Burning furniture wasn’t a requirement Dennis Leung ever thought would be necessary to open a restaurant in San Francisco.

As the general manager of Dragon Beaux, a dim sum hot spot in the Richmond District, he’d been through the opening process before. Still, when a fire marshal last month told him some of the chairs at his upcoming Ghirardelli Square restaurant, Palette, would need to be incinerated to test them for harmful chemicals, Leung couldn’t help but think: Well, this is new.

Chefs and business owners have long bemoaned the process of opening a restaurant in the Bay Area, and especially San Francisco. Not only is it an expensive endeavor — costing on average about $750,000 for a brick-and-mortar in the city, according to the Golden Gate Restaurant Association — the process is fraught with a curious number of permits and approvals.

Notice the light from those open candles at the end of the table? That means the restaurant obtained an open flame permit from the San Francisco Fire Department.

Hear the voices of Frank Sinatra or Drake playing overhead during dinner service? The owners are paying fees to artists and performing rights organizations to allow those tunes.

For Palette, California’s flame retardant ban just happens to be the latest hurdle in an already arduous process. Leung is still waiting to hear back about the chemical composition of the chairs. For now, they’re being stashed away, and replacement chairs are occupying the dining room.

In 2018, the state banned the use of flame retardants in a number of items, including new upholstered furniture. Some of the furniture at Palette came from the building’s previous tenant — a restaurant by celebrity chef Jonathan Waxman — which opened before the law was enacted. Leung said a chair was missing a tag signifying it was free of the banned chemicals.

“We had to pick out chairs to send to a lab to burn it and see if they were OK for us to use,” Leung said with a laugh. The weeks-long process, necessary for passing the fire inspection, pushed back the restaurant’s opening date from February to at least April.

The potential roadblocks don’t stop there. Place of Assembly Permits are required for restaurants that may have 50 or more people there at any one time. Sign permits through the city’s planning department are necessary for any business that may want to use signage. And if a restaurant uses more water than a building’s previous tenant, a water and wastewater capacity charge comes via the city’s public utilities commission.

Even before the avalanche of permits and fees, opening a restaurant in the region follows an identifiable arc, in most cases. It all begins with a business owner obtaining a business registration certificate to operate in the city.

The next most important step is finding a space. This means searching lots in the city while adhering to zoning codes. Sometimes there is a need for a conditional use permit, which is approved through the city’s planning commission. Along with this step comes procuring an all-important liquor license, if available, from the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

From there, restaurant owners have to obtain everything from food handler’s cards from the health department, to extended-hours permits for late-night spots, to cafe table and chair permits for outside seating.

Mixed into this process are the series of inspections — fire and building checks — culminating in a health inspection that finally allows the restaurant to open its doors.

“It’s different between each business owner. Some are familiar with what’s going on and they know what to expect. Others, like I was, are just kind of learning about all the permits as they come up,” said Lila Owens of her experience opening Cupcakin’ Bake Shop in Oakland. She now plans to take over the former home of Berkeley’s Virginia Bakery on Shattuck Avenue later this year.

Bar industry veteran Jennifer Colliau, best known for her pioneering work at the Interval at Fort Mason, is now spearheading a restaurant and bar in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood that is named Here’s How. It, too, has seen its fair share of delays.

One of the biggest hurdles Colliau has faced in both cities is scheduling inspections. Colliau said that she scheduled her final fire inspection, one of the last hurdles a restaurant owner must get through before opening, in late 2018. It didn’t happen until February.

The delays aren’t without consequences. Colliau had already hired her staff, but as the debut was pushed back due to permitting, some of her workers were starting to grow restless. At Palette, Leung said employees have started to find other jobs amid the delays.

Then there’s the rent. Inspection and construction delays often require the owner to pay for a space that isn’t generating revenue, which is true for Leung. He wouldn’t say how much is rent at Ghirardelli Square is, but Colliau’s is $17,000 per month in Oakland.

But there’s always light at the end of the tunnel for the chefs and business owners. What makes the process worth it, despite the hurdles, is finally opening the doors.

“It’s a lot of work to open a place,” Colliau said. “By the end it, you just need some patience.”

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips