How to Start a Restaurant in Hamilton

The short answer

Zoning first, then the City licence, then the inspections the City circulates for you — with the liquor licence running on its own track. To open a restaurant in Hamilton you need three separate approvals from three separate bodies: the City of Hamilton for zoning and the business licence, Hamilton Public Health Services for food premises inspection, and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for a liquor sales licence if you serve alcohol. This guide walks the Hamilton mechanics only. It does not repeat the national restaurant guide's general steps for picking a format or registering a business — those are in our How to Start a Restaurant Business in Canada guide. Everything below is Hamilton's own process.

Step 1: Check zoning and draw the premise plan before you sign a lease

Get a Zoning Verification Certificate for the address. The certificate confirms whether the proposed use is permitted and recognized at that location. A Zoning Addendum or a building permit number can stand in its place. Do this before signing a lease: a restaurant cannot open in a space where the zoning does not allow a food business, and the zoning fee is charged in addition to the licence fee.

Draw the premise plan at the same time. It is a hand-drawn sketch of the aerial view of the premise, and it must identify the location of washrooms, entrances and exits, seating, and the prep area. The seating on the plan is also the licence decision: a restaurant with seating available is licensed as a Restaurant, a kitchen with no seating where food is not to be consumed on the premises is licensed as a Restaurant Take Out, and a seated restaurant with a valid AGCO liquor licence is licensed as a Restaurant with Liquor Service. All three classes sit in Schedule 21 of By-law 07-170. Settle the layout before you apply, because the class sets the inspection package and the fee.

Before you build or renovate, you must notify the City of Hamilton. Contact both Public Health Services and Building and Licensing. Hamilton Public Health can review the build or renovation against the Ontario Food Premises Regulation before construction starts, so raise it early rather than after the build-out is finished.

Step 2: Apply for the City business licence at City Hall

Apply in person at the Licensing Division, 1st Floor, City Hall, 71 Main Street West. The phone number is 905-546-2424 ext. 2782, Option 3, and the email is licensing@hamilton.ca. File the Business Licence Application form with these supporting documents:

• Business Registration or Corporate Profile, dated within 1 year of application. If registering a corporation, the operating name must be registered with the Province of Ontario and attached to the corporation.
• Zoning Verification Certificate, Zoning Addendum, or building permit number.
• Completed Food Premise Questionnaire, which tells Public Health what kind of food premise is behind the address, so the health inspection is scoped correctly.
• Premise plan, the hand-drawn sketch described in Step 1.
• Liquor Licence Application, for a Restaurant with Liquor Service application only.

The fees, as published in the City's restaurant licensing guide, are:

Pay the licence fee including the applicable inspection fees when you apply. Zoning Verification and Certificate of Compliance fees are in addition to the amounts above, and fees are subject to change. Renewal forms are sent as a courtesy by mail to the address on file one month before the renewal date. Pay the renewal and any applicable fees on or before the renewal date to avoid late fees or closure of the licensing file. A renewal paid in person at the licensing counter is processed the same day.

Step 3: Let Licensing circulate the fire, health, and parking inspections

You do not book these inspections yourself. After the licence application is received, the Licensing Administrator circulates the application to the appropriate departments for action on your behalf. That is different from some other Ontario cities, where the applicant schedules each inspection.

• Fire inspection. Required when applying for a new restaurant take-out, restaurant with seating, or bar or nightclub licence, and every 3 years afterwards.
• Health inspection. The Public Health Inspector inspects the premises and provides the owner with the Green Card if the premises passes the inspection.
• Parking inspection. This inspection is remote and does not require an appointment.

Once the inspections have been completed and passed, all reports are sent to the Licensing Division for a Licensing Administrator to review. The administrator connects with you on any additional next steps and guides you through the application process to issuance.

Step 4: Pass the Hamilton Public Health inspection

Public health inspectors visit 3,200 premises in Hamilton every year. They check safe food handling practices outlined in the Ontario Food Premises Regulation. Food premises are places that prepare and sell food, including restaurants, fast food outlets, supermarkets, butcher shops, convenience stores, and special events where food is served. You must have a Business License to operate a food premise in the City of Hamilton.

Under the Food Safety Inspection Disclosure program, a public health inspector posts one of three Food Safety Certificates of Inspection in the food premise:

• PASS (Green Card). The minimum standards of the Ontario Food Premises Regulation have been met, or non-critical or minor infractions observed can be followed up during the next inspection. Minor infractions are not a direct risk for causing foodborne illness and include poor cleaning and sanitation and equipment and surfaces in poor repair.
• CONDITIONAL PASS (Yellow Card). A critical infraction observed by the public health inspector is a significant risk for foodborne illness. Critical infractions include inadequate cooking and hot or cold holding, opportunity for cross contamination, improper hand washing, and touching food with hands. Critical infractions are dealt with quickly, and re-inspections must be done for things that cannot be permanently fixed during the initial inspection.
• CLOSED (Red Card). The food premise is an immediate health risk. The public health inspector issues a closure order at the time of inspection, and a follow-up inspection must take place before re-opening the premise.

Have the shop genuinely finished before the inspections land. Inspectors do not pass a plan or a promise, and a failed first visit means a re-visit and a delay you cannot make up.

Step 5: Certify the food handlers

Under Ontario Regulation 493/17, Food Premises, all food premises in Ontario are required to have at least one food handler or supervisor on the premises who has their food handler certification during all hours of operation. Plan the training before opening week, so a sick day does not leave a service without a certified person on site.

Hamilton Public Health Services runs its own Food Handler Certification course and exam. Pre-register in person at one of the Municipal Service Centres — registrations are not accepted by phone, mail, or online. The exam alone costs $15 (HST included), paid when you register. The course and exam together cost $70.46 (HST included), paid when you register, and the exam is written on the same day as the course. Read the free study manual before you write the exam. Exams and courses are non-refundable, and payment is not accepted at the exam or the course. Exams and courses are held at the David Braley Health Centre, 100 Main Street West, Hamilton. For follow-up before or after the exam or course, call 905-546-2489.

Step 6: Apply for the AGCO liquor sales licence, if you serve alcohol

To sell or serve alcohol you need a liquor sales licence from the AGCO, applied for through the iAGCO portal. Selling or serving food or liquor does not have to be the primary business. Licences are available for a two-year or a four-year term, and the fee for a new application is $1,055 for two years or $1,355 for four years. The AGCO application takes approximately 8 to 12 weeks to process. This is a separate application from the City of Hamilton.

You also complete a Liquor Licence Application through the City's Business Licensing department. A new application or a change to an existing licence costs $1,020.65 and takes 15 business days for circulation and commenting. As part of that application, a site plan is required, and it must be completed and stamped by a design professional — a BCIN, an architect, or a professional engineer.

The City of Hamilton is only the commenting party for all liquor licences. It provides comments on life safety requirements; it does not issue or revoke liquor licenses. The AGCO will not provide a liquor licence until it confirms that the City of Hamilton has approved the liquor licence municipally. Before the licence is issued, all required inspections must be completed and any building permit, if applicable, must be closed by the building inspector.

Before you apply to the AGCO, verify zoning with the City and verify tax compliance through the Ontario Ministry of Finance Tax Compliance Verification portal, which generates the TCV number you need for the application. Prepare entity disclosure for anyone with an interest in the business or a key management role, personal disclosures from sole proprietors, officers, directors, partners, shareholders holding 10 per cent or more, and the on-site manager where applicable, a signed signature form, and floor plans to scale showing dimensions, the proposed licensed areas, the layout of the whole location, and secondary areas such as washrooms and hallways in a different colour. Two further documents are not needed at submission but should be sent as soon as possible: the municipal information form, signed and dated by the City clerk's office, and agency letters of approval — also called compliance letters — from the building department, the fire marshal or fire protection officer, and the public health department. The AGCO inspects the location before issuing the licence. Liquor can be served between 9 a.m. and 2 a.m., or 3 a.m. on New Year's Eve, with all signs of liquor service cleared 45 minutes after closing. For questions about liquor licences, call the AGCO at 1-800-522-2876. Serving liquor on a patio needs extra paperwork on top of the licence itself. The AGCO requires the agency letters of approval to state that the outdoor area was inspected. If the patio is on municipal property, you also need an outdoor café boulevard/encroachment agreement from the City of Hamilton; if it is on private property, you need a letter from the landlord stating the area is on private property and giving permission for liquor sales licensing.

The order that avoids rework

Check zoning and draw the premise plan, then notify Public Health Services and Building and Licensing before you build or renovate. File the City licence application at City Hall and let Licensing circulate the fire, health, and parking inspections while you certify your food handlers. Start the AGCO application early — it needs the municipal information form and the three agency letters, which take time to collect — but do not plan an opening date around it until the pre-licensing inspection is done. The expensive mistake is signing a lease on a space that cannot be zoned for a restaurant, or opening without certified staff and failing the first health inspection in front of customers.

What the opened pages do not state

The City's restaurant licensing guide does not publish the fee for a Restaurant Take Out licence on its own, or a breakdown of the new-application total into a licence fee and separate inspection fees, so this guide states neither — the $1,124.01 and $1,187.01 totals are the published all-in figures, with zoning and compliance fees extra. The guide does not state the fee for the Zoning Verification Certificate or the Certificate of Compliance, so this guide states no figure for either. The Hamilton Public Health page does not state how often a restaurant is routinely inspected after opening, so this guide states no inspection frequency. Confirm the current fees on the City's pages before paying, because the City states that fees are subject to change.

Related guides:

• How to Start a Restaurant Business in Canada — the national restaurant guide: format, kitchen, suppliers, hiring, and opening routines that are the same everywhere in Canada.
• How to Get a Liquor Licence in Ontario — the Ontario liquor licence guide, for the full AGCO picture beyond the restaurant sales licence covered here.
• How to Get a Food Handler Certificate in Canada — food handler certification, which sits alongside the Hamilton Public Health course and exam in this guide.
• How to Start a Restaurant in Toronto — the Toronto restaurant path, which shares the AGCO liquor licence but runs under a different City licence process.
• How to Start a Restaurant in Ottawa — the Ottawa restaurant path, for comparison with Hamilton's circulated-inspection model.
• How to Start a Restaurant in Calgary — the Calgary restaurant path, which runs under Alberta Health Services instead of an Ontario health unit.

Sources

• City of Hamilton, Opening a Restaurant in Hamilton — Business Licensing — all food businesses require a municipal licence, the application documents, the circulated fire, health, and parking inspections, the $1,124.01 new Restaurant Licence, $511.96 renewal with $348.67 late fee, $1,187.01 new Restaurant with Liquor Service Licence, $574.96 renewal, $1,020.65 Liquor Licence application, the 4 to 6 week and 15 business day timelines, the AGCO 8 to 12 week timeline, and the Licensing Division contact details.
• City of Hamilton, Food Premises and Food Handling Requirements — 3,200 premises visited a year, the Green, Yellow, and Red Card program, the O. Reg. 493/17 certified food handler rule, the $15 exam and $70.46 course and exam, pre-registration in person, the David Braley Health Centre location, and the duty to notify Public Health Services and Building and Licensing before building or renovating.
• Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, Apply for a liquor sales licence — the $1,055 two-year and $1,355 four-year fees, the iAGCO portal, zoning and tax compliance verification, the disclosure and floor plan requirements, the municipal information form and agency letters, the pre-licensing inspection, and the 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. hours of sale, and the patio rules: agency letters must cover the outdoor area, with a municipal outdoor café boulevard/encroachment agreement on municipal property or a landlord letter on private property.
• Ontario, O. Reg. 493/17, Food Premises Regulation, section 32 — at least one trained food handler or supervisor on site during every operating hour.