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How to sublet a walk-up window

post #1 of 9
4/18/09 at 7:16pm
Thread Starter 
There are many restaurants with walk-up windows. For example there is a competitively priced falafel restaurant near the University of Washington with a walk up window where you show up at the window, make an order, the chef prepares everything in front of you and serves it to you.

If I wanted to sublet such a window from a restaurant/coffee shop/anywhere up to code to serve food do you have any idea how I would go about it? What percentage of the entire rental property's rent should I pay? Any gotchas you can think of?

Thank you so much for any assistance you can provide.
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post #2 of 9
4/18/09 at 8:10pm
Let's see if I understand what you are asking.

A. There exists a restaurant with a walk-up window.

B. You want to "rent" the window, i.e., purchase food from the restaurant and sell it through the window?
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post #3 of 9
4/19/09 at 6:43am
Thread Starter 
Not exactly, no. I am investigating renting the window and some prep area and selling my own product through the window.

The window and immediate vicinity around it would be rebranded (this works in areas where buildings are not separate). I would rent a small portion of their area for prep.

I've seen this done with small coffee stands run inside larger sandwich shops with a sublet arrangement, I've seen taco trucks sublet parking lot areas of donut shops, and I've seen Starbucks sublet areas of B&N.

What I'm specifically asking about I've seen once in the U.S., it was a sandwich place with a falafel guy (vertical rotisserie, gyros, canned soft drinks, single fridge with prep surface on top) operate exactly what I'm describing. He had "his area" and "his window" and because of how the buildings in the area were constructed and painted it just looked like the sandwich shop ended at the side window and he had a very small place to himself.
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post #4 of 9
4/19/09 at 7:02am
Ah, that makes more sense!
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post #5 of 9
4/19/09 at 6:48pm
When chains such as Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts sublet part of another establishment, it's done by contract on the corporate level, not as an arrangement between individual stores. What you're talking about with the falafel shop sounds like an arrangement which was made just between the owners of each business. I haven't seen many arrangements like this, and I suspect that there is no hard and fast standard for how it's done. Your best bet might be to talk to the guy who sells the falafel and ask him. I would bet that most, if not all, of the people here work in restaurants which are self-contained.
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post #6 of 9
4/21/09 at 4:54am
Why would I want to rent you my window, First /I can use it myself. Second/ you only add competition???????? Only in America
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post #7 of 9
4/21/09 at 3:09pm
Thread Starter 
Generally such arrangement involve selling complimentary or market divergent products, not competitive ones. Coffee shop in bookstore, sandwich shop inside coffee shop, clothing story by day/bar by night, stuff like that.

Is there anybody on this forum that has any experience at all with a sublet arrangement of any kind, even kitchen rental or timeshare on a location? xjmrufinix is probably right, not the norm, but anything would help.
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post #8 of 9
4/21/09 at 5:48pm
At the time I wasn't really thinking of this as being the same thing, but the company I work for (which includes a banquet facility and a la carte restaurant) is actually in space which is leased from a golf club. The Country Club used to run the food service operations and failed, and so now our owner rents their kitchen and dining rooms to run a complimentary but completely separate business. I didn't even think of it until you said rented kitchen, but I guess we're doing what you're talking about it. In our case it's so seamless that most people aren't even aware that there are two business sharing the space.
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post #9 of 9
4/24/09 at 1:20pm
I went to UW and worked on the Ave for years but now I'm in the Methow Valley. I can't think of a falafel place that is in another restaurant's location. Are you thinking of Cedar's? They had a walk up window and a restaurant but they we're the same place. Also Aladdin Falafell but they also have there own restaurant seating in the back. They only place I know of is the small coffee bar, Cafe Appassionato, which was part of the old Tower Record's. Ask them how they got that space, I always wondered myself! I now sell Burrito's and Taco's out of my kitchen window at home which is commercially zoned. It's allowed in Okanogan County as long as I have a seperate kitchen for home use-which I created. Not sure what the laws are in King County on that. I would talk to people in those types of spaces to find out how they did it. Good luck!
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