The 10% Contingency That Keeps Restaurant Build-Outs On Budget | Brad Block

The 10% Contingency That Keeps Restaurant Build-Outs On Budget | Brad Block Michelin-awarded restaurateur Josh Kopel sits down with Brad Block on FULL COMP — the show where Josh Kopel unpacks the tactics, tools, and strategies of the world's best restaurateurs. Restaurant build-outs run over budget and over schedule for a reason that has nothing to do with bad luck: by the time a general contractor first sees the drawings, most projects have already been designed, developed, and pushed through a second round of plan check without a builder in the room. Brad K. Block of BKB Enterprises — the contractor behind West Hollywood's three-Michelin-star Somni and Dave Beran's Seline in Santa Monica — and hospitality development veteran Michael Benson break down exactly where the money and the months leak out, and what an operator can do about it before signing anything. Block's core numbers: change orders can never be driven to zero, but the right pre-construction process holds them to 3–5% of the job's value, and every budget should carry a 3–5% contingency — sometimes 10% on a harder project — as a line item you hope to hand back at the end rather than a cushion you quietly spend. He argues no job should ever go out to more than three general contractors; past that, the bids stop being comparable and line items like plumbing start diverging so widely that the low number is usually the one that missed scope, not the one that found efficiency. They also take apart the "rough order of magnitude" trap: a client walks in with a 5,500-square-foot space and asks what it costs, gets a number priced off square footage alone, and treats a shot-from-the-hip figure as a real budget. Benson maps the post-COVID shift — less available capital, shrinking footprints, and a move away from architect-led projects toward design-build — and explains why kitchen equipment has to be specced early, comparing the market to the car industry, where operators routinely spec the high end throughout and then discover the stainless and custom fabrication no longer fit the budget. On schedule, the traps are just as concrete: materials produced in Europe take 12–16 weeks before they even ship, and a $500,000 kitchen equipment package that lands on a site still weeks from paint becomes a liability rather than progress. Block contrasts today's timelines with turnkey fast-food builds delivered in 90 days out of the ground, and warns that hiring a residential contractor for a restaurant means nobody on the team can redline a plan set and catch the deficiencies before they become change orders. He also points to failures that surface 15–20 years later — water migration through kitchen walls from details never drawn correctly. With Los Angeles facing five to ten years of post-fire rebuilding, both guests make the same argument: assemble the builder, architect, and equipment dealer as one team before the plans are finished, spend the money on the front end, and stop treating construction as the phase where the budget gets discovered. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 03:00 Common Mistakes in Restaurant Build-Outs 05:54 The Importance of Team Dynamics 09:06 Defining Success in Restaurant Construction 12:06 Balancing Experience and Product in Restaurant Design 14:57 Investing Wisely in Restaurant Construction 18:11 Minimizing Change Orders in Projects 21:10 The Role of Quality in Restaurant Equipment 24:09 Navigating the Construction Process 26:59 Building a Dream Team for Success 33:26 The Importance of Coordination in Kitchen Equipment Contracting ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS • Rebuilding in LA presents both challenges and opportunities. • Common mistakes include lack of pre-planning and team involvement. • Involving contractors early can prevent budget overruns. • Understanding the local market is crucial for success. • Investing wisely in kitchen equipment is essential. • Change orders can be minimized with proper planning. • Communication among team members is key to project success. • Quality of investment matters more than aesthetics. • A strong team can significantly impact project outcomes. • Post-COVID, restaurants must adapt to new consumer behaviors. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE HOST Josh Kopel is a Michelin-awarded restaurateur, founder of Restaurant Scaling Systems, and the host of FULL COMP. After two decades operating restaurants — from fast casual to fine dining — Josh Kopel now teaches independent restaurant owners how to build profitable restaurants that run without them. For free restaurant marketing tools and trainings from Josh Kopel, visit https://joshkopel.com ▶ Subscribe for a new FULL COMP episode with Josh Kopel every day. #restaurants #hospitality #restaurantbusiness #FullComp #JoshKopel