I have been doing cakes out of my home for 10+ years. I'm not commercially licensed, but the health inspector knows I do this and take a food safety class every 2 years. She does want me to be licensed but we have an ordinance within our county that as long as I consider it a hobby it is fine. I probably should be licensed. We were going to enclose our garage last year after talking to the health inspector, but after seeing what all we had to do in the garage it didn't make financial sense. I had a guy (that we know very well) come to me this morning. He has a building that use to be a restaurant and has decided that he wants to open it back up. This time only have 2 employees (one to cook and the other to work the counter) kind of like a fast food type setup. Only breakfast and lunch, close at 1:30. He wants me to do my cakes up there (not to sell in the restaurant) but for me to have my commercial kitchen. The "rent" I would have is to supervise the 2 employees and make sure they are being honest and doing their jobs. Even said I could get my kids to school then go in and leave when it closed if I was done with cakes. He just wanted to know if I was at all interested and said we would iron out details later. Some the questions I have are Does this sound too good? and a question about weekend orders. Right now I have people pickup on Sat and Sun but I'm at home. I don't want to go to work on the weekend just for pickup. I would need Sat for wedding deliveries. How do you all do it?

idk -- could you supervise and get your cake work done -- what if he gets busy and needs to hire two more people -- it is important for you to retain as much control as possible -- so i would set up an understanding in advance that if you see it is becoming more and more restaurant and less and less cake that you can opt out or opt for a change of some kind -- maybe come in and work from 1:30 forward and pay a different kind of rent -- 

best of the best to you

I would say just make Sure that whatever agreement you make with him, you err on the side of caution and always give yourself  a way out.  You wouldn't want to get yourself stuck in a situation that would be hard to get out of.  Also, plan now for if the restaurant goes under.  K8 is right, and that's a best case scenario; don't forget the worst case scenario plan too.

Sounds like a kind of "under the table" job. I wouldn't do it. Sounds too wishy-washy. If he wants to open it back up, he either needs to hire a manager, rent it out properly, or supervise the employees himself. He could always rent it out to cakers like yourself if he just wants the money and not the work of having employees. You can't guarantee that those employees will not steal/trash the place, follow food safety rules, etc and if they don't then the responsibility is yours, not his, because you were there not him.

Edit: Forgot to add that managers usually work over 40 hours a week, regardless of the extra paper work. So add that plus your cake time and you have your work week. Over 50+hours, plus not getting paid for it? No thanks!

This all sounds pretty safe.  You aren't giving him customer information but rather he knows that since you are established your customers will become his too. Having your business brings people thru his door. Letting you use the kitchen is a great bargain for him.

1) Make sure you set the schedule early on. Only weekdays 9-2 but not in concrete. If a staff member gets sick,  he shouldn't count on you for that.  

2) You don't have to be there for pick ups.

If orders are paid for prior, the having the staff hand over a box isn't a big deal.  

3) have whole 8" cakes ready all the time. Taking full advantage of his customers that come in. 

4) train staff to take customer info for orders, basic knowledge at hand such as 3 days notice, flavors list, etc. Also have a tasting calender availablw