Restaurant Opening & Closing Checklist Guide

Opening should verify equipment startup, refrigeration temps, prep against the forecast, restroom and dining room readiness, and a quick service briefing (86s, VIPs, promos). Closing should standardize breakdown, labeling and storage, waste logs, cash handling, alarms and lockup, plus a final walkthrough.

Make each line item a task with a clear owner, due time, and optional photo verification for high-risk steps. That matches how modern ops tools document work: staff complete items on their phone, managers get alerts and completion rates instead of retroactive paper ticks.

In Restaurant Codex you mirror those rituals as recurring Operations tasks so every shift runs the same playbook across locations.