Titled company vehicles
Schedule the vehicles and the drivers. This is the straightforward case and the only one most operators think of.
Moon Insurance Managers, Inc. · TDI license #5595
Restaurant & Bar Insurance in Houston, TX
A restaurant review should follow the operation rather than a coverage checklist, because one operation produces questions a checklist cannot connect. The same failure can damage a machine, spoil the stock, interrupt service, bring in the health department and close the dining room — and those five consequences do not belong to the same provision.
So this page walks the kitchen, the cooler, the guests, the alcohol, the staff, the delivery and the contracts, and says which policy owns each answer.
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If something has already happened
An injury, a suspected contamination, a closure, a demand letter or a lawsuit goes to the current carrier under its own notice terms, and to the advisers the situation calls for — counsel, the health authority, an industrial hygienist. Preserve the records while they exist: temperature logs, service tags, receipts, video, staffing. Then call us on (281) 484-8320. Incident facts do not belong in a form on a website.
Start here
Describe the operation, not the policy
Everything downstream is decided by these seven things, and a quote produced without them is a guess with a number attached:
- Fixed restaurant, bar, café, bakery, caterer, brewery taproom, food truck or mobile unit.
- Cooking methods, and what suppression equipment sits over them.
- Refrigeration, utility dependency, and how much perishable stock is held at a time.
- Dine-in, takeout, delivery, catering and off-site service.
- Alcohol, entertainment, security and late-night hours.
- Employees, contractors and anyone driving for the business.
- Lease, landlord, lender, franchise or event-contract requirements.
Then each part gets matched to the form designed to address it — which is where most of the surprises live, because the form boundaries do not follow the way an operator thinks about their own building.
From the range outward
The kitchen, and what it can reach
The U.S. Fire Administration tracks cooking as a substantial source of nonresidential building fires, and OSHA’s restaurant material catalogues the everyday hazards: burns, grease, electrical, heat, slips, equipment. Neither is a statement about this restaurant or this city, and neither predicts a claim. They are the reason the kitchen is where a property review starts.
What insurance turns on is narrower than the hazard: the exact cause, and the exact policy. The building and the business personal property need the right ownership and valuation — tenant improvements are the line item most often misplaced, because the lease and the policy can disagree about who insures them. Depth on the building side sits on commercial property insurance, which also carries the Gulf-coast wind and flood boundary this page does not restate.
Sources: USFA — nonresidential cooking fire trends; OSHA — restaurant safety: cooking. Verified .
A local operating fact
The suppression system has a paper trail
Houston Fire Department LSB Standard 02 requires commercial kitchen hood fire-suppression systems to be inspected and service-tagged at least every six months, and again after any activation, with related cleaning and extinguisher requirements. That is an operating duty, and it is not an insurance promise.
It does create a form question, though, and a sharp one. Where a property policy schedules a protective safeguard — a hood system, an alarm, a sprinkler — the schedule usually comes with conditions. Identify what equipment is listed, who inspects and maintains it, what records have to be kept, what happens while it is impaired, and whether the carrier requires notice during an outage.
The one thing to avoid is three versions of the truth: the application, the inspection record and the actual kitchen describing different systems.
Source: Houston Fire Department — LSB Standard 02. Verified .
The part nobody separates
One failure, six questions
The walk-in cooler stops on a Friday night. Operators describe that as one loss, insurers do not, and the gap between those two sentences is where a bad renewal happens. Six questions, and the answer to each can turn on the cause, where the damage was, the temperature records, the maintenance history, the utility wording, a waiting period, a sublimit, or the definition of covered stock:
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The compressor or the electrical parts
Damage to the machine itself, where the cause is accidental mechanical or electrical breakdown. Wear, corrosion and poor maintenance are commonly excluded.
Equipment breakdown
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The food that was inside it
Perishable stock, and only where the specific cause and the power or refrigeration trigger are covered. It does not follow automatically from the equipment stopping.
Spoilage
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The power failed a block away
An outage off the premises usually needs its own extension, with its own covered causes, waiting period and transmission-line wording.
Utility services
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Something unsafe reached a customer
An allegation of illness or injury from the food served. A liability question rather than a property one, decided by the classification and exclusions.
Premises and products liability
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It becomes a public-health event
Cleanup, disposal, withdrawal, customer communication, or a closure ordered by the health authority. Frequently a distinct coverage part with its own limit.
Food contamination or recall
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The dining room cannot open
Lost net income, continuing expenses and extra expense — but only after a trigger the policy accepts, and only for as long as its restoration terms allow.
Business income and extra expense
The last row is the one with a page of its own: whether income lost after a covered event is recoverable, and for how long, belongs to business interruption insurance. The other five are terms inside a property policy, and the useful question is never “does the policy have spoilage” — it is to trace one scenario end to end and see where it stops.
The dining room
Guests, food, and property that is not yours
General liability insurance is the starting point for covered allegations of customer bodily injury or property damage — a slip, a hot-liquid burn, an illness allegedly caused by the food. The declarations, the classifications, the premises, how products and completed operations are treated, the exclusions and the limits all control, which is why the classification on the policy should match what the kitchen actually does.
Then the property that does not fit a tidy building-and-contents list, and routinely gets left off:
- leased kitchen equipment, and who is obliged to insure it;
- customers’ property held at a coat check or taken to a catering job;
- rented event premises, and what the rental agreement makes you responsible for;
- outdoor seating, signs, awnings and detached structures;
- money, securities, and theft by the people who handle them;
- point-of-sale hardware and the data on it; and
- everything in transit to an off-site job.
Two policies, open together
Alcohol, and the night that goes wrong
A restaurant or bar in the business of selling or serving alcohol commonly meets the standard general liability liquor exclusion, which is written against exactly that business. The correct move is to read the general liability policy and a separate liquor policy or endorsement side by side, rather than to assume one covers what the other excludes.
Under Texas law, liability for an alcohol-related injury turns on whether it was apparent to the provider at the time of service that the person was obviously intoxicated to the point of clear danger, plus proximate cause — not on a number produced later. The full statutory treatment, the 2025 evidence rule and the two safe harbors are on liquor liability insurance, and they are not repeated here.
For a fight, an ejection, a weapons allegation or a security incident, assault-and-battery and negligent-security wording needs reading across the general liability form, the liquor form, every excess layer, and the security vendor’s own contract and policy. An insurer may exclude it, endorse some of it back, sublimit it, or give it a separate aggregate. “A&B included” on a proposal is a label, not a reading.
Sources: ISO CG 00 01 specimen; TDI General Casualty Bulletin 548. Verified .
Payroll
Staff create two separate Texas decisions
Kitchen and service work carries burns, cuts, strains, slips, electrical hazards and, on late shifts, the risk of violence. Two different policies answer two different questions about the same people, and they are not alternatives.
The first is whether the business subscribes at all. Texas does not require most private employers to carry coverage for occupational injury, and that election is lawful rather than negligent — but it carries duties and a defined litigation exposure, and a lease or a client contract can require coverage whatever the statute allows. The material is on workers’ compensation insurance, including what changes for an employer who opts out.
The second is claims brought by the staff rather than injuries suffered by them. Employment practices liability insurance is designed for covered allegations such as discrimination, harassment, retaliation or wrongful termination, subject to its claims-made, reporting, insured-person, retention and defense terms. It does not automatically answer wage-and-hour, overtime, tip or classification disputes: those are commonly excluded or limited, sometimes to defense costs only. In an industry that runs on tipped wages and split shifts, that is the sentence worth knowing before renewal rather than after a demand.
Source: TDI — employer coverage requirements. Verified .
“We deliver”
Four vehicles, four answers
Delivery, catering runs and supply trips are where one policy gets asked to do four jobs. The question that sorts it is not what the vehicle is doing — it is who owns it:
An employee’s own car
Two questions, not one. Whether their personal policy permits the actual business or delivery use, and whether the business has non-owned liability for its own exposure. That coverage generally does not repair the employee’s car and does not automatically make the driver an insured.
Rented or borrowed vehicles
Hired-auto liability, plus whatever the rental agreement says about physical damage — which is usually more than the person signing it expects.
A delivery platform or a vendor’s driver
Read the contract, the indemnity, the insured-status requirement and the evidence terms rather than assuming the platform carries the risk.
The form distinctions behind all four sit on commercial auto insurance.
A mobile unit is a different intake again, not just a van: property, permanently attached and portable equipment, transit, the commissary and every location it serves. Texas moved to statewide mobile food vendor licensing with pre-licensing inspection from 1 July 2026, in categories based on what food preparation the unit actually does. Confirm the current DSHS and local requirements directly — an insurance page is not licensing advice.
Source: Texas DSHS — mobile food vendors. Verified .
Same page, five operations
Where the emphasis moves
Restaurant without alcohol
Premises and products, kitchen safeguards, property valuation, the breakdown and spoilage chain, staff, and how the business reopens.
Bar or late-night venue
Everything above, plus alcohol, security arrangements, entertainment, assault-and-battery wording and the excess layers over all of it.
Caterer
Transit, off-premises operations, rented venues and equipment, client contracts, hired and non-owned vehicles, and who is legally selling any alcohol at the event.
Food truck or mobile unit
The vehicle and any trailer, permanently attached and portable equipment, generator and propane, transit, the commissary, and every location it serves from.
Brewery or taproom
Manufacturing and product questions separated from the taproom’s premises and alcohol service, plus distribution, process equipment, contamination and recall.
Somebody else's paperwork
The lease is part of the review
A landlord, lender, franchisor, festival or catering client may require stated liability and property limits, liquor coverage, compensation or employers liability, business auto, an umbrella or excess layer, additional insured or waiver or primary and non-contributory wording, loss-payee or lender interests, and evidence by a particular date.
Bring the exact clause rather than a summary of it. And keep the order of operations straight: a certificate reports policy information and cannot amend or extend the policy. Additional insured status comes from the policy or an endorsement — never from the certificate that mentions it.
Source: TDI — certificates of insurance FAQ. Verified .
No obligation
What makes the review quick
- Legal entity, locations, operation type, hours, and whether you are opening or renovating.
- Cooking methods, hood and suppression service tags, alarm and sprinkler details, grease and maintenance records.
- Who is responsible for the building under the lease, and what the tenant improvements, equipment and stock are worth.
- Refrigeration, utility dependency, any generator, and how spoilage is controlled.
- Alcohol activity and permit type, entertainment, security and age restrictions.
- Dine-in, delivery, catering, mobile and off-site operations.
- Who owns the vehicles, and who drives them.
- Employee count, a payroll band, and whether the business subscribes for compensation coverage.
- Current policies, and a high-level summary of loss history.
- Any lease, lender, franchise, festival or client insurance clause — and its deadline.
Contracts, declarations, inspection reports, permits, payroll detail and loss runs travel through a secure route we will name on the call. The phone is fastest: (281) 484-8320, or use the form below.
Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00; Friday, 9:00 to 4:00. The Houston office is at 360 FM 1959, Houston, TX 77034.
Questions we get from operators every week
What insurance should a restaurant or bar review?
Start with the fixed parts: premises and products liability, the building and contents, equipment and stock, income after a covered loss, the people, and the vehicles. Then add what this particular operation does — alcohol, security, delivery, catering, mobile service, payment data, cash handling, contamination and recall, excess limits, and whatever the lease or a client contract requires. Which of those apply is the review; the list is not the answer.
Does general liability cover a claim about an intoxicated customer?
For a business that sells or serves alcohol, the unendorsed ISO general liability form’s liquor exclusion commonly applies — it is written against an insured in the business of selling, serving or furnishing alcohol. A separate liquor policy or endorsement is the document to review, and the actual forms decide. What the Texas standard requires before liability attaches at all is a different question, and it has its own page.
Does equipment breakdown pay for spoiled food?
Not automatically. Damage to the machine, the spoiled stock, power lost off the premises and the income lost while closed can be four separate provisions with four different triggers, waiting periods and limits. One endorsement rarely answers the whole chain, which is why the review traces the scenario rather than checking a box.
Does business income pay whenever the restaurant closes?
No. It generally requires the trigger the policy names — often direct physical loss or damage from a covered cause at a described location — plus the waiting period and the restoration terms. A utility outage, a contamination closure or a civil-authority order each need their own analysis, and none of them is the same as the dining room being quiet.
Does EPLI cover a wage or tip dispute?
Often not for indemnity. Wage-and-hour, overtime, tip and worker-classification claims are commonly excluded or limited, and some forms provide defense costs only, with a sublimit. This is worth reading before you need it: pay-practices claims are ordinary in food service, and the form is where the answer is.
Do we need commercial auto for delivery?
It depends entirely on who owns the vehicle. A titled company van, an employee driving their own car, a rented vehicle and a third-party platform’s driver create different personal-auto, business-auto, hired, non-owned and contractual questions. "We deliver" is not enough information to answer it.
Is workers’ compensation required for a Texas restaurant?
Most private Texas employers may choose whether to subscribe. That is a lawful election rather than a loophole, and it comes with its own duties and a defined litigation exposure for employers who opt out — plus the possibility that a lease or a client contract requires coverage regardless. The choice deserves its own conversation.
Does a business owner’s policy include every restaurant exposure?
No bundle does. A package may combine certain property and liability coverages neatly, and eligibility rather than price is what decides whether a restaurant can be written on one — but liquor, breakdown, spoilage, utility interruption, contamination and recall, employment allegations, vehicles, payment data, crime and excess limits remain separate decisions on their own forms.