What does restaurant insurance cost per location?
One agency's published range puts a full-service restaurant with beer and wine, doing $1 million to $3 million in sales, at $8,000 to $18,000 a year for every policy combined. Another puts an independent with a full liquor license and $500,000 to $1 million in sales at $6,000 to $10,000. Both are rules of thumb from an agency's own blog, not a survey. A group's real number comes from its claims record, its payroll, its sales and liquor split, the building, and the market that year.
Where the numbers come from
The two ranges above come from agencies publishing what their own restaurant accounts tend to pay. They are useful as a first check and nothing more. Neither is a survey, neither says how many accounts it rests on, and neither separates a group of six stores from a single restaurant. No published number does. The honest answer to what a location should cost is a range, and the range is wide because the inputs below move it a long way in either direction.
What moves the number
A restaurant's premium is priced from a set of inputs, and no single one sets it. The group's claims record on every line comes first, and underwriters usually ask for five years of it. The workers' comp experience number, which commonly owned companies share, prices the biggest people line. Payroll is rated by job class. Sales are rated with the share that is alcohol, and standard carriers pull back from accounts above 25 to 30 percent alcohol to total sales, so above that line fewer carriers quote and the price follows. The concept matters: a late-night bar and a lunch café at the same sales are different accounts. So do the building's construction and fire protection, the hours, and any entertainment. Which carriers want the account that year decides who is bidding. The limits the lease requires come last; the lease is one input and usually not the biggest.
The market moves the number too. In 2026 most lines came down for an account with a clean record, property and workers' comp among them, and liquor liability stayed the tightest line: Why did my restaurant insurance go up this year? What the alcohol share does to the liquor line is in The liquor liability gap.
Why a smaller store pays more per dollar
Premiums have floors. A liquor liability policy often carries a minimum premium of $500 to $1,000 on its own, and the specialty restaurant programs built for groups generally start at $7,500 to $15,000 for the whole package. One published rule of thumb has an $800,000 store paying only 20 to 30 percent less than a $2 million one. That is why insurance runs to a higher share of sales at a small store, and why a group with separate policies for every store pays the floor several times over: Should a restaurant group have one renewal date?
How to use the range
Add up last year's premiums for one store, every policy, and put the total next to that store's sales. Inside the range, the number is ordinary. Well above it, there are two usual reasons: the operation is a higher-risk one, with late hours or a high alcohol share, or the program has not been taken to other carriers in years. Well below it at a full-service restaurant with a bar, the question for the agent is what is on the program and what is not, because a low number there is more often a thin program than a good price.
The same check as a percentage of sales, with the published bands: What percent of sales goes to restaurant insurance? If the number is high and the program has not been shopped, the timing is here: When should a restaurant group shop its insurance?