How to Start a Restaurant in London

The short answer

Zoning first, then the health unit, then the City licence — with the liquor licence running on its own track. To open a restaurant in London, Ontario you need three separate approvals from three separate bodies: the City of London for zoning and the Food Premises licence, the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) for food premises approval under Ontario's Food Premises Regulation, and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for a liquor sales licence if you serve alcohol. This guide walks the London mechanics only. The national restaurant guide covers the parts that are the same everywhere in Canada; nothing in this guide repeats it.

Step 1: Check zoning before you sign a lease

London licenses businesses by category, not with one general licence, so the zoning question comes before the licence question. Confirm with the City that the address is zoned for a restaurant and for food service use before you sign a lease. The AGCO also requires you to verify zoning with the municipality before you apply for a liquor sales licence, so the same check serves two applications. Service London Business is the City's resource for starting a business in London, and it is the place to confirm which licence category your exact operation falls into.

Step 2: File a Notice of Intent with the Middlesex-London Health Unit

Tell the health unit you intend to operate a food premises before you open. The Middlesex-London Health Unit provides a Notice of Intent to Operate a Food Premises form online, alongside forms for mobile food premises and special event vendors. File it early: the health unit is one of the agencies whose approval letter the AGCO needs before a liquor licence can be completed, and a late notice can hold up the whole opening.

The health unit inspects food premises under Ontario Regulation 493/17, the Food Premises Regulation under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. That regulation sets the standards for sanitation, food handling, temperature control, and inspections. The health unit's Environmental Health Team can be reached at 519-663-5317. Its food business resources page also points to the other bodies a new operator may need: the City of London, Service London Business, the London Fire Department, the AGCO, ServiceOntario for business name registration, and the Technical Standards and Safety Authority.

Step 3: Apply for the City Food Premises licence

Food Premises is one of the business categories the City of London licenses. Apply through the City's licensing route and confirm the current requirements and fee with Service London Business or the City's licensing office at the time you apply — the City's licensing pages opened for this guide do not publish the current Food Premises licence fee, so this guide states no figure and no other Ontario city's fee is used as a stand-in.

London's category approach matters when you change what the business does. A licence is issued for the category applied for, so if the operation later adds a use that falls under another licensed category, check whether a further licence is needed rather than assuming the first one covers it.

Step 4: Certify your food handlers

Under Ontario Regulation 493/17, every operator of a food service premises must ensure at least one food handler or supervisor on the premises has completed food handler training during every hour the premises is operating. This is a provincial minimum that applies in London as it does everywhere in Ontario. Plan the training before opening week, and keep a copy of the certificate where an inspector can see it — the health unit's own event guidance expects a certified food handler on site with the certificate available to show the public health inspector.

Step 5: 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. Endorsements — add-ons such as caterer, room service, brew and wine pubs, and mini bars — can be combined with the licence.

Before you apply, the AGCO requires you to 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 so the application can be completed promptly: 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, showing the location meets the standards each agency is responsible for. If your application needs public notice, the AGCO emails you a poster to print and hang at the location, and posts notice on the iAGCO portal so members of the community can raise concerns. 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.

The order that avoids rework

Confirm zoning and the licence category with the City, then file the Notice of Intent with the health unit while the City licence is in progress. Certify your food handlers before opening week, and 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 a trained food handler on site and failing the first inspection in front of customers.

What the opened pages do not state

Three figures a reader would reasonably want are not stated on the official pages opened for this guide, so they are not carried here. The City of London's licensing pages do not publish the current Food Premises licence fee, so this guide states no City licence fee. The Middlesex-London Health Unit pages opened for this guide do not publish a fee for a food premises inspection or a processing time for a Notice of Intent, so this guide states neither. The AGCO page does not publish a processing time for a liquor sales licence. Ask the City for its current licence fee and the health unit for its current timeline when you apply, and the AGCO for its current timeline. The City's full list of licensed business categories was not on a page opened at build time, so confirm the Food Premises category with Service London Business when you apply.

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 Start a Restaurant in Toronto — Toronto's restaurant path, for the comparison on City licensing, DineSafe inspection, and the AGCO licence.
• How to Start a Restaurant in Ottawa — Ottawa's restaurant path, for another Ontario comparison on the City food premises licence.
• How to Start a Restaurant in Hamilton — Hamilton's restaurant path, for the Ontario comparison on city licensing and health inspection.
• How to Get a Food Handler Certificate in Canada — food handler certification, which sits alongside the Ontario food handler training requirement in this guide.

After the liquor licence is issued: capacity, background checks, and posting the licence

Three parts of the AGCO process sit after the application itself, and each one can change how you lay out the room. First, you need a separate capacity for each proposed licensed area. The maximum capacity is set under the Building Code Act, 1992, or, if that Act does not apply, under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997. If neither Act applies, allow 1.11 square metres per person. Work the capacity out area by area before you fix the seating plan, because the dining room, a patio, and a lounge can each carry a different number. Second, you, your officers, directors, and managers may have to go through a police and financial background check as part of the standard application process, so allow time for that step when you set an opening date. Third, when the licence arrives, print it out and post it somewhere customers, inspectors, and the police can see it. Posting the licence is part of holding it, not an optional extra.

Sources

• Middlesex-London Health Unit, Food Business Resources — the Notice of Intent to Operate a Food Premises form, the City of London and Service London Business links, the London Fire Department link, and the AGCO and ServiceOntario links.
• Middlesex-London Health Unit, Special Events — the Environmental Health Team contact, 519-663-5317, the 14-day notice rule for event vendors, and the certified food handler on-site requirement.
• 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, public notice, the pre-licensing inspection, and the 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. hours of sale.
• Ontario, O. Reg. 493/17, Food Premises Regulation, section 32 — at least one trained food handler or supervisor on site during every operating hour.