A Texas restaurant usually needs a business owner's policy (property plus general liability), liquor liability if it sells or serves alcohol, and a decision on workers' compensation, which Texas lets most private employers choose not to carry. Most accounts also need employment practices liability, cyber and hired and non-owned auto. What sets Texas apart is that optional workers' comp, a dram shop law that holds servers to account, and a property market shaped by hail, wind and freeze.

That's the daily special. The rest of this guide is the full menu: what to put on the account, what Texas agents are actually quoting, and how to keep a Lone Star placement from getting 86'd in underwriting.

What coverage does a Texas restaurant need?

Think of a Texas restaurant account in three layers: the core package, the restaurant-specific add-ons and the lines you place around the package.

• Business owner's policy (BOP): building (if owned), business personal property, business income and general liability in one form. Rainbow's restaurant BOP writes general liability at $1M/$2M, with $2M/$4M available by referral.
• Liquor liability: needed for any client that sells or serves alcohol, because standard general liability forms typically exclude it for businesses in the alcohol trade. Rainbow writes it at $1M/$1M.
• Workers' compensation (or a documented decision not to buy it): optional for most Texas private employers, which makes it a conversation rather than a box to tick. More on that below.
• Employment practices liability (EPL): available to $1M with Rainbow. Restaurants hire, fire and schedule a lot of people, and every one of those decisions can turn into a claim.
• Cyber: available to $1M. Online ordering, POS systems and loyalty programs all hold card and customer data.
• Hired and non-owned auto (HNOA): available to $1M for incidental use, such as an employee running to the store. It doesn't cover delivery or catering driving, so ask how the client delivers before you quote.
• Excess: Rainbow offers excess limits over general liability, liquor, assault and battery and professional for clients whose leases, landlords or franchise agreements ask for more.

Whether a given loss is covered always comes down to the policy form, endorsements and exclusions, so walk clients through what's in and what's out rather than promising blanket protection.

Do Texas restaurants have to carry workers' comp?

Usually not, and that's the biggest difference between a Texas restaurant account and one in almost any other state. The Texas Department of Insurance says private employers can choose to carry workers' compensation coverage, and that it isn't required in most cases. Employers that go without it, often called non-subscribers, still have obligations: they must notify their employees and the Division of Workers' Compensation that they don't have coverage.

Optional doesn't mean low-stakes. A non-subscriber gives up the protections that come with a workers' comp policy, and a kitchen is a busy place for burns, cuts and slips during the Friday rush. When a client says they don't want workers' comp, treat it as an advice moment:

• Explain what an employee injury could cost the business without coverage, and check whether a lease, franchise agreement or contract requires it anyway.
• Remind them about the required notices to employees and to the state if they stay a non-subscriber.
• Document the conversation and the client's decision in your file.

What kinds of restaurants are Texas agents quoting?

Casual dining is the bread and butter here too. Among Texas restaurant quote applications on Rainbow's platform where a class was recorded, about 57% were casual dining, 33% were quick service, 5% were fine dining and 5% fell into all other classes.

Methodology: based on 5,071 Texas restaurant quote applications with a recorded class, November 2025 to October 2026, counted once per application by first quote date. Applications with no class recorded (about 45% of the 9,205 Texas restaurant applications in the period) are excluded.

Texas leans a little further toward casual dining than California, where a similar cut showed 54% casual dining and 36% quick service in our California restaurant guide. That mix shapes what underwriting will ask you. Casual dining means full commercial kitchens with hoods and fryers, table service and, often, a bar, so expect questions on alcohol sales, closing hours and fire suppression on most Texas submissions. Quick service accounts are usually simpler on liquor, but the cooking details still matter, especially whether the kitchen produces grease-laden vapors that need an exhaust system.

How does Texas dram shop law affect liquor liability?

Texas lets an injured person sue a licensed provider that served a patron who was obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger to themselves and others, when that intoxication caused the damages. That's a high bar, but it's a real exposure, and it's the main claim liquor liability is there to pay.

Two things make Texas liquor accounts different in underwriting:

• Texas isn't a "favorable" dram shop state in our underwriting guide, so Texas accounts are underwritten under the stricter alcohol rules: no business hours between midnight and 5am in most cases, and a closer look at alcohol mix, happy hours and drink specials.
• TABC seller training can matter in a claim. Texas has a safe harbor that can keep an employee's over-service from being attributed to the employer when staff are required to complete TABC-approved training and the employer didn't encourage the violation. Training records are evidence, not paperwork.

We cover the statute, the safe harbor and our Texas alcohol data in detail in liquor liability insurance in Texas: what agents need to know.

How do hail, wind and freeze change Texas restaurant property?

Property is where Texas restaurant accounts get weather-beaten. Hail across much of the state, hurricane wind on the Gulf Coast and the occasional hard freeze all land on the same roof, cooler and kitchen.

• Roof age: Rainbow's admitted restaurant BOP looks for roofs under 20 years old (30 for metal in good repair). In a hail state, roof age and condition are often what decides how a building is placed.
• Building systems: electrical and plumbing should be updated within 25 years. Older systems don't always end the conversation, but they can move an account out of the admitted BOP.
• Coastal wind: for buildings near the coast, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is the wind-and-hail market of last resort. TWIA covers wind and hail only, for residential and commercial property in the 14 first-tier coastal counties and parts of Harris County east of Highway 146, and applicants must have been declined by at least one private insurer. Plan the wind piece early on any coastal account.
• Freeze and spoilage: a power outage or burst pipe can wipe out a walk-in cooler overnight. Ask how the client protects refrigeration and pipes, and check how the quoted policy handles spoilage rather than assuming it's included.
• Protection class: locations in protection class 9 or 10 are ineligible, which rules out some rural risks.

When does a Texas restaurant belong in E&S?

Some good restaurants don't fit an admitted BOP: a higher alcohol mix, older roofs or building systems, coastal wind exposure, a newer management team or a lapse in coverage. That's what Rainbow's non-admitted E&S companion program is for, and the E&S restaurant BOP is available in Texas to give agents a home for these accounts.

In Texas, alcohol mix is the most common trigger. Our live underwriting guide treats restaurants with alcohol at 50% of sales or less as admitted (above 50% needs underwriter approval), 51% to 65% as an E&S fit, and more than 65% as outside appetite apart from edge cases referred to underwriting. Wine bars and brewpubs follow their own thresholds.

E&S terms differ from the admitted program. Assault and battery is always a buyback, defense is inside the limits by default and business income is sublimited by default. Explain those differences to the client before binding so there are no surprises at claim time.

Which Texas restaurants are out of appetite?

Knowing what not to submit saves everyone time. Rainbow's restaurant program doesn't write nightclubs, bars and taverns without food service, casinos, pool halls, adult entertainment, hookah bars or standalone mobile food vendors such as food trucks. Dance floors, live concerts with three or more performers, and activities like mechanical bulls or ax throwing also take a risk out of the admitted BOP. A food truck owned by a brick-and-mortar restaurant doesn't make the restaurant ineligible, but the program can't cover the truck's property or auto exposure, and its sales need to be included in the restaurant's reported sales.

When a detail decides eligibility, check it with underwriting at underwriting@userainbow.com before you set expectations with the client.

What makes a Texas restaurant submission clean?

The fastest binds come from submissions that answer underwriting's questions before they're asked. For a Texas restaurant, gather these up front:

1. Kitchen fire protection: UL 300 suppression and NFPA 96 ventilation over cooking equipment, plus hood cleaning at least semi-annually (quarterly for wok cooking or charbroiling, monthly for solid fuel). Underwriting treats this one as non-negotiable.
2. Alcohol details: the share of sales from alcohol, closing time, happy hour timing, drink specials and TABC training. Happy hours after 8pm, all-you-can-drink promotions and drink specials under $4 are red flags.
3. Workers' comp status: whether the client subscribes, and if not, that the employee and state notices are handled.
4. Building details: year built, roof age and material, system updates, distance to the coast and whether the client owns or leases.
5. Delivery and catering: who drives, in what vehicle, and whether HNOA is the right fit.
6. Loss history: three years of loss runs, with any large or weather-related losses explained.

Speed matters on these accounts, and a complete submission is what makes it possible. Our quote-to-bind benchmarks by state show how quickly restaurant accounts move when the details are there.

Ready to write more Texas restaurants?

Texas restaurant accounts reward agents who know the local details: the workers' comp choice, the dram shop standard and TABC safe harbor, roof age and coastal wind, and the alcohol mix that decides admitted or E&S. Bring a clean submission and you can quote in minutes. Writing Texas restaurants with liquor or property exposure? Get appointed with Rainbow and start quoting.