Restaurant Insurance for California Operators.

California uses split codes for restaurants: 9079 for waitstaff and front-of-house, 9082 for restaurants with limited or no alcohol service, and various kitchen codes depending on operation. Bars get 5641. Mixed operations need careful splits — a brewpub has different kitchen, brewing, and service codes that aren't always handled correctly by general agencies. We've seen restaurants get audit-billed five figures because their broker put everyone under one code.

Some restaurant GL carriers (especially with bars or late-night operations) exclude claims arising from assault or battery — fights, intoxicated customer altercations, security incidents. The exclusion shows up in small print but matters enormously at 1am on a Saturday. We flag this exclusion explicitly when reviewing quotes and either negotiate it out or get you written with carriers who include A&B as standard.

Yes. Restaurant EPLI claims are usually wage-and-hour PAGA actions, not 'mean boss' lawsuits. PAGA representative actions can be filed by a single employee on behalf of the entire workforce for technical Labor Code violations — late paychecks, missed meal breaks, incorrect wage statements. A 25-employee restaurant with a year of technical wage statement errors is looking at $100K+ in potential PAGA exposure. EPLI funds the defense and most of the settlement.

Loss of refrigerated or frozen food due to equipment breakdown or power failure. Standard BOPs include some food spoilage coverage but with sublimits (often $10K-$25K) that don't cover a full walk-in failure at a high-volume restaurant. We add or increase the spoilage sublimit based on your inventory value. The claim that triggers it is almost always 'the walk-in died Thursday night and we lost $35K of weekend prep by Saturday morning.'

Standard EPLI covers claims from your employees. Third-party EPLI extends to claims from customers, vendors, or other non-employees — harassment or discrimination complaints from someone who isn't on your payroll. Critical for restaurants because of customer-facing operations and the unfortunate frequency of complaints involving staff interactions. We add it by default for restaurants unless you opt out.

If you own delivery vehicles, you need commercial auto on them. If your employees use their own cars for delivery (common for small restaurants), you need 'hired and non-owned auto liability' — your business is on the hook when an employee's personal policy is exhausted or denies for commercial use. Both DoorDash/Uber Eats delivery and your own in-house delivery are 'commercial use' regardless of what the driver's personal policy says.

Wage-and-hour EPLI typically covers defense and (depending on policy and jurisdiction) some of the back-wage liability for tip-pool and tip-credit disputes. California has unusual tip rules — tip pools must include only employees in the chain of service, owners and managers can't share in tips, and any tip credit against minimum wage is generally not allowed in California (unlike federal law). Mistakes here are common. EPLI funds the defense; we coordinate with our HR Compliance team on the prevention side.

Yes. Restaurant POS systems are among the most-targeted small-business systems for credit card data breaches. A breach triggers PCI compliance investigations, customer notification costs, credit monitoring obligations, and potential card-brand fines that can exceed $100K. Standard BOPs don't cover any of this. A small standalone cyber policy ($500-$1,500/year) handles the response costs — critical for any restaurant accepting cards.