RestaurantLaunch Answers
Restaurants, cooking, emerging food trends and recipes, kitchen technology, hospitality, food-focused travel, suppliers, importing and exporting food, and commercial food prices. Direct answers, with sources and dates.
Will Square Plus Charge Twice for Two Locations at One Address?
Square Plus and Premium charge per active Square location, so a food cart and a catering location at one address are billed twice: $98 a month on Plus instead of $49. A worked example, why a mixed Plus/Free setup isn’t confirmed, and a location audit to finish before changing anything.
How to Calculate a Private-Event Minimum Spend or Room Fee
Compare what a private event leaves after food, drink, card fees and its added staff and rentals with what the same space would earn in the hours the event blocks. The gap is the room-fee floor. For a minimum spend, divide the contribution needed by the event’s contribution rate. A worked fictional example, a credited deposit and a copyable quote-planning note.
What Do Delivery Refunds Actually Cost Your Restaurant?
Your cost for each delivery problem is the refund your restaurant funded, minus credits that actually posted, plus remake and re-dispatch costs. Leave the original food and approved-but-unpaid credits out, and count each refund once. A fictional Toast Delivery Services week, a copyable record and an honest answer to the yearly question.
Should You Insure Used Restaurant Equipment for What You Paid?
Not automatically. A purchase receipt isn’t a valuation method or a checked limit. In California, ACV means fair market value unless the policy defines it otherwise, and replacement cost means new like-kind property up to the limit. A fictional reach-in shows why the price you paid and a new quote answer different questions, with questions to take to your broker.
What Can a Restaurant Use an SBA Microloan For—and What Can’t It Pay For?
SBA’s Microloan page lists working capital, inventory, supplies, furniture, fixtures, machinery and equipment as uses, and says the money can’t pay existing debts or buy real estate. A deposit, build-out or reimbursement isn’t addressed, so ask the intermediary lender. A fictional café request shows how to sort one before you call.
Do You Need Workers’ Comp for Family Helping at Your New York Restaurant?
Yes, in most cases. New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board counts part-time and unpaid workers, including family members, spouses and volunteers, as employees of a for-profit restaurant when they work under your direction. An LLC, partnership or sole proprietor with no employees doesn’t need coverage, and a corporation only under a narrow one- or two-owner test.
Do New York Restaurants Pay Sales Tax on Takeout Packaging?
In New York, takeout boxes, cups, lids, bags and wrap that hold food and go to the guest can be bought tax-free on Form ST-120, Resale Certificate, by a registered sales tax vendor. Napkins, straws and plastic utensils stay taxable, as do foil, wrap and containers used in the kitchen. A blanket certificate covers the eligible lines, not the whole invoice.
Can You Make Food at Home for Your New York Restaurant?
New York’s home-processor exemption isn’t available to anyone holding a Department of Health permit or Agriculture and Markets license, so a permitted restaurant’s food has to be made at the permitted facility. A separate registered home processor may sell approved, packaged and labeled items wholesale to New York restaurants. What to confirm before you buy, and when to ask the state first.
Can You Open a NYC Restaurant Before the Health Inspection? What the 22-Day Rule Allows
NYC’s Health Code lets a food service establishment start operating without its permit on the twenty-second day after submitting the application, but only if the Health Department hasn’t inspected it in the first 21 days. What day 22 allows, why it doesn’t cure a failed inspection, how to ask for an earlier inspection and what else must be ready.
Buying a Restaurant in New York: Can You Inherit the Seller’s Sales Tax Bill?
Buying a closing New York restaurant’s fixtures and equipment is a bulk sale, even if you never buy the company. Unless you file Form AU-196.10 at least 10 days before you pay or take possession, whichever comes first, and follow the Tax Department’s response, you can be held liable for the seller’s unpaid sales tax. Covers the release, the notice of claim, registration timing and liens.
Does Changing Your Restaurant’s Name Mean You Need a New EIN?
No. The IRS says a business name or address change alone doesn't need a new EIN. A legal name change still has to be reported, by a route that depends on how the business files; for a trade-name (DBA) change only, ask first whether any notice is needed. New owners, incorporation, a new partner or a takeover can change the answer. Includes two fictional examples and a copyable check note.
Can You Play Spotify Premium in a Restaurant?
No. Spotify's support page says it's for personal, non-commercial use and can't be played publicly from a business such as a restaurant or bar, and Premium doesn't change that. Move to a service sold for business playback, but check its written terms against every music use at your restaurant before you buy or cancel anything.
Repair, Replace or Subscribe? Compare the Cost of a Café Ice Machine
Don't weigh a repair quote against a monthly fee. First confirm each option makes enough ice on your busiest day, holds enough for the rush and fits your bin and utilities. Then compare written quotes over the same months: cash due now, payments, cleaning, filters, utilities, likely repairs, backup ice and who owns the machine at the end. A missing number means no answer yet.
FDA's Small-Restaurant Traceability Draft: What It Would Change and What to Check Now
No. FDA's October 8, 2026 traceability guidance is a draft, not for implementation. Even if finalized, it would be nonbinding enforcement discretion, not an exemption, for restaurants and retail food stores whose rolling three-year average of annual food sold or provided is above $250,000 and up to $1 million in 2020 base figures, adjusted for inflation. FDA hasn't posted the adjusted figures.
Broccoli Seed Recall: Which Gardeners Basics and Eden Brothers Packages to Pull, and What to Do With Sprouts
Cafés that grow sprouts or microgreens from seed bought online should check for Gardeners Basics Waltham 29 (UPC 848137042889, "Packed for 2027") and Eden Brothers Calabrese (lots 1022067 and 1022068) broccoli seed. What each recall notice says about the seeds, sprouts already grown, microgreens and refunds, and what neither one answers.
FDA Food Facility Renewal in 2026: Does Your Restaurant or Prep Kitchen Need It?
FDA's October 1 to December 31, 2026 renewal applies only to facilities required to register. Under FDA's nonbinding 2018 guidance, a location that prepares and sells food directly to consumers for immediate consumption is exempt as a restaurant; a separate prep kitchen that doesn't serve consumers can't use the restaurant exemption, though another may fit. Current regulation text not verified.
Frozen Berry Recall Expanded October 2: Which Great Value, Trader Joe's and GreenWise Bags to Pull
Cafés and smoothie bars that buy retail frozen berries should check every bag against all four notices in this E. coli O145 recall, not just the October 2 list. The recalled Great Value, Trader Joe's and GreenWise packs with lot codes as printed, how to check a bag, and what to do with bags you can't identify.
Power Out at Your Restaurant? What to Stop, What to Record and Who Approves Reopening
If an outage may create an imminent health hazard, the FDA model Food Code says to stop affected operations and notify the health department. Unaffected areas and approved emergency plans are the only exceptions, and you need approval before you resume. Here's the decision in order, what to record and a fictional overnight example.
Selling Frozen Pizza Through Other Stores? Trace Every Sub-Ingredient Before You Approve the Label
Before a pizzeria sells packaged frozen pizza through other shops or online, trace every component's spec or recipe into a ledger. FDA's compound-ingredient rules, soybean oil vs. soy lecithin, a conditional worked draft and where to stop.
Should Your Restaurant Offer a Meal Deal? Work Out the Extra Orders It Needs
A meal deal pays only if added orders cover what switching regulars stop paying, plus extra costs. A worksheet, a fictional example and a 4-week test.
Seattle's 2027 Minimum Wage Is $22.14: What Restaurants Need to Do by January 1
Seattle's minimum wage rises from $21.30 to $22.14 an hour on January 1, 2027. What restaurants should change in payroll, postings and prices first.
Ground Beef Hit a Record in August: How Much Should Your Burger Price Go Up?
Ground beef hit a BLS record in August 2026. Cost the extra beef per burger, pick a new price and see how many sales you can afford to lose.
New York's Allergen Label Law Starts November 12: Which Grab-and-Go Items Need a Label
New York requires an allergen notice on food prepared and prepacked on-site from Nov. 12, 2026. Which items count, what it must say, and other label rules.
Star Meat Recall: What Restaurants Should Do About EST. 1363
FSIS says raw pork, beef and goat marked EST. 1363 and sold under the A&D Foods label is unsafe to eat, and restaurants shouldn't sell or serve it. Throw it away or return it. How to handle confirmed product, packs you can't identify and dishes made with recalled meat, plus a simple record and checklist.
Maryland's Cash Law Starts October 1: Does Your Food Business Have to Take Cash?
Maryland's new law requires many merchants to accept cash for essential goods, including food and beverages, starting October 1, 2026. It excludes merchants that primarily sell food for on-premises consumption or a limited variety of specialty foods, but it doesn't define 'primarily.' A decision check, a worked checkout and a pre-October 1 checklist.
California To-Go Cocktails Extended to 2029: AB 2663 and the Rules Every Order Must Follow
AB 2663 was approved and chaptered on September 30, 2026. California's to-go cocktail privilege is now operative until December 31, 2029, when the section is repealed, and the per-order rules are unchanged. Here's what changed and how to check every to-go drink order.
Salario mínimo de Florida: $15.00 desde el 30 de septiembre de 2026 y qué revisar en la nómina del restaurante
El 30 de septiembre de 2026 el mínimo de Florida sube a $15.00. Con el crédito fijo de $3.02, el salario directo con propinas pasa a $11.98 y la hora extra se calcula sobre $15.00, no sobre $11.98.
Square KDS Leaves Pickup Orders on Ready: Add a Counter Handoff Step
Square's docs say that with Automatic Order Update on, KDS Expo completion sets orders to Ready; Picked up is a separate counter action. What the help articles confirm, a reported notification risk with bulk Mark as complete, a handoff routine and a fictional example.
Which Tipped Occupation Code Goes on Each Restaurant Employee's 2026 W-2?
2026 W-2s add box 12 code TP (total cash tips reported to the employer) and box 14b (up to two Treasury Tipped Occupation Codes). The ten food-service codes, a fictional roster, service charges, tip pools, managers and a pre-year-end checklist. Federal only.
How to 86 One Ingredient That Lives in Eight Square Modifiers
Square documents per-location sold-out toggles for modifiers, not a shared modifier across sets. A mapping sheet, shift 86 checklist, restock check and the redesign to test.
Florida's Minimum Wage Is $15 on September 30, 2026: What Restaurant Payroll Must Change
Florida's minimum wage reaches $15.00 on September 30, 2026. The tipped cash wage, overtime math, poster and notice steps, and a worked payroll example.
What Should a First Restaurant Website Include?
Give guests a readable menu, accurate hours and a working way to visit, order or book. Use this phone test and handoff checklist before accepting a restaurant website.
How Many Employees Does a Small Burger Restaurant Need?
Start with shift coverage, not seat count. A worked example turns 50 opening hours into labor hours, an employee roster and wage percentages.
Can You Cook in a Food Truck and Serve Customers Indoors?
Can a food truck replace an indoor restaurant kitchen? Start with approval for the combined setup, plan the food handoff and compare upfront and monthly costs.
Should You Comp a Meal or Charge 50%?
A recent café-owner question, answered with an $18 meal example: compare a half-price discount, full comp and replacement, then set a practical service policy.
Can a California Ice-Cream Shop Make Its Own Base?
California allows on-site custom mix under an LFM permit, with strict ingredient, volume and sales conditions. A soft-serve license requires ready-to-use mix.
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