Texas · Restaurant Conversion
Convert a space into a restaurant in Texas.
Texas has the largest restaurant conversion volume in the country and a wildly varied AHJ landscape. Austin runs an aggressive Site + Land Use review that surprises most out-of-state operators; Houston and DFW are faster but enforce health-department interceptor sizing closer to spec than peer cities.
On the ground in Texas
What changes when you convert here.
Austin Development Services pre-flights everything through a Site + Land Use review BEFORE building plan-check. A restaurant on a property without an explicit "restaurant" land-use designation hits a 3-6 week zoning verification step that the building permit can't skip. Pre-walk the lease with the City of Austin's zoning verification letter in hand; without it, the published plan-check rhythm is meaningless.
Houston Permitting Center moves faster (4–7 business days first review) but enforces grease interceptor sizing under IPC §1003 + Houston Health Department supplementary rules — typically a 1,500-gallon minimum for a 4-vat fryer line, with monthly pump-out logged via the HHD portal. Dallas and Fort Worth land 5–8 days first review; San Antonio averages 6–9.
Climate zone varies by city (Austin = 2A humid-mixed, Houston = 2A hot-humid, Dallas/Fort Worth = 3A mixed-humid). Houston's humid climate makes MUA tempering essential — an untempered MUA pulls humidity into the dining room and the AC short-cycles to keep up. Plan for tempered MUA with a 55°F design supply on every Houston restaurant TI.
Hood + MUA rule
Houston enforces hood capture-velocity per NFPA 96 §5.1 at 150 FPM minimum face velocity. Inherited Type II commercial hoods sized at 100 FPM frequently fail plan-check; replace or re-spec at proposal, not at correction.
AHJ quirk
Austin Site + Land Use review is the bottleneck — building plan-check cannot start until the Site review clears. Skip this and the published timeline does not apply.
Conversion playbooks
Cuisines we convert most in Texas.
07 / 20
BBQ / Smokehouse
Texas BBQ is the canonical solid-fuel cook profile; Austin + Lockhart + Houston smokehouses get scrutinized for ember-collector + spark-arrestor compliance.
02 / 20
Mexican / Tex-Mex
San Antonio + Austin + Houston each have distinct Tex-Mex / Mexican / interior-Mexican equipment profiles.
18 / 20
Fried Chicken / Wings / Quick-Service Fry
Fried-chicken + wings concepts proliferated 2022–2025; multi-fryer banks stress Houston + Dallas interceptor sizing.
Texas · AHJs we file with
- City of Houston
- City of Dallas
- City of Austin
- City of San Antonio
- City of Fort Worth
- City of Plano
- City of Frisco
- City of El Paso
- City of Arlington
- Harris County
- Dallas County
- Travis County
Looking at a Texas space? Send the address and the menu — we'll send the conversion notes back the same day.
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