Every restaurant owner knows they need "insurance." Fewer know that the general liability policy protecting them from slip-and-falls has a hole in it shaped exactly like a beer tap: claims arising from serving alcohol are typically excluded from general liability. If you serve, sell, or even just furnish alcohol, that exclusion is pointed at you.
The scenario nobody likes to picture: a guest is over-served at your place, drives, and hurts someone. The injured party's lawyer doesn't just pursue the driver — they pursue the establishment that poured. Liquor liability (sometimes called dram shop coverage) is the policy that responds to that claim: the defense costs and the damages, up to your limits. Without it, your GL carrier points at the alcohol exclusion and steps aside.
Premium scales primarily with your alcohol sales. A café doing 5% of revenue in beer and wine pays far, far less than a late-night bar doing 60%. That's why we ask for your food-to-alcohol split on every restaurant quote — accurate numbers keep you from paying bar rates for a bistro. Our restaurant insurance page covers the full package: property, GL, workers' comp, business income, spoilage.
Send us your sales split and the insurance section of your lease. We build the policy to match both — quoted free, in writing.
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