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Counter-service restaurant: the kitchen sets the sales limit

Updated · By SBA Loan editorial

Illustrative case · Independent leased counter-service restaurant; existing kitchen infrastructure; no alcohol, drive-through or franchise fees · United States illustrative operating case; Florida food-service jurisdiction; no city or real site specified

Explore this business · Overview

An independent counter-service restaurant takes payment before the meal and fulfills dine-in, takeaway and selected delivery orders from one kitchen. This illustrative leased-site case needs $260,574 in startup funding, including $65,000 of available reserve. Base Year 1 sales are $693,619, EBITDA is $47,369 after paid owner work, and profit before income tax is only $3,422. Demand and installed site costs still need local evidence.

Illustration of Independent leased counter-service restaurant; existing kitchen infrastructure; no alcohol, drive-through or franchise fees.
Illustration of the operating format. The financial case below is illustrative.
$260,574Base startup funding, including reserve
$693,619Base operating Year 1 sales
$30,412Base minimum cash across 60 months
140Mature cash break-even, orders/day

Observed SBA industry evidence

Lending activity in the broader category

5,943FY2023–FY2025 disbursed-status records
2,100FY2025 records
5,647 / 2967(a) / 504 records in the three-year pool

NAICS 722211, 722513 covers limited-service restaurants across formats and sizes. It does not isolate this case: Independent leased counter-service restaurant; existing kitchen infrastructure; no alcohol, drive-through or franchise fees. Loan records do not establish local demand, costs or operating performance.

These are positive-amount loan records selected by approval fiscal year and PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT status at the stated snapshot. They are not unique firms, search volumes, approval probabilities or loans disbursed during that year.

Read this industry’s amounts, terms, lenders and outcomes.

Source: SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files, snapshot 30 June 2026. Recomputed from original records on 1 October 2026. FY2025 is the most recent complete fiscal year in these files. Definitions and exclusions.

Choose the operating format before choosing the budget

The case is a 1,600-square-foot existing restaurant unit with 28 illustrative seats, a short bowls-and-sandwiches menu and nine customer-service hours per day. It opens six days per week, represented as 26 trading days per month. Customers order at a counter or online; there is no table-service sales assumption, alcohol, drive-through, franchise fee, property purchase or business acquisition. Food and nonalcoholic drinks are bundled in meal-period receipts. These boundaries fit the broad Census definition, but the code also includes other limited-service businesses. Census classification

The customer hypothesis is a repeat lunch and early-dinner trade that values a predictable wait. It has not been measured. Validate the hypothesis with counts by quarter-hour, competing menu prices, conversion from footfall and direct-pickup trials. A busy block or a broad SBA lending count cannot establish that this counter will sell 90 lunch orders. The operating model constrains served orders separately for lunch, dinner and off-peak hours.

Look for a site that preserves the kitchen infrastructure

The base capital allowance retains an existing exhaust hood, suppression system, utility services, grease/drain infrastructure and restroom layout. It budgets repairs and connections. A failed hood inspection, inadequate gas meter, undersized hot-water recovery or full electrical-service upgrade changes the scope. Obtain a menu-specific survey before committing to a lease. The selected gas griddle needs a professionally installed gas connection; the prep refrigerator also has a starting load higher than its running amperage. Griddle specification; Refrigeration specification

Florida is the modeled regulatory jurisdiction, with no fictional city or address. DBPR asks for a scale plan and sample menu where plan review applies. Equipment changes may fall within remodeling; the unchanged change-of-owner exception cannot be assumed for this planned retrofit. An opening inspection is separate from plan review. Local building, fire, zoning and accessibility findings remain site-specific. DBPR plan review; DBPR licensing; Rule scope

Read the reserve and paid roster together

The working owner earns a modeled gross annual salary of $52,000 for 40 paid hours per week. A lead cook, two part-time cooks and two counter employees support the service schedule. Loaded mature-month payroll is $20,690. Removing owner pay or treating shift labor as a fee per order would improve the spreadsheet while leaving the operating work undone. The base case reaches a cash trough of $30,412; the opening reserve absorbs $34,588 before recovery. This is a conditional case, not an earnings promise.

In the downside, lower demand, food-cost pressure and a delayed ramp exhaust cash in month 4. Additional operating funding of $343,348 would be needed to keep the modeled obligations paid across 60 months, even after extra opening equity for capital overruns. Read profitability for the timing and financing for the evidence that must replace these assumptions.

What the SBA selection tells you

The verified broad Limited-Service Restaurants code set, NAICS 722211 and 722513, has 5,943 records in FY2023–FY2025 approval cohorts with PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT status at the June 30, 2026 snapshot. FY2025 contributes 2,100 records. These are not exact approvals for independent counter-service restaurants, counts of disbursements made in the year, market demand or an applicant approval rate. COMMIT is excluded as undisbursed. SBA data and scope

Build the funding discussion from the actual leased-site uses, equity, loan payment and monthly cash path. Read the dedicated SBA industry profile for the broader category’s defined samples and downloadable aggregates. The five guides below are the current package. A full business-plan example remains pending owner generation.

Explore this business

Startup costsInspect a leased counter-service restaurant budget with quantity schedules, retained kitchen conditions, opening expenses and a cash reserve.Profitability and paybackTrace a counter-service restaurant from meal-period sales to paid labor, EBITDA, debt service, cash troughs and 60-month recovery scenarios.Unit economics and KPIsCompare counter-service orders by dining and pickup channel, then test peak kitchen output, queue limits and paid shift capacity.Financing optionsMatch counter-service restaurant finance to leased-site uses, equipment scope, owner equity, reserve, historical SBA evidence and repayment risk.

This edition contains five planning guides. A full business-plan example for this format is not yet published.

Sources and scope

Related resources

Full-service restaurant: a different service formatPrepare the loan document folderFinancial projections guide
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