Insurance for kitchens, and everything that goes wrong in them.
Fire, water from upstairs, a freezer failing overnight, a customer hurt on a wet floor, and the weeks you cannot open afterwards. Food service has more ways to lose money than almost any small business, and a standard business policy misses several of them.
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Liability, kitchen equipment, spoilage, liquor liability and lost income
Restaurants, cafes, bars, caterers and food trucks
Your lease clause, what you cook with, and your hood cleaning records
What insurance does a restaurant need in BC?
Five things do most of the work. Liability for customers and the public. Contents and equipment for your kitchen and fit-out. Business interruption for the income lost while you are closed. Spoilage and equipment breakdown for refrigeration failure. And liquor liability if you serve alcohol. Your lease will also set a liability limit you are contractually required to carry.
A kitchen fire does not close you for a week. Demolition, rebuild, new equipment and a health re-inspection routinely take months, and every one of those months is rent and wages against no revenue. The BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch defines the licence most restaurants hold: “Food Primary licences are for establishments where the primary focus is the service of food”. Hold that licence and you serve liquor, and serving liquor brings liquor liability with it. Read the Province on Food Primary licences (opens in a new tab).
The one we most often see missing is business interruption sized properly. A kitchen fire does not close you for a week. It closes you for months.
Cover built for food service.
Contents, equipment and fit-out
Everything you installed and everything you cook with, usually the largest single investment in the business.
Liquor liability
Required where you serve alcohol, and the exposure continues after a guest leaves your premises.
Tenant’s legal liability
Damage to the space you rent. A kitchen fire that spreads is exactly what this covers.
What insurers will ask about your kitchen.
These are not paperwork questions. They decide whether you get quoted at all, and at what price.
Hood and duct cleaning
How often, and by whom, with records. Grease build-up behind and above the line is a fire risk insurers ask about, and a cleaning record is what answers them.
Fire suppression
A serviced suppression system over the cooking line, inspected on schedule. Lapsed servicing can affect a claim.
Deep fryer and open flame
What you cook with changes the risk considerably. Be accurate, an inaccurate answer is a denied claim later.
Food service is not a cheap class, and here is why that matters.
The savings are in the risk, not the shopping.
Restaurants pay more than most small businesses because they burn more often and cost more to rebuild. No broker can argue that away. What we can do is make sure your submission shows the things that genuinely lower the price (documented hood cleaning, serviced suppression, updated wiring, a sprinklered building) and that you are not paying for cover sized to the wrong numbers.
We will also tell you plainly if the cheapest quote you have been shown is cheap because it excludes something you actually need.
How this can play out.
A hose behind the dishwasher lets go on a Friday night. The kitchen floods, the health inspector closes you on Saturday, and you reopen eleven weeks later. Property pays for the repair. Business interruption pays for the eleven weeks.
Every kind of food business.
What a restaurant policy expects of you.
Restaurant cover comes with housekeeping written into the wording. The conditions are reasonable, but they are still conditions, which means a missed one can turn a covered fire into an argument.
Hood and duct cleaning, on schedule
Wordings usually name a cleaning interval for hoods and ducts, and grease fires are exactly what insurers look at first. Keep the service receipts. After a fire, the paper is the proof.
The suppression system, serviced and tagged
The system over the line needs its inspections current. A lapsed tag does not just risk a fine. It hands the insurer a condition that was not met on the day it mattered.
The menu that outgrew the policy
Adding deep frying, late hours, delivery drivers or a liquor licence changes the risk the premium was built on. Each is insurable when it is said out loud. Found out at claim time, it is the whole conversation.
Renovations nobody mentioned
Knocking out a wall, adding seats or building a patio changes the fire load and the occupancy the premium was built on. Renovations are insurable. The ones that cause trouble are the ones discovered afterwards.
A kitchen that keeps its service records has already done the hard part. It is worth checking that the policy asks for what you already do.
What owners and operators ask us.
How much business interruption cover does a restaurant need?
Base it on how long you would really be closed, demolition, rebuild, equipment lead times, permits and health re-inspection. Twelve months is a common default and it is frequently too short for a serious kitchen fire.
Is spoiled stock covered when a cooler fails?
Under equipment breakdown with spoilage cover, usually yes. Under a standard property policy, usually not, because nothing was damaged by an insured peril, the machine simply stopped.
Do I need liquor liability if I only serve beer and wine?
Yes. The exposure is about serving alcohol at all, not the strength of it, and it continues after the customer leaves your premises.
A customer says our food made them ill. What do I do?
Tell us immediately and do not admit fault or offer compensation. Record what was served, when, and who else ate it. Early notice and good records are what protect you.
Does my policy cover a food truck or catering off-site?
Only if it was arranged for. Off-premises operations are a different exposure and are commonly excluded on a policy written for a fixed location.
My landlord wants to be named on my policy. Is that normal?
Yes, and the lease will say exactly how. Send us the clause and we will match the wording, which is what stops the certificate being rejected.
Not the question you had? Build the restaurant file and set out your own situation in plain words. A licensed broker reads it and replies in writing.
Supplying other kitchens too? wholesale & distribution.
Serving alcohol raises the ceiling you need. umbrella & excess liability.
The questions behind the questions.
Tell us about the kitchen.
What you cook, where, how many seats, and whether you serve alcohol. Send the lease clause too.
A kitchen fire does not close you for a week. business interruption.
A walk-in cooler failing on a Friday night is not a property claim. equipment breakdown is what covers it.