBA: pick your business location). Two spaces with the same rent can cost very different amounts to run.

Count the foot traffic yourself

Listings sometimes quote traffic numbers. Count anyway, because you need the people who'd stop for coffee at your hours, not cars at noon.

A simple count:

1. Pick your three busiest planned hours (for a morning café, say 7 to 9:30 am).
2. Stand where your door would be and count people walking past in 15-minute blocks. Keep two tallies: everyone, and people who look like your "who" (commuters with bags, parents after drop-off, people heading to the gym).
3. Repeat on at least three weekdays and one weekend day, and once in bad weather if you can.
4. Note where people go: which side of the street, which corner they cross at, which café they walk into now.

Also look for what brings people at your hours (a station, a school, offices, a gym, a farmers market) and what could take them away (construction, an office moving out). Ask the neighbors on the block how mornings look across the year.

The counts don't predict sales, and nobody can give you a reliable formula from them. They let you compare two spaces fairly, and they tell you whether the morning in your plan exists on this block.

Check the rules before you fall for the room

Zoning. The SBA: "If you buy, rent, build, or plan to work out of a physical property for your business, make sure it conforms to local zoning requirements." Also: "Zoning laws are typically controlled at the local level, so check with your department of city planning, or similar office, to find out about the zoning laws in your area" (SBA). Ask about seating limits, outdoor seating, signs and parking requirements too.

The health department's plan review. In the FDA Food Code, which most state and local food rules are based on, a permit applicant "shall submit to the REGULATORY AUTHORITY properly prepared plans and specifications for review and approval before" construction, "The conversion of an existing structure for use as a FOOD ESTABLISHMENT", or certain remodels (FDA Food Code 2022, §8-201.11). Your state or county sets the actual process, so call them before you sign and ask what a café in this space would need. A former café can still need changes; an office or retail space usually needs more.

The building department. A change of use, new plumbing or a new hood usually means permits and inspections. Ask the city what a conversion from the current use involves.

In Florida, our licensing post explains which state agency reviews your plans. For access, our ADA basics post covers the entrance, the route and the counter, and what an existing space is expected to fix.

Look at the building like a café

Bring someone who has built out a café or restaurant, or a contractor, and check:

• Power. Espresso machines, ovens and ice machines need specific electrical service. Is there enough, and where's the panel?
• Water and drains. Where can the bar's water line and drain go? Is there a floor drain? How far is the main line?
• Hood and venting. If the menu needs cooking, can a hood be vented from this space at all?
• Restrooms. How many, and are they accessible? Adding one is expensive.
• Storage. Dry storage, a back room for milk deliveries, room for a reach-in or a walk-in.
• Deliveries and trash. Where does the truck stop? Where do bins go, and who collects them?
• The front. Visibility, a sign location, windows, and whether outdoor seating is possible.

Lease terms to understand

Commercial leases vary a lot, and many terms are negotiable. These are the ones to understand before you talk numbers. Your lawyer will add more.

Questions to ask the landlord

• What was here before, and why did it leave?
• Has this space ever had a food permit? Do you have the old plans?
• What electrical service, water line, drains and venting does the space have today?
• Who maintains the roof, HVAC and plumbing, and when were they last replaced?
• When would rent start, and is there time to build out first?
• What work would you do before handover, and what would you contribute to ours?
• Can you show me last year's share of taxes, insurance and common-area costs?
• Would you lease a neighboring unit to another coffee shop or bakery?
• What are the rules on signs, outdoor seating, hours and deliveries?
• Are there plans for the building or the block (construction, new tenants, a sale)?

Write the answers down, then give them, the lease and your plan to your lawyer, and ask an insurance agent what the lease requires you to carry. Our insurance basics post covers the usual policies.

Common mistakes

• Signing before talking to the health and building departments. The surprises in a conversion are cheapest to find before the lease.
• Counting traffic at the wrong hour. Lunch traffic doesn't tell you about a 7 am café.
• Treating the rent as the whole cost. The other charges, the build-out and the months before opening count too.
• Skipping the lawyer to save money. A lease often runs for years. The review is small next to it.

Where Mays fits

Mays starts once you have a space, but the address you sign for shapes it:

• The address sets the labor rules. When you add the location under Locations & Users → Locations, its City and State are where Mays looks up the labor laws, such as the legal minimum wage, when Labor law compliance is on. See Add and manage locations. Our state pay pages, such as Florida's, show the rules for each state.
• The store's time zone. Each location has its own Timezone, which decides when that store's day starts and ends for the schedule, the time clock and reports.
• Clock-ins at the door. The location's Geofence setting checks that a phone is within a radius of the store when someone clocks in, and either flags or blocks a clock-in from outside it. See Punch verification and geofence.
• Your permit number on the logs. Add the License / Permit # to the location once you have it, and it's printed on the temperature logs you export for the health department.

Your location checklist

• A short list from your plan: daypart, seats, menu, rent you can carry
• Foot traffic counted at your hours, on several days
• Zoning, the health department's plan review and building permits asked about before signing
• Power, water, drains, venting, restrooms, storage and deliveries checked with someone experienced
• Every lease term in the table understood, and the landlord's answers written down
• The lease read by a lawyer, the numbers by an accountant

Next: the menu

With a space in view, you can build the menu it can serve. That's part 3. When you're ready to set up the café, start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set up your first location with you.