Do I need liquor liability if I only serve beer and wine?

Yes, if you sell or serve it. The general liability exclusion applies to any business that sells or serves alcoholic beverages, whatever the drink. What changes with beer and wine only is usually the price, not whether you need the policy.

The standard general liability form says permitting customers to bring their own alcohol is not by itself the business of selling or serving it, so host liquor wording usually applies. A lease can still require liquor liability, and some landlords do for any restaurant.

Why does the price of liquor liability vary so much?

Alcohol as a share of sales, late hours, live entertainment, security and claims history drive it. Our liquor guides take each one in turn.

Can you check the insurance requirements I was sent?

Yes. Paste them into our free COI Requirements Decoder, pick your type of business, and it explains each requirement, flags what is often missing and lists the lines to quote, without the text leaving your browser. One button then asks a licensed agent to quote what it found.

The owner of a neighborhood bar and grill with a short gray beard standing behind his bar after closing reading a printed lease with tabs, backlit bottles on the back bar

What insurance does a restaurant or bar lease require, and why does the landlord want liquor liability?

Most restaurant leases ask for general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, liquor liability of at least $1,000,000 if you serve alcohol, the landlord and its manager as additional insureds on both policies, an umbrella, property coverage on your equipment and build-out, business income, workers comp and a mutual waiver. The landlord wants liquor liability because a claim from an over-served customer names the property owner too, and standard general liability excludes it for any business that sells or serves alcohol.

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A restaurant lease insurance clause, decoded

Lease says	What it means	What gets restaurants rejected
GL $1M per occurrence, $2M aggregate	Injury or damage you cause, including food you serve	Rarely the limits
Liquor liability $1M	Claims from serving alcohol, which GL excludes for you	Sending host liquor, which is not liquor liability
Landlord as additional insured on GL and liquor	Two endorsements on two policies	Only the GL endorsement in place
No assault and battery exclusion	Fights and security incidents covered at the full limit	A policy with an A&B exclusion or a low sublimit
Damage to premises rented $300,000	Your sublimit for fire damage to the space	A $100,000 limit on the certificate
Improvements and betterments, replacement cost	Your kitchen build-out and fit-out insured	Equipment insured, build-out forgotten
Business income, 12 months	Income while closed after a covered fire	Too short a period
Hired and non-owned auto, if delivering	Staff driving their own cars on deliveries	No auto line at all
Umbrella over GL, liquor and employer’s liability	Extra limit that sits over the liquor policy too	An umbrella that excludes liquor

GL $1M per occurrence, $2M aggregate
What it means
Injury or damage you cause, including food you serve
What gets restaurants rejected
Rarely the limits
Liquor liability $1M
What it means
Claims from serving alcohol, which GL excludes for you
What gets restaurants rejected
Sending host liquor, which is not liquor liability
Landlord as additional insured on GL and liquor
What it means
Two endorsements on two policies
What gets restaurants rejected
Only the GL endorsement in place
No assault and battery exclusion
What it means
Fights and security incidents covered at the full limit
What gets restaurants rejected
A policy with an A&B exclusion or a low sublimit
Damage to premises rented $300,000
What it means
Your sublimit for fire damage to the space
What gets restaurants rejected
A $100,000 limit on the certificate
Improvements and betterments, replacement cost
What it means
Your kitchen build-out and fit-out insured
What gets restaurants rejected
Equipment insured, build-out forgotten
Business income, 12 months
What it means
Income while closed after a covered fire
What gets restaurants rejected
Too short a period
Hired and non-owned auto, if delivering
What it means
Staff driving their own cars on deliveries
What gets restaurants rejected
No auto line at all
Umbrella over GL, liquor and employer’s liability
What it means
Extra limit that sits over the liquor policy too
What gets restaurants rejected
An umbrella that excludes liquor

The detail

Standard general liability (CG 00 01 04 13) excludes bodily injury or property damage for which an insured may be liable for causing or contributing to the intoxication of any person, or furnishing alcohol to someone under age or under the influence, but only if the insured is in the business of manufacturing, distributing, selling, serving or furnishing alcoholic beverages.
ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 04 13 (specimen)
Under the same form, permitting a person to bring alcoholic beverages onto your premises for consumption there is not by itself the business of selling, serving or furnishing alcohol.
ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 04 13 (specimen)
CG 20 11 12 19 adds a landlord or manager as an additional insured on general liability for liability arising from the part of the premises leased to you, and ends when you cease to be a tenant.
ISO endorsements reproduced in Risk & Insurance Education Alliance, "Certificates of Insurance and Additional Insureds" course materials (2019)
Landlords of restaurant and bar space commonly require liquor liability of $1,000,000 or more and ask to be additional insured on the liquor policy as well as on general liability.
Kevin Kelsey, agency placement experience
Many bar and nightclub liability and liquor policies exclude assault and battery or sublimit it well below the main limit, which is why some leases forbid that exclusion.
Kevin Kelsey, agency placement experience

What this means for you

Host liquor is not liquor liability. The general liability form covers a business that serves alcohol only occasionally and is not in that business. A restaurant with a bar is in it, and needs a liquor policy at the limit the lease names.
Two policies, two endorsements. The landlord added to your general liability is not added to your liquor policy. Ask for both endorsement pages.
Read for assault and battery. If the lease forbids the exclusion, the cheapest liquor quote may not be the one that meets it. A certificate will not tell the landlord, and the landlord may still ask.
Insure the build-out. The hood, walk-in and bar you paid to install are usually yours to insure, and they are often worth more than the equipment.

Go deeper on any of these

Need this handled?

Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.