Service
Permit & Design Consulting for Mobile Kitchens
The fabrication is rarely what stops a new owner. The paperwork is. We advise on permits and design so your unit is drawn for the review it has to survive.
- Custom food trucks & trailers
- Restaurant & kitchen build-outs
- Permit & design guidance
- Financing help
- Built in Chicago · clients nationwide
The part nobody warns first-time owners about
You can buy a beautiful truck and still not be allowed to open. Mobile food rules are local — the health department, the fire marshal and sometimes the city's business licensing office all have a say, and what they want in one county is not what they want in the next.
Our part is to make the build match that reality: layouts and equipment schedules drawn against the requirements where you will actually operate, so plan review is a formality rather than a rebuild. It is advice and design work, not a promise that we file your paperwork for you — but it is the difference between knowing what is coming and finding out late.
Service
What we go through with you
Every jurisdiction is different, so this is shaped around where you intend to operate:
Layout & equipment schedule
A drawn layout and equipment list that reflects what you are selling and what the code where you operate expects to see.
What your jurisdiction asks for
Working through which approvals apply to your unit and your operating model, so nothing surprises you at the counter.
Inspection readiness
Sink counts, surfaces, ventilation and suppression reviewed against the standard before fabrication, not after.
Sequencing your launch
What has to happen in what order — because some approvals depend on a finished unit and some have to come first.
Why it matters
A failed inspection is expensive twice
Once in the rework, once in the weeks of revenue you do not earn while it happens.
Design decisions are permit decisions
Where a sink goes and how a hood is sized are not aesthetic choices. They are the review.
Local rules, not general advice
We ask for your city and state on the quote form because the answer genuinely changes with the address.
How it works
Five stages, start to keys
A build is a big purchase from a shop you may not have met. Here is the shape of it, so you know what happens next at every point.
- 1
Consult
You tell us what you want to sell, where you want to sell it and what you are starting from — a truck you own, nothing yet, or somewhere in between. We ask a lot of questions at this stage on purpose. This is also when to raise financing, because it changes the shape of everything downstream.
- 2
Design & quote
We work out the equipment schedule and the layout around your menu, and check it against what your jurisdiction expects. Then you get a written quote for that build. No published price list, no ballpark that quietly moves — a quote for the unit we just designed with you.
- 3
Build
Fabrication and outfitting in the Chicago shop: framing and subfloor, the cooking line and its ventilation, water and waste, electrical, interior finishes, service window and exterior wrap. If you are local, come and see it on the floor — we would rather you did.
- 4
Permits & inspection
The unit is built to the health and fire standard from stage two onward, so this stage is about readiness rather than rescue: making sure what was drawn is what is installed, and that you know what your inspector will be looking at.
- 5
Delivery
You take the unit. Local clients collect from the shop; out-of-state clients get a delivery arrangement worked out during the quote, so it is settled long before the build is finished.
Permit and design questions
Do you file the permits for me?
We advise on permits and design and build the unit to match. Filing and licensing sits with the operator, because the permits are issued to you and your business — but you will not be guessing at what to file.
Can you help before I've bought anything?
That is the best time to talk. Decisions made before a chassis is bought are cheap; decisions made after are not.
My city has unusual requirements. Is that a problem?
It is normal. Tell us the city and state on your quote request and we will work from what applies there rather than from a generic template.
Is this a separate service or part of a build?
It is part of how we build. If you want the advice without a build, say so on the quote request and we will tell you whether we can help.
Start here
Tell us what you want to build
Send over your concept, your timeline and where you're located. We'll come back to you with questions, a layout direction and a written quote — no price guessing, no pressure.