Liability insurance for Restaurants & Bars

• What insurance does a restaurant need?

  Start with who can sue you: injured customers (general liability), victims of an overserved patron (liquor liability), and your own workforce — workers' comp for injuries, EPLI for termination and harassment claims. The package mechanics matter less than whether every plaintiff on that list maps to a live policy with no exclusion standing in the middle.

• Do I need liquor liability insurance?

  If you sell or serve alcohol commercially, yes — your general liability policy excludes liquor claims for businesses in the alcohol trade, and in many places the liquor license itself requires coverage. South Carolina mandates $1 million for on-premises licensees open past 5 p.m. If you only host events where alcohol is served, host liquor coverage usually handles it.

• What do we do when there is no assault and battery insurance available?

  You're not imagining it — carriers have pulled back assault-and-battery coverage for bars, and in some markets no standard carrier will write it. The working playbook: a hospitality broker with surplus-lines access, taking a sublimit over an exclusion, and documented security practices — the same measures South Carolina now credits against its liquor liability mandate.

• What is liquor liability insurance?

  Liquor liability insurance covers claims arising from serving or selling alcohol — typically a third party injured by your intoxicated patron, suing you under a state dram shop law. It exists because general liability policies exclude these claims for any business in the business of alcohol. Many states and most hospitality leases make it a condition of pouring at all.

Coverage mechanics for Restaurants & Bars

Policy mechanics, exclusions, certificates, and claims questions live on our sister publication: Restaurants & Bars on isthiscovered.org.