Buying a restaurant in Florida

A restaurant sells meals one check at a time, so the money comes from traffic: how many guests come through each day, what each one spends, and how often the regulars come back. Nearly all revenue arrives as card and cash sales the day the food goes out, with extra from catering, private parties and delivery apps that keep a commission on every order. Almost nothing is under contract, which is why the location, the lease and the reputation carry so much weight.

Food and labor are the two big costs, and well-run places watch both every week. Rent comes next. A typical independent restaurant has a chef or kitchen manager, line cooks, dishwashers, servers, a bartender if it serves alcohol, and a manager or two, and many owners work a shift themselves. What you're really buying is a working kitchen under a lease, the equipment, the recipes and routines, a trained crew, a name people know and, if it has one, an alcohol license that can be worth a good deal on its own.

• Sales that hold up through the year, or a slow season the owner plans for if the place leans on tourists and winter residents.
• Food and labor costs tracked weekly, not just totaled on the year-end tax return.
• A kitchen that runs without the owner: a chef or kitchen manager who intends to stay, and recipes written down.
• A lease with years left and renewal options, rent that leaves room for profit, and a landlord willing to assign it to you.
• A clean inspection history with the state.
• Regulars and local word of mouth, rather than heavy dependence on delivery apps.
• Equipment that has been maintained: hood and fire suppression, walk-in cooler, ice and dish machines.
• The right alcohol license for the concept, in good standing.

The Division of Hotels and Restaurants at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) licenses restaurants under chapter 509. The license can't be transferred, so you apply for your own (section 509.241). If the restaurant had a clean inspection in the 120 days before you apply, DBPR skips the opening inspection for the new owner. But remodeling, moving equipment or reopening after a long closure needs a plan review first (rule 61C-1.002). Managers must pass a food safety test within 30 days of being hired, and food handlers need approved training within 60 days (sections 509.039 and 509.049).

Alcohol licenses come from DBPR's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. Beer and wine licenses aren't capped. Liquor licenses are capped by county population, so you either buy one from a current holder or win one in a state drawing. A restaurant with at least 2,000 square feet of service area and 120 seats can instead get a special restaurant license, as long as food and nonalcoholic drinks make up at least 51 percent of its food and beverage sales (section 561.20). That license can pass to a genuine buyer of the restaurant but can't move to another location. Any transfer needs the division's approval (section 561.32). Confirm the details with both divisions and your attorney.

• Reported sales. Match point-of-sale reports to the sales tax returns, month by month. Sales the owner says never reached the books won't count for a lender, and shouldn't for you.
• The seller's taxes. Buying more than half of a business or its assets can make you liable for the seller's unpaid state taxes, up to the price or the value, whichever is greater (section 213.758). Get a certificate of compliance from the Department of Revenue before closing.
• Labor at today's rates. Under a 2020 constitutional amendment, Florida's minimum wage reached $15 an hour on September 30, 2026, and it will rise with inflation after that. The tipped wage moves with it. Rebuild payroll at current rates, not last year's totals.
• Equipment. Have a restaurant equipment technician look at the hood, refrigeration and air conditioning. Replacements are expensive.
• Inspection history. Read several years of DBPR's online inspection results.
• The lease. Remaining term, whether it can be assigned to you, personal guarantees, and who pays for the roof, grease trap and hood repairs.
• Storms. How long the place closed after recent hurricanes, and what business interruption insurance paid.

• What does a slow Tuesday look like next to a busy Saturday, and how has that changed in the last couple of years?
• Who runs the kitchen when you're not there, and do you think they'd stay on with a new owner?
• How much of your business comes from regulars, catering or delivery apps?
• How long is left on the lease, and how do you think the landlord will feel about a sale?
• When did you last replace big equipment like the hood, the walk-in or the dish machine, and what's due next?
• Do you track food and labor costs each week? Could I see a few months of those reports?
• If you were staying, what would you change about the menu or the hours?