"Restaurant insurance" sounds like one thing to buy. In practice a food business usually needs several coverages working together. Here are the five that come up most.
A customer slips, gets hurt, or their property is damaged. GL is the baseline most leases and permits require, and the foundation everything else sits on.
Your build-out, kitchen equipment, furniture and inventory, protected against fire, theft and other covered losses. A hood fire or a break-in gets expensive fast. Often bundled with GL in a business owner's policy (BOP).
If you serve alcohol, GL almost certainly won't cover an alcohol-related claim. Liquor liability is a separate coverage, and it is often required. See our liquor liability article for how it works.
Covers your staff when they're hurt on the job: burns, cuts and slips. Arkansas generally requires it once you have three or more employees; Minnesota has no threshold, so one employee triggers it.
Using vehicles for the business, like delivery and catering runs, needs commercial auto. Personal policies often exclude business use, and a delivery accident on a personal policy can be denied. See our restaurant insurance page.
Worth adding: equipment breakdown and food spoilage, for the night the walk-in fails and takes your inventory with it. See our spoilage article. One policy rarely covers all of this; a good setup layers them so there's no gap.
Tell us the concept (sit-down, bar, truck or catering) and we'll quote the coverage that fits.
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