Catering insurance in Spokane
You cook in one place, serve in another, and the venue in between wants a certificate before you are allowed through the door.
One kitchen error, a hundred claimants
Catering concentrates risk in a way restaurants do not. A restaurant serves a bad batch to a handful of covers over an evening; a caterer serves the same batch to two hundred people simultaneously, all of whom have the same lawyer by the following week. It is the reason limits matter here and why an umbrella is normal for anyone doing large events.
Liquor liability at someone else’s venue
If you serve alcohol — even where the client supplied it — Washington dram shop exposure can attach to you. General liability forms commonly exclude liquor liability for businesses that serve, so it is added separately. Who holds the banquet permit, and whose staff is pouring, changes the answer. Worth settling before the event rather than after.
Venue requirements and transit
Hotels, wineries and event spaces around Spokane routinely require $1M–$2M limits with the venue named as additional insured, and they ask late. Meanwhile your chafers, ovens and linens spend half their life in a van — commercial auto covers the van, inland marine covers what is inside it. That second one is the coverage most caterers are missing when we review an existing policy.
Biggest exposures for caterers
- Foodborne illness affecting a whole event at once
- Liquor liability when you pour at a venue
- Damage to a venue’s floors, linens and fixtures
- Equipment damaged or stolen in transit between sites
Pre-filled for your trade. Two minutes.
Coverage
What caterers usually carry
General Liability
The baseline policy.
Read moreBusiness Owner's Policy (BOP)
General liability and commercial property bundled into one policy, usually for less than buying them separately.
Read moreCommercial Auto
Coverage for the vehicles your business owns, leases, rents or asks employees to drive.
Read moreWorkers' Compensation
Required in Washington for nearly every employer.
Read moreQuestions
Caterers insurance FAQs
If your staff pour or serve alcohol, yes — and it is usually excluded from standard general liability for businesses that serve. Even when the host supplies the alcohol, service by your staff can bring dram shop exposure onto your policy.
Commonly $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate, with the venue named as an additional insured. Larger hotels and public venues sometimes want more, and they tend to ask close to the event date, so having the policy in place beforehand matters.
Not by commercial auto, which covers the vehicle itself. Equipment in transit needs inland marine. It is inexpensive and routinely missing from caterers’ policies.
Other trades
We write these too
General Contractors
Registration, a bond, liability and workers’ comp — general contractors carry more moving parts than any trade we write, and the most contract-driven requirements.
Read moreRoofers
The hardest trade in construction to insure, and the one where carrier appetite narrows fastest.
Read moreElectricians
Low claim frequency, high claim severity.
Read morePlumbers
Every job you touch carries water, and water finds its way into places that cost far more to repair than the work you were paid for.
Read moreStart with your trade. We will take it from there.
Tell us what the business does and we will pre-select the coverage it normally needs, then compare carriers for you. About two minutes, no obligation.
Prefer to talk it through? Call (509) 944-0847.