Reopening after a closure or remodel: a checklist for a café or small restaurant
A café that's been closed for two weeks isn't the café you locked up. Water has sat in the pipes, the ice machine has been off, the walk-in has a box of yogurt nobody threw out, and the new counter from the remodel has never seen a health inspector. Half the team has had a break, and a couple of them have taken other jobs.
This checklist is for a planned reopening: after a seasonal closure, a long holiday break or a remodel. If you closed because of an emergency, such as a power outage or a boil-water notice, start with our outage and boil-water checklist, which covers deciding what to keep, and come back here for the rest.
This is general information, not legal advice. Your state or county health department, your water utility and your equipment manuals have the final word.
Start with the health department
Call before you set a reopening date, not the day before. What to ask depends on why you closed.
After a remodel. The FDA Food Code, the model most health departments adopt, asks for plans before "The remodeling of a FOOD ESTABLISHMENT or a change of type of FOOD ESTABLISHMENT or FOOD operation" when the health department "determines that plans and specifications are necessary to ensure compliance with this Code" (§8-201.11(C), 2022 FDA Food Code). After building work, the health department may also want to inspect before you open (§8-203.10). New sinks, a moved hand sink, a new hood or a bigger kitchen are the kind of change to ask about. Ask before the work starts if you can.
After the health department closed you, or you stopped for an emergency. "If operations are discontinued as specified under § 8-404.11 or otherwise according to LAW, the PERMIT HOLDER shall obtain approval from the REGULATORY AUTHORITY before resuming operations" (§8-404.12).
After a seasonal closure. Ask whether they need to know you're reopening, and check your permit's expiry date: it may have run out while you were closed.
The 2026 edition keeps both rules.
Flush the water before anyone drinks it
Standing water is the part most reopening lists skip. The EPA says closures "reduce water usage, potentially leading to stagnant water inside building plumbing. This water can become unsafe to drink or otherwise use for personal or commercial purposes", and recommends that businesses "take steps to flush the building's plumbing before reopening" (EPA, Restoring Water Quality in Buildings for Reopening checklist).
From the EPA's longer guidance (Maintaining or Restoring Water Quality in Buildings with Low or No Use):
- "It is important to flush the service line that runs from the water main to the building before flushing the rest of the building's plumbing system."
- "Begin nearest to where water enters the building and move toward the farthest tap. Cold water should be flushed before hot water."
- "Flush the hot water until the water reaches its maximum temperature."
- "Water-using devices may require additional cleaning steps in addition to flushing (e.g., discarding ice). Consult the device manufacturer's maintenance instructions."
The EPA also suggests you "Contact your water utility about local water quality and to coordinate maintenance activities" first. In a café, the water-using devices are the ice machine, the espresso machine, the brewers, the soda or water dispenser, the dish machine and any filters. Each has a manufacturer's procedure for restarting it after a long stop; follow it, and change the water filters on the schedule they give.
The reopening checklist
Work from the top down over the last week before you open. One person owns each line.
A week before
Item | Done | Who |
|---|---|---|
Health department called; inspection booked if they want one | ||
Permit, food manager certificate and other licenses in date | ||
Water utility called if the closure was long or the street had work | ||
Service calls booked: refrigeration, hood, dish machine, espresso machine | ||
Pest control visit booked before food comes back in | ||
Staff told the date; availability collected; schedule drafted | ||
Vendor orders placed for delivery the day before opening, not earlier | ||
Hours updated on the door, Google and the delivery apps |
Building, water and equipment
Item | Done | Who |
|---|---|---|
Service line, then cold taps, then hot taps flushed, nearest to farthest | ||
Hot water at every handwashing sink reaches temperature | ||
Drain traps filled (pour water into floor drains and unused sinks) | ||
Ice machine cleaned and sanitized per the manufacturer; first batches thrown out | ||
Espresso machine, brewers and dispensers flushed and cleaned per the manufacturer | ||
Water filters changed if the manufacturer says so after a stop | ||
Refrigerators and freezers on and holding temperature for 24 hours before stocking | ||
Thermometers in every unit, and probe thermometers checked | ||
Dish machine run, temperatures and sanitizer tested | ||
Hood filters in place, fire suppression and extinguishers in date | ||
Gas appliances relit as the manual says; pilot lights checked | ||
Remodel: new equipment cleaned before first use; protective film off; manuals filed |
The Food Code says equipment such as "ice bins and BEVERAGE dispensing nozzles and enclosed components of EQUIPMENT such as ice makers", beverage lines and coffee grinders is cleaned "At a frequency specified by the manufacturer" (§4-602.11(E)(4)), so a restart after a long stop is a good day to do it.
Food and supplies
Item | Done | Who |
|---|---|---|
Everything in the refrigerators checked against its date marks; past-date food thrown out | ||
Dry storage checked for pest activity, damaged packaging and expiry dates | ||
Chemicals, test strips and gloves in stock | ||
First delivery received and checked against the order and temperatures |
Ready-to-eat, temperature-controlled food made in-house can be held at 41°F or below "for a maximum of 7 days", and "The day of preparation shall be counted as Day 1" (§3-501.17(A)). After a closure of a week or more, most of what was prepped before you closed is past its date. Throw it out.
Pests and cleaning
Item | Done | Who |
|---|---|---|
Walk-through for droppings, gnaw marks, insects, standing water | ||
Pest control visit done, report filed | ||
Remodel dust and debris cleaned from shelves, vents and above equipment | ||
Full clean of food-contact surfaces, then sanitized |
The Food Code expects you to be "Routinely inspecting the PREMISES for evidence of pests" (§6-501.111(B)); a closed building is where pests settle in. File the visit in your pest control log, and use the quarterly deep-clean checklist for the parts a daily clean doesn't reach.
People
Item | Done | Who |
|---|---|---|
Who's coming back confirmed; open roles posted | ||
Pre-opening shift scheduled for the team, paid | ||
Changes walked through: new layout, new equipment, new menu items, new prices | ||
Illness reporting and handwashing refreshed | ||
New hires through orientation before their first service |
A pre-opening shift is work, so it's paid time. Use it to walk the new layout, run the equipment and do a practice service. Our new employee orientation checklist and pre-shift huddle agenda (coming Nov 3) both work for a returning team too.
Open soft
Open with a shorter menu or shorter hours for the first day or two, so problems show up when there's time to fix them. Run your normal opening checklist, take temperatures on every unit before the first order, and have a manager on the floor all day. Afterwards, write down what went wrong while it's fresh, and keep this checklist with the notes for next time.
Where Mays fits
- The checklist, ready when you need it. Build this checklist as a template in Tasks → Templates with the Custom frequency. Custom templates never run on a schedule; when you're reopening, a manager starts it from Tasks → Tasks → Create Task → From Template. Give the "flushed" and "ice machine cleaned" lines a Photo answer. See Creating a checklist template.
- Manuals and paperwork in one place. Upload equipment manuals, restart procedures and a copy of your permit to the Knowledge Base (files of up to 50 MB each). The location's License / Permit # goes on its settings page. See Knowledge base basics.
- The team back on the schedule. Add the reopening day and the paid walk-through to the schedule's Events row, then build and publish the first week; staff see it in the app. See Publishing the schedule.
What Mays doesn't do: there's no "temporarily closed" setting for a location. Daily checklists keep appearing while a location is Active, and setting it Inactive stops them, so for a closure of a few weeks, decide which you want. Mays also doesn't track when your permit expires; put the date in your calendar.
Reopen on purpose
Call the health department first, flush the water before anyone drinks it, restart every machine the way its manual says, throw out what's past its date, and bring the team back for a paid walk-through before the first guest. The day you reopen should feel like a normal day, just with fresh water.
Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set up your reopening checklist with you.