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Coffee Shop & Cafe Business Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $11

Cafe insurance (also referred to as coffee shop insurance) is one of the best ways to mitigate risk as a cafe business owner.


Much like grocery store insurance, food truck insurance, bakery insurance, and restaurant insurance, this type of business insurance ensures that your business won’t be put in a bad financial situation if something goes wrong.


Throughout this article, we’ll take a look at the various types of policies available to cafe owners, how they vary based on the type of coffee business you run and how they can help your cafe business. We'll also look at the average coffee shop insurance cost!

Liability Insurance for Coffee Shop Businesses

Liability insurance available for coffee shop businesses are public liability insurance, product liability insurance, and general liability insurance. Let’s discuss these in more detail. 


Cafe Public Liability Insurance

Public liability insurance is one of the most common forms of insurance coverage that businesses acquire. This kind of insurance will protect upon getting sued by customers who were injured or sustained property damage in your coffee shop, ranging from suffering broken bones to simply breaking their phones. Public liability insurance helps by covering the cost of:

  • Compensation for pain and suffering 

  • Reimbursements for property damaged

  • Attorney fees and other defense costs


Aside from customers, public liability insurance covers personal injury or property damage claims from other food vendors, visitors, and other entities not part of your business operations. Public liability insurance doesn’t cover other exposures associated with your business’s dealings people.  With that said, if you feel that the protection it provides isn’t enough, purchase general liability insurance. 


Cafe General Liability Insurance 

General liability insurance assumes the function of public liability insurance. Perils this policy covers are:

  • Third-party bodily injuries - A customer, visitor, or vendor experienced an accident within the premises of your business. The injured individual demands you cover his medical expenses and provide compensation for pain and suffering

  • Third-party property damage -  A coffee was spilled on an expensive laptop that might be owned by a vendor, customer, or visitor. Upon knowing what happened, the owner of the laptop demanded you provide reimbursement equal to the cost of the damage item

  • Defense costs - General liability insurance will pay for attorney fees and other legal costs in case the aggrieved party decides to take legal action


There are optional policies in general liability insurance.  General liability insurance, with its optional policies, provides a greater degree of protection against your business.  Add-ons to general liability insurance are:

  • Advertising injury coverage

  • Rented premises liability coverage


Advertising injury coverage will cover compensation, attorney fees, and other legal costs if a customer files a claim because your coffee shop committed or allegedly committed advertising or reputational harm. Common inclusions in general liability insurance having advertising injury coverage are:

  • Slander - You unintentionally spoke ill about another cafe while talking to a customer. The other cafe knew this and decided to sue your business and demand compensation 

  • Libel - Your cafe published a blog post reviewing the top cafes in another location. A particular statement in the blog was inaccurate and was harmful to the reputation of a particular cafe mentioned in the blog post. This cafe then decided to file a claim against your business and wanted you to compensate financial losses

  • False advertising - Your cafe published an ad featuring a new product. Customers tried the new product and discovered that it doesn’t match expectations. One customer filed a claim, accused your business of misleading the masses, and demand you pay for damages incurred 

  • Copyright infringement -  You unintentionally copied another business’s signage. The business filed a claim and demanded you pay for the damage done 


If you’re just renting a commercial space for your coffee shop, then rented premises liability can help. Rented premises liability coverage will help you reimburse the landlord if fire and other covered perils wreak havoc in the rented commercial space. 


Cafe Public Liability Insurance or Coffee Shop Business General Liability Insurance?

Purchase public liability insurance if the only exposures worry you the most are personal injury claims and property damage claims from vendors, customers, visitors, and other third parties. 

Get general liability insurance if you want to have an insurance policy that provides comprehensive protection against many types of claims from third parties.  While it’s more expensive, general liability insurance is a better option than public liability insurance because of its comprehensiveness. 


Cafe Product Liability Insurance 

Your cafe might prepare food improperly and customers might suffer from foodborne illnesses as a result. That’s why it’s smart to get product liability insurance included in coffee insurance. Product liability insurance can be a stand-alone policy or an add-on to general liability insurance that will cover compensation, defense costs, and other legal fees if a customer files a claim for food poisoning, improper food preparation, and foodborne illnesses your business caused.

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Get More Protection for Your Cafe

Claims from third parties aren’t the only exposures that threaten the survival of your business. An employee might get sick, or a fire might destroy your cafe and other physical business assets - all of these are costly perils for your business. And so consider getting other cafe business insurance, namely:

  • Commercial property insurance

  • Workers compensation insurance


Commercial Property Insurance

The primary function of commercial property insurance is to cover your cafe’s building, whether it's leased or owned. If fire or extreme weather utterly destroys your commercial building, commercial property insurance will reimburse your losses up to the building’s current market value. It’s also possible for fire, theft, vandalism, extreme weather, and other covered perils to damage the cafe building, and commercial property insurance will reimburse losses in this case too.


Commercial property insurance has business equipment and tools coverage and stocks and contents coverage. Let’s discuss how these two inclusions help.


Inside your cafe are an espresso machine, espresso grinder, regular coffee grinder, coffee brewer, decanter, blender, oven, fryer, and other objects used to prepare food and brew beverages. If these become damaged or lost due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils, business equipment and tools coverage will reimburse your losses.


As for stocks and contents coverage, what does this do? Stocks and contents coverage will reimburse losses if cafe furniture such as tables and chairs, food ingredients, and other items or objects not considered as business equipment are destroyed by fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils.


Workers Compensation Insurance

Work-related hazards are very common in food service businesses wherein your cafe business belongs. Here are some exposures that will result in a client becoming injured or sick and needing treatment:

  • Burns incurred by the use of ovens, fryers, and other cooking equipment

  • Explosions as caused by defective gas lines

  • Slip and fall injury caused by wet flooring

  • Continuous use of specific body parts when cooking food, cleaning the cafe, and serving food to guests that result in repetitive motion injuries


As the employer, it’s your job to take care of employees who are experiencing a work-related injury or disease. Paying for their treatment yourself will cost a lot of money. That’s why get workers' compensation insurance.


Workers' compensation insurance will pay for the treatment of an injured or sick employee’s medical treatment/procedure, hospitalization, rehab, and lost income compensation on your behalf. In a nutshell, workers' compensation insurance ensures that you don’t spend a single penny when giving benefits for work-related hazards.


The lost income compensation workers' compensation provides comes in the form of a weekly allowance equal to two-thirds of the employee’s average weekly wage. By the way, workers' compensation insurance also covers death benefits if the employee dies because of a work-related injury or disease.


This depends on which state your cafe business is located. Some states have workers comp laws that prevent employees from suing employers who have workers' compensation insurance. Check the worker' comp law of your state to know if this is the case.


What Are The Penalties If Your Cafe Doesn’t Have Workers Compensation Insurance?

The penalty differs from one state to the next. Your cafe might face any of the following penalties for not getting workers' compensation insurance:

  • Cease and desist order

  • Fine equal to double the amount you would’ve paid for workers' compensation insurance premiums

  • Fines and imprisonment


Mobile Coffee Van Insurance

Mobile coffee van insurance offers general liability insurance and commercial auto insurance. Workers' compensation insurance and commercial property insurance are available as endorsements. Those who make money through coffee carts can get covered through coffee cart insurance having general liability and equipment breakdown coverage.


Mobile Coffee Van & Coffee Trailer Insurance

Mobile coffee van insurance tends to be more expensive than other kinds of cafe business insurance because of the additional cost of insuring the vehicle that you work out of. Since you’re using your coffee van for business, you’ll need to take out a commercial auto insurance policy on it.

Commercial auto insurance tends to be more expensive than personal auto insurance because insurance companies (rightfully) expect business vehicles to be used more frequently than personal vehicles. This means that there’s a higher baseline chance of your vehicle getting into an accident, increasing the carrier’s risk.

Along with your commercial vehicle insurance, you may need bobtail insurance, as commercial auto insurance policy will not cover you when your vehicle drives without trailer or load. You’ll also still need some of the other policies that we’ve discussed for coffee businesses. For example, public liability coverage will ensure that you don’t have to pay out of pocket if one of your customers gets injured or has their property damaged while getting coffee from you.

Other kinds of coverage that are specific to mobile coffee vans include machinery breakdown coverage, which will cover any compressors or generators that you use on your coffee van. You can also get a loss of business income add-on that will cover you for lost income when your van is being repaired.

CoverageCost per monthCost per year
General Liability$30$360
Commercial Auto$60$720
Product Liability$43$516
Workers' Comp$160$1,920
Business Interruption$41$492
Liquor Liability$33$396

  • General liability insurance cost for a coffee van: $30 per month or $360 per year

  • Commercial auto insurance cost for a coffee van: $60 per month or $720 per year

  • Product liability insurance cost for a coffee van or trailer is $43 a month or $516 a year

  • Workers’ compensation insurance cost for a coffee van: $160 per month or $1,920 per year

  • Business interruption insurance cost for a coffee van: $41 per month or $492 per year

  • Liquor Liability insurance cost for a coffee van: $33 a month or $396 a year

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Coffee Shop Insurance Cost

Insurance for a larger coffee shop is often pretty similar to insuring a small-scale coffee operation - except everything is scaled up. This means that you can typically expect to pay a bit more on your premiums because there’s a higher risk of you having to pay out for damages, whether they be to customers, vendors, business partners, or employees.

  • The average general liability insurance cost for a large coffee shop or cafe is about $45 per month or $540 per year for a $1 million coverage, though this can vary depending on the size of your operation and your business’s safety culture.

  • The average public liability insurance cost for a coffee shop or cafe is about $38 per month or $456 per year, with a policy limit of about $1 million per occurrence and a deductible of about $500, meaning that it will typically be cheaper to pay out smaller claims out of pocket.



Much like smaller cafes, larger coffee shop business owners typically opt for a business owner’s policy which bundles together commercial property insurance and general liability insurance, and even business interruption insurance or workers compensation insurance. As with most forms of insurance, getting your policies bundled gets you a discount compared to purchasing each of the component policies individually. However, you may have some other coverage requirements that this bundle does not cover, so be sure to pay attention to that.


Since larger coffee shops tend to have more employees, you can also expect to pay a bit more for your workers’ comp policy. Finally, some larger coffee shops may also sell Irish coffees and other alcoholic beverages, meaning that they’ll also need to pay for a liquor liability policy, which protects your business from damages caused by drunk and intoxicated customers. Some states also require coffee shop businesses and cafes to have liquor liability insurance to get their liquor license.


Here’s a breakdown of cafe insurance cost based on quotes that we received for a medium-sized cafe broader coverage from some of the most popular business insurance carriers:


Cost per MonthCost per YearOur rating
CoverWallet$37$444Cafe insurance quotes comparison online
Hiscox$44$528Cafe insurance with generous liability insurance coverage


Cost of Insurance for Small Cafe

Coffee business insurance tends to depend on the kind of cafe that you have started or are already running, and the cheapest type of establishment you can run is a small cafe. It also has the cheapest business insurance. In many cases, internet cafe insurance is around the same price as coverage for a small cafe since there doesn’t tend to be a whole lot of a difference in terms of liability between the two.


Insuring a small cafe tends to be cheaper than insuring a larger one because insurance companies expect you to get fewer customers, which exposes you to less liability and risk over the course of a business day. Smaller cafes also tend to have smaller groups of employees working for them.


Fewer employees in your cafe mean that you can expect to pay less for workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ compensation coverage pays out when your employees end up getting injured on the job. For example, if one of your baristas ends up burning themselves with a hot pot of coffee.


Like with larger cafes, the most common forms ofbusiness insurance coveragefor small cafes include general liability, workers’ compensation, and public liability insurance coverage.


Here’s a breakdown of the average small cafe insurance cost for each kind of coverage:

CoverageCost per monthCost per year
General Liability$27$324
Workers' Comp$110$1,320
Public Liability$17$204
Liquor Liability$29$348
Product Liability$34$408
Commercial Property$51$612
Business Interruption$35$420
Business Owners' Policy$42.5$510



  • The average general liability insurance cost for a small cafe is $27 per month or $324 per year

  • The average workers’ compensation insurance cost for a small cafe is $110 per month or $1,320 per year

  • The average public liability insurance cost for a small cafe or coffee shop is $17 per month or $204 per year

  • The average liquor liability insurance cost for small cafes and coffee shops is $29 per month or $348 per year

  • The average product liability insurance cost for small cafes and coffee shop businesses is $34 per month or $408 per year

  • The average commercial property insurance cost for small cafes and coffee shops is $51 per month or $612 per year

  • The average business interruption insurance cost for small cafes and coffee shop business is $35 per month or $420 annually

  • The average Business Owners' Policy (BOP insurance) cost, which bundles general liability insurance, commercial property insurance, and mostly business interruption insurance as well at a discounted rate, is $42.5 a month, or $510 a year

Compare Cheap Coffee Shop & Cafe Business Insurance Quotes Online

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Best Cafe Insurance Companies

The reviews below will tell you which companies to approach when looking for insurance for your coffee shop. Read to know each of these carriers' pros, cons, and rate for a $1 million general liability insurance. 


CoverWallet Insurance


Pros

  • Get insured online

  • Compare quotes of different insurance companies and find the cheapest option 

  • Cancel a policy anytime 

Cons

  • Not an insurance company but an insurance broker 


CoverWallet is an insurance broker with an online quotes comparison platform that gives you the quotes of insurance companies offering coverage for cafes. All you have to do is provide basic details about your business and you’ll get numerous accurate insurance quotes in an instant. If you’re ready to get insured, there’s no need to contact the insurance companies where the quotes are from. CoverWallet allows you to purchase the insurance through its website. The company even helps you manage insurance online. 


Best for: Cafe insurance quotes comparison online

Average cost: $37 per month 

Our rating: 10/10


Hiscox Cafe Insurance


Pros

  • In-house team of risk management professionals

  • Allows you to get liability insurance having more than $2 million limit 

Cons

  • Customer ratings are somehow poor


Hiscox offers liability insurance policies for cafes having more than $2 million limits. Furthermore, this company has an in-house team of consultants ready to give advice on how to manage risks, so that you can save on premiums. 


Best for: Cafe insurance with generous liability insurance coverage

Average cost: $44 per month

Our rating: 9/10


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