MorningSheetSeattle restaurant build-out permits, read weekly
A build-out permit is the first restaurant signal backed by real money: a kitchen hood, a grease interceptor, a tenant improvement at a specific address. We read King County's permit record every week. Here is what it says right now.
- 16Building out
- 25Coming soon
- 41Opening signals · Last 30 days
- 144Signals · Last 90 days
In build-out right now
Every row below is a Seattle food business in the permit record. Names come once they open. For now: the concept where one is declared, how far along it is, and when it filed.
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Restaurant × 4 · Seattle · Liquor application filed, expect a bar program, signals dated September 2026 – October 2026
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Tobacco / Vape · Seattle · Liquor application filed, expect a bar program, signal dated September 2026
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Full-Service Restaurant × 2 · Seattle · Building out, signals dated September 2026 – October 2026
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Restaurant × 2 · Seattle · Building out, signals dated September 2026
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Café / Snack Shop · Seattle · Building out, signal dated September 2026
In total, 16 Seattle food businesses are building out and 25 are past it (inspection, liquor application, or completed build-out on file).
How we know
Source: King County public records. Counts are estimates from public filings and lag real life by days to weeks.
Pull the permits yourself
The raw record is free. Seattle's Department of Construction and Inspections publishes every permit through its online portal and the Shaping Seattle map; filter to commercial and tenant-improvement work and watch for restaurant tells: a Type I kitchen hood, a grease interceptor, a walk-in cooler, a service-line electrical upgrade. Our guide to reading a building permit covers the fields that matter, and the six free Washington lookup tools cover the rest of the paper trail.
The catch is cadence, not access: permits post daily, under contractor names as often as trade names, and a single missed week is a lost lead. That is the reading we do for you.
From permit to open doors
A build-out permit typically runs weeks to months ahead of first service. When these projects make it to an active license or health permit, they show up by name in our weekly Seattle restaurant openings roundup.