Arizona — Restaurants & Breweries Insurance

It commonly changes which carriers will look at the account at all. The series describes what the business is permitted to do with alcohol, and carrier appetite differs sharply between a restaurant-series account where alcohol is a minority of receipts and a bar-series account where it is most of them. It is not that one is uninsurable and the other is not; it is that the market for each is different, and knowing the series early tells us where to go first.

Usually it is a separate grant, and often a separate policy. A general liability form commonly excludes liability arising from alcohol service where the insured is in the business of serving it, which is precisely the situation a restaurant or bar is in. Whether yours is endorsed onto the general liability policy or written standalone, the thing worth confirming is how the limits interact with any umbrella above them — that is set by the issued forms rather than by how the two were quoted.

More than most operators expect. It is commonly the single figure that moves a liquor liability quote most, because it is the closest available proxy for how much alcohol exposure the business actually carries. It is also checked — against the license series, against the hours, and at audit against the books. An estimate given casually at quoting and contradicted later is a common source of a premium adjustment nobody planned for.

They answer different things. A property policy generally responds to an external cause such as a fire or a storm. Equipment breakdown generally responds to the machine failing on its own — a compressor, a boiler, a control board — which is the far more common restaurant loss. In Arizona the summer load on refrigeration and HVAC makes that failure mode more likely rather than less. What either one covers is set by the policy as issued.

It is one account with two halves, and it is worth presenting that way. The production side is a manufacturing exposure — tanks, glycol, CO2, boilers, and products liability on anything leaving the building. The taproom is hospitality, with liquor liability, slips and the usual service exposures. Carriers that are comfortable with one are not automatically comfortable with the other, and a submission that describes only the taproom tends to get re-underwritten later.

Arizona requires workers compensation of employers with employees, and the obligation generally does not turn on whether a particular person is full-time, part-time or seasonal. What does change with staffing mix is the payroll figure the premium is estimated on, which is why an audit at the end of the year so often produces a surprise for a business whose headcount moves with the season. Keeping payroll separated by role through the year is what makes that audit uneventful.

It is close to universal, and it is commonly not the only requirement in the exhibit. A lease frequently names the landlord, the property manager and sometimes a lender, specifies limits, requires a waiver of subrogation and sets a notice period. In a shopping center the center's own rules may add more on top, administered by a manager rather than the landlord. Reading that exhibit before signing is the practical protection, and the wording itself is a question for legal counsel.

Faster than most expect when the information is ready, and slowly when it is not. What holds a submission up is almost always the same short list: the license series, the receipts split, hours and closing time, whether there is entertainment or security, the cooking line's age and service records, and payroll by role. With those in hand the process is usually measured in days. Timing also depends on the carrier and on the account, and nothing is in force until it is bound.

No. We place commercial accounts only, and that is a deliberate focus rather than a gap. For a restaurant, bar or brewery it means the people handling your liquor liability also handle the property, the equipment breakdown and the workers compensation, and the operation only has to be explained once. A personal policy for the owner is something another brokerage is better placed to help with.