Restaurant Insurance for Independent Commercial Kitchens

Business Insurance Brokers places restaurant programs for full-service dining, cafes that share a kitchen, and food-service operations that still look like a restaurant on the license. We shop multiple A-rated carriers. We work for the operator, not for one insurer's appetite grid.

Property starts with the build-out you paid for, the hood and fire-suppression system, the cook line, and the walk-ins. Replacement cost on restaurant equipment is not the same as a used-market number from a restaurant auction. We schedule the kitchen so a fire claim is not an argument about depreciation on a six-burner range.

Business income and extra expense decide whether you reopen. A grease fire, a long equipment-breakdown outage, or a civil-authority closure after a neighboring loss can take a dining room dark for months. We ask about ordinary payroll, off-premises catering that can keep cash coming, and whether you have a second location that can absorb volume.

Spoilage, food contamination, and equipment breakdown belong on the same proposal as the building. A compressor failure on a Friday in August is not a theoretical endorsement. Liquor liability is its own form or a real endorsement — we do not accept a brochure mention as dram-shop coverage. Valet or damage-to-customers'-autos, if you park cars, is another add we actually schedule.

Delivery and catering change the auto picture. Owned vans and catering vehicles need commercial auto. Employees in personal cars need hired and non-owned. Food-truck inventory that is not bolted to the truck is inland marine, not a hope that the auto policy will pay for a refrigerator.

Washington and Oregon restaurants also live with state liquor and food-handler rules that do not change the insurance form but do change the application. We ask for the license class and the percentage of alcohol sales as facts, not as a morality test. In Washington, kitchen and front-of-house payroll stays with L&I; we place stop-gap and any out-of-state WC, and we never present a private policy as a replacement for L&I.

Risks we actually schedule

• Kitchen fire, suppression discharge, and the business-income tail that follows a closed dining room.
• Foodborne-illness allegations and food-contamination extra expense after a suspected incident.
• Liquor-law / dram-shop claims from on-premises service or catering pours.
• Walk-in and cook-line mechanical breakdown, plus spoilage of protein and dairy.
• Delivery and catering auto liability, including hired and non-owned errands.