A risk advisor for restaurants & food service

A restaurant stacks exposures most businesses face one at a time. The open kitchen runs grease, flame, and 350-degree fryer oil within reach of staff, so cuts and burns drive frequent workers’ comp claims and your experience mod — the lower the mod, the lower the premium, which is why class-code accuracy between kitchen and front-of-house payroll matters at audit. The dining room and entryway draw foot traffic onto wet tile, ramps, and patios, where a slip-and-fall lands on general liability. Behind the line, walk-ins and reach-ins hold perishable inventory that a power outage or compressor failure can wipe out overnight, and a hood-system fire can shut you down for weeks — so equipment breakdown, food spoilage, and business interruption (with a realistic period of restoration and an extra-expense provision) are where the dollars actually sit.

Alcohol changes the risk profile entirely. Liquor liability and dram-shop exposure sit outside standard general liability, and many leases, landlords, and jurisdictions require it before you pour. We review whether your limits match your lease and license requirements, whether assault and battery is excluded or sub-limited (a common gap for bars and late-night service), and whether a liquor license or fidelity bond is required as a condition of licensure. Delivery is its own line: drivers using their own cars create hired and non-owned auto exposure that a standard property package does not pick up, and third-party delivery apps rarely extend coverage back to the restaurant.

We structure the program around how a kitchen actually takes a loss rather than a generic package — reading exclusions, sub-limits, and the spoilage and business-income provisions line by line so a quiet exclusion does not turn a covered-looking event into an out-of-pocket loss. Where leases and franchisors demand specific additional-insured status, waiver of subrogation, or evidence of liquor liability, we issue certificates with the endorsements those contracts call for and flag terms that are unlikely to be met as written.