Desk 05 · 2 stories
Pre-Opening Operations
Between certificate of occupancy and first paying guest: hiring, training, systems, stock, and the handover.
Featured guide
Announce Seasons, Not Dates
The public opening date is the only schedule item a project volunteers to be judged on, and the record says it should be the last one committed. A patterns piece on announcement discipline — why dates slip publicly, the season strategy, and spending the debut only once.
05
The complete desk
All Pre-Opening Operations guides
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02
Playbook
The Soft-Opening Playbook
The weeks between certificate of occupancy and grand opening are not a victory lap — they are the shakedown cruise. How to sequence training, dry runs, friends-and-family, and limited service so opening night is a performance, not an experiment.
