Restaurant Closing Checklist

Sous or expediter walks each station with the line. Confirm what's 86'd, what's at par for tomorrow, and what needs to be on the AM prep list. Flag any TCS item that sat out of temp during service.

Cooked TCS food must drop from 140°F to 70°F within 2 hours and to 41°F within 6 hours. Log start time, 2-hour temp, and final temp on the cooling log. Use shallow pans, ice baths, or blast chiller — never lid-on a hot pan in the walk-in.

Walk-in must be 41°F or below; freezer 0°F or below. Use the wall thermometer, not the digital readout on the door — they drift. If either is out of range, mark No below and the corrective-action step will appear.

Triggered when walk-in or freezer temp is out of range. Move TCS product to a backup unit or ice down in lexans, then call the refrigeration vendor's after-hours line. Note unit number and reading on the maintenance log so the AM manager has full context.

Filter oil through the fryer's filter machine; skim crumbs daily, full oil change per the schedule (typically every 5–7 days depending on volume). Scrape the flat top with a grill brick, deglaze with water, season lightly with oil.

Three-bay sink: wash, rinse, sanitize. Verify sanitizer concentration with a test strip — quat at 200–400 ppm or chlorine at 50–100 ppm. Log the ppm reading on the sanitizer log.

Sanitize tabletops, chair seats, and banquette edges. Reset to AM standard — silverware, napkin, condiment caddy, candle/sconce. Pull any wobbly tables for the AM manager to flag for maintenance.

Move chairs to one side, sweep under tables and along the baseboards, then mop with degreaser. Set wet-floor signs at every entry point until dry.

Open Resy / OpenTable / SevenRooms and confirm tomorrow's covers, large parties, BNB notes (allergies, anniversaries, VIPs). Print the AM floor plan and seating sheet so the opener walks into a hot start.

Count well, call, and premium against the par sheet. Note any bottle that's down more than expected versus the night's BTG and cocktail sales — sustained variance is the early signal of overpour or skim.

Rinse faucets nightly; full caustic-line cleaning every 14 days per most distributor agreements. Cap kegs, log keg-on dates so FIFO on the cooler stays honest.

State ABC requirements vary; many jurisdictions require alcohol stored under lock and key after closing hours. Verify the liquor license is currently posted and unexpired while you're back here.

Toilets, urinals, sinks, faucet handles, stall locks, mirrors. Health inspectors check restroom hygiene as a service-level proxy — visible grime here will pull a critical-violation flag elsewhere too.

Leaks, slow drains, broken stall latches, burnt bulbs, ADA grab-bar issues. The AM manager needs this in writing so the call to the plumber happens before lunch service, not at 6 PM.

Log the issue in the maintenance system (or shift email) with photo, location, and severity. Include any temporary fix you applied so the AM manager doesn't waste time re-diagnosing.

Walk every section in Toast / Square / Aloha for unclosed checks before running the Z-report. Tabs left open at lockout are lost revenue and break the tip-out math for that server.

Count cash, compare to the POS cash-due figure, log any over/short by drawer and by server. Persistent shorts on the same server's drawer are the pattern to watch.

Triggered when the drawer is over or short. Recount with the server present, check for misrings or unclosed comps, document the conversation in the variance log. Repeat short events on the same employee escalate per the cash-handling policy.

Apply the posted tip-pool formula — typically a percentage of sales to bar, bussers, food runners. Confirm the FLSA 80/20 rule has not been broken on any tipped employee's shift; if non-tipped duties exceeded 20%, that time is at full minimum wage.

Manager and one witness count the deposit, sign the deposit slip, drop into the safe with timestamp. Never leave a deposit on the desk overnight — most insurance policies exclude losses outside a locked safe.

Kitchen, dish pit, walk-ins, dining, bar, restrooms, server stations, host stand, dumpster area. Check that every gas appliance is off, every sanitizer bucket emptied, every floor mat down for sweeping.

Dining HVAC to night setback (typically 65°F winter / 78°F summer). Keep walk-ins, beer cooler, and exterior security lighting on. Hood fans off only if your local code allows — some jurisdictions require continuous operation if pilots remain lit.

Front, back, patio gate, dumpster enclosure, delivery door. Set the alarm, confirm the panel shows armed, sign the closing log. Two-person lockup if your insurance carrier requires it after a deposit drop.