QD Design is a HUB-certified architecture and MEP engineering firm in Cypress, Texas that produces complete restaurant permit sets — architectural drawings plus sealed mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering — under one contract, for restaurants in Houston, Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, and beyond. Type I hood exhaust, makeup air, grease interceptor sizing, gas piping, and kitchen equipment power are engineered by the same team that draws your floor plan. One firm, one set, no coordination gaps at plan review.
What a Restaurant Permit Set Includes
A commercial kitchen is the most MEP-dense space in commercial construction, and Texas cities review it that way. A complete restaurant permit set from QD Design covers:
- Architecture: floor plan, occupancy and egress analysis under IBC 2021 (A-2 assembly for most dine-in restaurants), finish schedules, restroom counts, and TDLR/TAS accessibility documentation.
- Kitchen exhaust: Type I hood sizing and duct routing per IMC 507 and NFPA 96, with wet-chemical fire suppression coordination and shaft penetrations resolved against the structure.
- Makeup air: dedicated makeup-air units balanced against hood exhaust so the dining room isn’t depressurized and the front door doesn’t whistle.
- Grease waste: interceptor sizing per IPC 2021 and local amendments, grease line routing, and indirect drains at prep sinks.
- Electrical: three-phase distribution for the cooking battery and refrigeration, panel schedules, one-line diagrams, and lighting compliant with IECC 2021 — all per NEC 2023 where adopted.
- Gas piping, water heating, and health-department layouts — equipment schedules keyed to the kitchen consultant’s or franchisor’s package.
Why One A/E Firm Beats a Separate Architect and Engineer
Restaurant redesign loops almost always start at the hood. The architect places the cook line, the engineer routes the exhaust shaft, and the structure is in the way — so the drawings bounce between firms while the lease clock runs. At QD Design the architect and the MEP engineer sit in the same office under one contract. Hood shafts, panel locations, interceptor placement, and makeup-air routing are resolved before the city ever sees the set. When the equipment schedule changes — and in restaurants it always changes — one team revises every sheet at once.
Restaurant Projects We’ve Completed
- Multi-tenant food hall, Bellaire Blvd, Houston — architecture + MEP for multiple food vendors under one shell: stacked Type I hoods, shared grease infrastructure, tenant electrical metering, plus 3D renderings used for leasing.
- Oumi Sushi, Austin — full MEP plus hands-on City of Austin submittal service; five documented review rounds spanning UMC, NEC, IECC, and TDLR comments, every response authored in-house.
- KPot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot, Dallas metro — per-table cooking exhaust engineered for a national K-BBQ brand, balanced against dining comfort and energy code.
- Golden Chick, Humble — franchise QSR: Type I hood with makeup air for the broiler/fryer line, three-phase kitchen power, grease interceptor sizing per NFPA 96 and UPC.
- Paris Baguette bakery café, Minnesota — electrical and plumbing design delivered across state lines for a national franchise group.
- Montessori school commercial kitchen, Sugar Land — three parallel reviewers (building, health, fire marshal), 38 review cycles, building permit in about 30 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Type I or Type II hood?
Type I hoods are required over any appliance producing grease-laden vapor — fryers, griddles, charbroilers, woks, most ranges — and must meet NFPA 96 with fire suppression. Type II hoods handle heat and steam only: dishwashers, some ovens. Get this wrong and the city will catch it. Send us your equipment list and we’ll classify every appliance before design starts.
How big does my grease interceptor need to be?
Sizing depends on fixture count, flow rates, and your city’s amendments — Houston, Austin, and most Dallas-metro cities each apply their own rules on top of IPC or UPC sizing. We calculate it, show the math on the plumbing sheets, and coordinate the interceptor location with the site so plan review doesn’t stall on it.
How long does a restaurant permit take in Texas?
Design typically runs 3–5 weeks from contract to submittal. City review varies: our Sugar Land school kitchen cleared three agencies in about 30 days, while our Austin sushi restaurant took five review rounds. The variable you control is drawing quality — sets that answer the reviewer’s questions up front cycle fewer times.
Can you handle health department and fire marshal review too?
Yes. Restaurant projects usually face two or three reviewers, not one. On our Sugar Land kitchen we ran the city building department, city health department, and Fort Bend County Fire Marshal in parallel — designing in health-department items like the two-compartment prep sink with indirect drain before reviewers asked.
Do you work with franchise equipment packages?
Regularly. For Golden Chick, KPot, and Paris Baguette we adapted franchisor equipment standards to local jurisdiction amendments. The franchisor’s package tells us what to power and ventilate; our job is translating it into drawings your specific city will approve.
Send us your floor plan — you’ll have a fee proposal within one business day.