Restaurant Insurance in Delaware

Single-unit upscale modern American, 4,000 sf, 80 seats, $155 average ticket, 34 staff, full-alcohol restaurant license, wine program. Operator came to us at renewal of an existing program from a prior broker. The renewal program carried liability scope bound off the prior dec page across multiple cycles — and because Delaware doesn’t recognize dram-shop liability, the prior broker had treated after-hours liability exposure as a non-issue and left the assault-and-battery scope at a minimal template figure. A late-night ejection incident then drove a premises-liability and negligent-security claim — causes of action Delaware’s no-dram-shop posture doesn’t reach.

We re-read the operator profile on video — premises liability scoped to actual after-hours exposure, an assault-and-battery endorsement sized to the real risk rather than a template minimum, security-protocol documentation, and § 8132 comparative-fault inspection discipline. We rebuilt the program to put the premises and negligent-security exposure at the center.

Cocktail bar plus small plates, 2,600 sf, 80 seats plus 14-seat bar, $40 average ticket, 22 staff at peak season, full-alcohol license, late-hour seasonal operation. Operator came to us at lease signing on a new Rehoboth Beach location. The standard restaurant package the operator was about to bind carried lost-income coverage calibrated on prorated annual averaging — the generic package treated a seasonal beach unit the way it would a year-round one. A coastal storm during peak summer later drove a closure; the generic-package alternative would have paid against an annual average that badly understated the peak-season loss.

We re-read the operator profile on video before binding — lost-income coverage sized to actual peak-season concentration with an extended-period-of-indemnity provision for season misalignment, plus a flood endorsement for coastal storm-surge exposure. We rebuilt the program against the seasonal-coastal reality.

Multi-unit fast casual (single of 4 in DE), 1,900 sf, 50 seats, $13 average ticket, 16 staff, no alcohol, dine-in plus takeout plus third-party delivery. Operator came to us at acquisition — taking over a 4-unit Delaware chain from previous ownership. The acquired program from the previous broker carried employee-claim coverage scoped to the federal 15-employee Title VII floor — a scope that left smaller-headcount units exposed, since the Delaware Discrimination in Employment Act applies at 4 employees. A slip-and-fall drove a premises-liability claim, and a concurrent discrimination claim surfaced from a former employee at one of the smaller units.

We re-read the multi-unit operator profile on video — premises liability against Del. Code tit. 10 § 8132 comparative fault, inspection-record discipline across all 4 units, and employee-claim coverage scoped to the Delaware Discrimination in Employment Act 4-employee threshold rather than the federal floor.