One team from the first filing to the fourth year
Opening a kitchen in New York means an architect, a plumber, a suppression installer, an expediter and a health permit, each on a separate timeline, none of them talking to each other. Then they all leave, and the inspections start. We hold the whole thing on one schedule and stay for the recurring part.
Everything is filed by someone entitled to file it
DOB submissions go through a registered filing representative or the licensed trade whose work it is. Construction documents are sealed by a licensed architect or engineer. Gas piping is a Licensed Master Plumber’s work. We coordinate; the licensees file.
How an opening runs
Scope and licensee mapping
Which applications your project actually needs, and which licensed party must file each one. Most delays start here, with an application sitting in the wrong hands.
Design and sealed documents
Your architect or engineer prepares and seals construction documents. If you do not have one, we introduce you. They remain the design professional of record throughout.
DOB filings
Submitted by a registered filing representative or by the licensed trade whose work it is. Gas and plumbing go through a Licensed Master Plumber, who is exempt from registration and files their own.
Health permit
The DOHMH food service application, submitted under a signed Authority to Act form. $280, and you may open 22 days after submission.
Fire protection sign-off
Suppression system installed and permitted through an FDNY-permitted installer, extinguishers placed and tagged, emergency lighting and exit signage checked.
The recurring calendar
Hoods, ducts, suppression, extinguishers, emergency lighting, grease traps and the building’s four-yearly gas piping inspection, on one schedule with the records kept.
Why the coordination is the hard part
Each agency has its own rule about who may submit. DOHMH accepts a submission from anyone holding a signed Authority to Act. DOB restricts filing to owners, authorised lessees, licensed design professionals and attorneys, the licensed building trades, and registered filing representatives. Gas work is narrower still.
Projects stall when an application lands with someone not entitled to file it, or when an objection sits unanswered because nobody owns the next step. Neither is a construction problem. Both are scheduling problems, which is the part we are actually good at.
Common questions
- Do you file the applications yourselves?
- DOB submissions are made by a registered filing representative, or by the licensed trade whose work it is. The Department registers filing representatives in two classes, and owners, authorised lessees, architects, engineers, attorneys and licensed master plumbers, electricians and fire suppression piping contractors are exempt from registration entirely. We coordinate the filing and hold the schedule; the submission is always made by someone entitled to make it.
- Who seals the drawings?
- A New York State licensed architect or engineer, always. Nobody else may prepare or seal construction documents, and no filing arrangement changes that. They stay the design professional of record for the job.
- How fast can I open?
- The health permit is rarely the constraint. DOHMH lets you begin operating 22 days after you submit the application, before the permit is issued and before the pre-permit inspection, and 212-676-1600 schedules a pre-operating inspection if you want to open sooner. Construction filings and the liquor licence are the long poles.
- What does it cost?
- Filing and coordination is quoted per project, because a two-hood build-out and a full gut renovation are not comparable work. Agency fees are separate and published: $280 a year for the health permit, plus DOB fees that vary with the job. The recurring compliance afterwards runs on our published service prices.
- Can you take over a project that has stalled?
- Often. A stalled filing usually means an objection nobody has answered, or an application filed by someone not entitled to file it. Both are fixable. Send us the job number and we will tell you what state it is in before you commit to anything.
- Do you work on shops and other build-outs?
- Yes. Retail and other commercial fit-outs run the same permit path minus the kitchen-specific pieces, so no hood, duct or suppression work, and a smaller recurring tail afterwards.
Tell us about the space
Address, what you are building and when you want to open. We will map which applications the project needs, who has to file each one, and what the recurring calendar looks like afterwards.
Start a projectRelated: restaurant permits, what recurs after opening, Local Law 152.
Filing rules from 1 RCNY §104-24 and Administrative Code § 28-416.2. Health permit detail from the City’s Food Service Establishment Permit page. Verified 2026-09-02. Construction documents are prepared and sealed only by a New York State licensed architect or engineer.