Restaurants · Halifax & HRM
Restaurant insurance for Halifax kitchens.
Open flame, deep fryers, alcohol, a public dining room and margins that cannot absorb a month of closure. Restaurants are one of the harder classes to place well. I write cafes, bars, full-service kitchens and food trucks across Halifax, Bedford, Dartmouth and the rest of HRM.
What actually goes wrong
Grease and fire
Cooking fires are the signature restaurant loss. An underwriter will ask about your hood suppression system, how often the ducts get cleaned and how the fryers are set up. Vague answers get you a surcharge or a decline.
The walk-in quits on a Friday
A compressor failure over a long weekend can write off thousands in stock. Your property policy will not pay for it. That claim needs equipment breakdown with spoilage attached, and plenty of restaurant policies do not carry it.
A guest you served leaves and drives
Liquor liability follows an over-served guest out the door, and Nova Scotia courts have been willing to hold a licensee responsible. It needs to be on the policy in writing, not assumed because you have a liquor licence.
You are closed for six weeks
Repairs always take longer than owners expect, especially with permits involved. Business interruption has to be sized against a realistic rebuild, not an optimistic one, and rent and payroll keep running the whole time.
What a restaurant policy usually covers
- Commercial general liability, usually at $2M or $5M depending on what your landlord asks for
- Property and leasehold improvements: equipment, fit-out, signage and stock, at replacement cost
- Business interruption for lost profit plus the expenses that keep running
- Equipment breakdown with spoilage, for coolers, freezers and HVAC
- Liquor liability, extended if you cater off-site or run events
- Tenant’s legal liability, which nearly every commercial lease in HRM requires
- Crime and cyber, for employee theft and a point-of-sale system holding card data
What I’ll ask you for
Seating capacity, annual sales, what share of sales is alcohol, whether you own or lease, your hood cleaning records, and your current policy if you have one.
That is normally enough to get real quotes moving inside a week.
Questions I get asked
Does my restaurant policy cover food that spoils?
Only if you carry equipment breakdown with spoilage coverage attached. A standard commercial property policy covers the cooler against fire or theft, not against the compressor failing. Spoilage is the add-on that pays for the stock inside, and it is one of the most common gaps I find on restaurant policies in Halifax.
Do I need liquor liability if I only serve beer and wine?
Yes. Liquor liability responds to harm caused by someone you served, and the law does not distinguish between a glass of wine and a shot of whisky. If you hold a licence and serve alcohol on premises, the exposure exists. What changes with a lower alcohol share is the price, not the need.
My landlord wants to be an additional insured. What does that mean?
It means your liability policy is extended to protect them for claims arising out of your operations. If a customer is hurt in your dining room and sues both of you, your insurer defends the landlord too. It is a standard lease requirement and it is a small endorsement, but it has to be requested. Being listed only as certificate holder does not do it.
What does restaurant insurance cost in Nova Scotia?
Anyone who gives you a number before seeing your operation is guessing. Price is driven by sales volume, whether you own the building, your cooking method, alcohol share, claims in the last five years, and the state of your fire protection. Two restaurants on the same street can sit far apart on price for reasons that are entirely fixable. I would rather look at yours and tell you what is moving it.
Renewal coming up?
Sixty days out is the right time to start. Send me your declaration page and I will tell you what is missing before I tell you what it costs.
Rayanur Rahman 