A restaurant typically receives shipped products, prepares the food on-site, serves it in the restaurant, creates invoices, pays suppliers and employees, and cleans the establishment. They have full- and part-time employees and carry liability, property (often in the form of a Business Owners Policy or BOP) and Workers Compensation insurance. If any type of liquor or beer is served, they are required to have liquor liability insurance as well. Offering delivery would create a need for commercial auto, especially if catering is involved.

Almost a subset of restaurants is where you will find catering. The three differences that come to mind first are the location of the production of food, exposure to the public, and the employees.

A caterer varies in that the food is prepared offsite in either their own kitchen or a professional kitchen that isn’t open to the public, and they may or may not have deliveries. This does limit their liability in some ways, but the liability for injury and product liability remains.

Caterers prepared product is placed in food-safe containers, most often delivered and plated at the designated location, and later come to pick up the serving equipment. The caterer may or may not have employees who provide table service at an event or help prepare the food in the kitchen. Caterers may hire wait staff just for the event. They may even hire bartenders for an event (but they don’t have to carry liquor liability; that is supplied by the leasing employer).

Caterers will basically need the same types of insurance as a restaurant. They will still have a need for liability insurance and property insurance (your regular homeowners’ insurance won’t cover your home for damages due to a catering fire or a trip and fall by the delivery guy). The possible exception is Workers’ Compensation coverage if they have no employees. If the caterer is either leasing or renting employees from an employment service, those costs are part of the actual price they are paying.

It’s important to note that while you can procure the property, liability, and workers’ compensation policies on separate contracts, it is usually more cost-effective to get as many of the needs covered under one policy (BOP). You might even be able to get liquor liability coverage on the BOP, but you will need to get the Workers Compensation insurance as a “standalone” policy.