Years ago, pre the 1980’s, most licensed trade premises where split into three main categories. Pubs, restaurants and nightclubs.
With the advent and growth of eating and drinking as a popular leisure activity, the lines between these three are blurred. If you are running one of these types of businesses, it is something that will affect any policy that you have in place or are looking to get quotes for.
Traditionally, pub insurance policies only had two types of categories, city centre and country pubs. Restaurant insurance had a similar split based purely on the type of food, ie Italian, Chinese, Far East, Indian etc. Takeaways are, and always have been, categorised separately.
Many pubs have moved on from the only food they supply being crisps or pork scratchings. Bar snacks and formal restaurants are now part an parcel of many pubs.
When looking for your quote, you do need to make sure it is on the correct basis. The reason being that insurers charge different rates for pubs or restaurants. Therefore, in the event of a claim, of they feel you have mis-declared the type of business you could, in extreme circumstances, find that your claim is turned down.
Basically, if 50% or more of your turnover is derived from food, you are a restaurant, below this you are a pub. Make sure though that your broker is fully aware of what you do and make sure that they confirm in writing that the policy is suitable for your business.