QD Design designs restaurants in Bellaire, Texas with architecture and sealed MEP engineering under one contract — floor plan, occupancy and egress analysis, Type I hood and kitchen exhaust design, grease waste, kitchen power, and COMcheck energy documentation in one coordinated permit set. We are a HUB-certified A/E firm based in Cypress (Houston metro), led by a Texas-licensed Professional Engineer, and restaurants are the largest single share of our portfolio.
What a Bellaire restaurant permit set includes
A restaurant permit package is really two designs that must agree: the architectural set (dining and kitchen layout, occupancy, egress, accessibility, finishes) and the MEP set (hood and exhaust per IMC 2021 and NFPA 96, makeup air, grease interceptor sizing, gas piping, three-phase kitchen power, and lighting compliance under IECC 2021 with COMcheck). Because one firm produces both, hood clearances, duct routing, and equipment schedules match before the City of Bellaire ever sees the drawings — the coordination errors that stall split architect/engineer teams never reach plan review. See our restaurant design service for full scope.
Restaurant work you can verify
- Golden Chick QSR in Humble — Type I hood, three-phase kitchen power, grease interceptor sizing.
- Multi-tenant food hall, Bellaire Boulevard — multiple Type I hoods, grease routing, and tenant metering resolved through several City of Houston review cycles.
- KPot Korean BBQ & hot pot, Mesquite (DFW) — one of the most ventilation-intensive restaurant formats.
- Oumi Sushi, Austin — carried through five City of Austin review rounds to approval.
- Paris Baguette bakery café, Minneapolis area — multi-state franchise support.
Permitting in Bellaire
Bellaire is its own city inside the Houston metro, with its own building and permitting review, separate from City of Houston DSD. Our nearest completed work sits along the Bellaire Boulevard corridor just outside the city line — a 17,000 SF medical clinic campus and a multi-tenant food hall, both permitted through City of Houston — and we serve City of Bellaire projects with the same one-contract package and the same reviewers-first approach. Statewide, any Texas commercial project valued over the $50,000 statutory threshold also requires TDLR registration and Texas Accessibility Standards (TAS) review — we file the registration and coordinate the accessibility review as part of the package.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need both an architect and an MEP engineer to permit a restaurant in Bellaire?
For most commercial restaurant projects, yes — the City of Bellaire expects architectural drawings plus mechanical, electrical, and plumbing plans sealed by a Texas-licensed engineer, and the kitchen exhaust design has to agree with the floor plan. QD Design produces both under one contract, so the set arrives at plan review already coordinated.
Who designs the kitchen hood and grease system?
Our in-house MEP engineers. Type I or Type II hood selection per IMC 2021, exhaust and makeup air, NFPA 96 clearances, fire-suppression coordination, gas piping, and grease interceptor sizing are all part of our standard restaurant scope — the same systems we permitted on the Golden Chick QSR in Humble and the multi-hood food hall on Bellaire Boulevard.
Who reviews restaurant permits in Bellaire?
Bellaire is its own city inside the Houston metro, with its own building and permitting review, separate from City of Houston DSD. Restaurants also add health-department review of the kitchen layout, and TDLR accessibility review applies over the $50,000 threshold.
How long does restaurant design take?
Typical tenant-improvement restaurant packages run 3–5 weeks from contract to submittal, and answering plan-review comments until the permit is issued is included in our standard scope.
Also in Bellaire: medical offices · retail · daycares & schools · churches · warehouse & industrial · spas & salons · senior living — or see all Bellaire services.
Start Your Bellaire Project
One firm, one contract, a permit-ready set. Send us your floor plan — fee proposal within one business day.