Restaurant Coverage.
Fire is what owners insure against. Three days without a walk-in is what actually closes restaurants.
Hospitality runs on thin margins and perishable inventory, and the losses that hurt most are rarely dramatic. A compressor fails overnight, a power cut runs eight hours, a sewer backs up on a Friday. None of those are covered by a standard commercial policy without specific endorsements.
And if you serve alcohol, liquor liability sits outside your general liability entirely. Dram shop laws in most states can hold a venue responsible for what a patron does after leaving. Send us your policy and we will check both before the price.
Alcohol, refrigeration, and people
A restaurant carries every ordinary business risk plus three that behave differently from anything else in commercial insurance.
Liquor liability
Excluded from general liability, and governed by dram shop statutes that can attach responsibility for what a patron does after leaving. The largest single exposure in a licensed venue.
Perishable inventory
A walk-in failing overnight destroys stock and closes service. Spoilage and equipment breakdown are separate endorsements, and both are needed for this to be covered.
Employment claims
High turnover, young staff and shift management make hospitality one of the most claim-prone industries for employment disputes.
Foodborne illness
A contamination allegation brings closure, remediation and reputational cost. Product liability and specific contamination coverage respond differently.
What a restaurant should be carrying
General liability
Slips, falls and third-party injury. The foundation, and the one thing every venue already has.
Property and contents
Building if owned, plus kitchen equipment, furniture, fit-out and stock. Tenant improvements are frequently the largest and most overlooked figure.
Liquor liability
Separate from general liability, and priced on the proportion of sales that come from alcohol. Non-negotiable for any licensed venue.
Equipment breakdown and spoilage
Refrigeration, HVAC and cooking equipment failure, plus the stock lost when it happens. Inexpensive relative to how often it is claimed.
Business interruption
Lost income while closed, with utility service interruption added so a power cut is covered. On a restaurant the income loss usually exceeds the physical damage.
Workers’ compensation and EPLI
Kitchen injuries are frequent, and employment claims in hospitality are among the highest of any industry.
What actually closes restaurants
Refrigeration failure
The most common serious loss. Stock destroyed, service suspended, and frequently discovered in the morning after running all night.
Fire in the kitchen
Grease and open flame. Suppression system maintenance records matter both to carriers and to whether the claim is paid cleanly.
Water and sewer backup
Sewer backup is excluded by default on most property policies and needs a specific endorsement. In a restaurant it means immediate closure.
Slips and falls
Wet floors, uneven surfaces, dim lighting. Ordinary, frequent, and the reason general liability limits should not be minimal.
Over-service claims
An incident hours after a patron leaves, attributed to service at your venue. This is exactly what dram shop liability responds to.
Extended closure
Whatever the cause, the fixed costs continue. Rent, loan payments and key staff are what business interruption is designed to hold together.
Close the specific gaps, then shop it
Restaurant appetite varies sharply between carriers by cuisine, alcohol percentage, hours and cooking method. A venue one carrier surcharges is another’s preferred class.
Check spoilage and equipment breakdown
The most commonly missing pair and the most commonly claimed. Adding them is inexpensive and changes what a failure actually costs you.
Add utility service interruption
So a power cut is a covered closure rather than an uninsured one. Frequently absent by default.
Right-size liquor liability
Priced on alcohol as a percentage of sales, and frequently set years ago on a mix that has since changed.
Then shop appetite
Late hours, high alcohol percentage and open-flame cooking all swing pricing hard, and the spread between carriers on the same venue is wide.
Send us your policy and we will check the endorsements.
Whether spoilage, equipment breakdown, sewer backup and utility interruption are present tells you what a bad night would actually cost you. Those four lines matter more than the premium. No cost, no obligation.
Restaurant insurance, answered plainly
Do I need liquor liability if I have general liability?+
Yes. General liability excludes claims arising from serving alcohol, and dram shop statutes in most states allow a venue to be held responsible for injuries a patron causes after leaving. It is a separate policy or endorsement, and it is the largest single exposure most bars and restaurants carry.
Is spoilage covered automatically?+
No. Loss of refrigerated stock from a power failure or equipment breakdown needs a spoilage endorsement, usually paired with equipment breakdown coverage. Without both, a failed compressor is entirely your loss, including the food and the days you cannot trade.
What is equipment breakdown?+
Coverage for mechanical and electrical failure, which standard property policies exclude. Refrigeration, walk-ins, HVAC, fryers and electrical panels all sit here, along with the spoilage and downtime that follow a failure.
Does business interruption cover a power cut?+
Only if the policy includes utility service interruption, and many do not by default. A grid outage that closes you for two days is a real and common loss, and it needs to be added deliberately.
What about delivery drivers?+
If staff deliver in their own vehicles you need hired and non-owned auto, and if the restaurant owns vehicles you need commercial auto. Delivery is also rated separately, so it must be declared rather than assumed.
Are third-party delivery platforms covered?+
Not automatically, and the arrangements differ by platform. Where a driver is engaged through a platform, liability allocation depends on the contract, and it is worth confirming your policy responds rather than relying on the platform's cover.
What drives restaurant premiums most?+
Whether alcohol is served and what proportion of sales it represents, cooking methods, square footage, hours of operation, and claims history. Fryers and open flame are rated differently from a cold kitchen.
Do I need employment practices coverage?+
Hospitality has one of the highest rates of employment claims of any industry, driven by high turnover, young workforces and shift management. EPLI is worth serious consideration rather than treating as optional.