How to Start a Restaurant in Kitchener
Open a restaurant in Kitchener: the City food shop licence, Region of Waterloo Public Health notification, and the AGCO liquor sales licence.
How to Start a Restaurant in Windsor
A Windsor restaurant takes a City Hospitality Food Service licence — $587 new, $440 to renew, $782 new with ancillary liquor — a Windsor-Essex County Health Unit inspection certificate, and a February 28 renewal deadline every year.
Applies in: Ontario
The short answer
Windsor licenses restaurants under its Hospitality Services schedule. The City of Windsor charges $587 for a new Food Service licence and $440 to renew, and $782 new / $635 renewal where liquor joins the picture, with the category decided by whether food or liquor makes up more than half of sales. Before the City licence can complete, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit must be notified, review the operation, and inspect before opening — its Board of Health Inspection Certificate is one of the application's required documents. Every licence renews by February 28.
The national restaurant guide linked below covers the business spine. This guide covers Windsor only.
Step 1: Notify the health unit, early
The City's own restaurant guide puts the health unit near the front of the sequence. All food premises in the City of Windsor must notify the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit of their intention to operate. Once notified, a public health inspector reviews the food premises regulation with the operator before and during opening, and a pre-opening inspection must be arranged with the inspector before the restaurant opens.
The guide adds a second, cheaper move: contact the health unit early to have it review your building plans. The health unit can help determine your construction needs, which is the review that catches a missing hand sink or a wrongly placed grease trap while it is still a drawing. Certification for food handlers is also obtained through the health unit, and the restaurant posts the health unit's Safe Food Counts star rating sign once it is operating.
Step 2: Pick the hospitality category by the 50 percent line
Windsor's Schedule H4 categories are defined by what the business primarily does:
- Hospitality Food Service — a restaurant whose primary purpose is food service, including cafeterias, coffee shops, doughnut shops, snack bars, and fast food. $587 new, $440 renewal.
- Hospitality Food Service / Lunch Counter — the lunch counter version, at the same $587 / $440.
- Hospitality Food Service / Ancillary Liquor — food leads, food sales exceed 50 percent of sales, and alcohol service is ancillary to food service. $782 new, $635 renewal.
- Hospitality Liquor Service / Ancillary Food — liquor leads, liquor sales exceed 50 percent of total food and beverage sales, and food service is ancillary. $782 new, $635 renewal.
The category is a statement about your sales mix, so a restaurant that drifts from food-led to liquor-led over a season has a licensing problem to fix, not just a menu change. Choose the category the business will actually run.
Step 3: File the application with its documents
The Licensing Division is in Suite 110, 350 City Hall Square West, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. The applicant requirements are:
- two pieces of government-issued identification, one photo ID and one showing proof of status in Canada,
- a Certificate of Incorporation, if applicable,
- a Master Business Licence, if applicable,
- the Board of Health Inspection Certificate, and
- a copy of the liquor licence, if applicable.
The City mails the business licence once all inspections are complete, per its restaurant guide. Post the licence and the required signs — the health unit's star rating sign and the no-smoking signs among them — when they arrive.
Step 4: Run the AGCO application in parallel
The liquor licence itself is provincial. The City's restaurant guide tells operators to apply for the liquor licence early in order to avoid delays, through the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Windsor's part in that process is the municipal category and the copy of the licence in its file; a restaurant also needs a separate clearance from the City's Building Department to satisfy the AGCO application process, and must stay in compliance with the fire code — a business found non-compliant on a fire inspection does not get its licence issued, and the file can go to the Windsor Licensing Commission.
Start the AGCO file when the lease is signed, not when the dining room is painted. It is the longest pole in most restaurant openings, and Windsor's category fee assumes it lands.
Step 5: Renew by February 28 — every year, on the City's date
Windsor does not renew licences on the anniversary of issue. The renewal deadline is February 28 annually, for every hospitality licence in the city. A restaurant opening in the fall has a short first licence year, and the renewal fee — $440 for Food Service, $635 with liquor — belongs in the first year's budget, not the second's.
What the opened pages do not state
The City's Hospitality Services page states the licence fees and the renewal deadline but does not state a processing time for a new application, so none is printed here. The health unit notification and pre-opening inspection carry no fee on the City pages opened, and this guide states none. Startup and fit-out costs appear in no official source and are not estimated here.
Related guides:
- How to Start a Restaurant Business in Canada — the national guide: registration, taxes, staffing, and suppliers.
- How to Start a Restaurant in Toronto — Ontario's largest city, a different municipal licence and the DineSafe system.
- How to Start a Restaurant in Hamilton — Hamilton's Schedule 21 restaurant class, the nearest comparison to Windsor's schedule.
- How to Get a Liquor Licence in Ontario — the AGCO liquor sales licence the Windsor categories sit on top of.
- How to Start a Coffee Shop in Toronto — the coffee shop format under Toronto's Eating or Drinking Establishment licence.
Opening a restaurant in Windsor, in five steps
- Notify the health unit before you openAll food premises in Windsor must notify the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit of their intention to operate, and a pre-opening inspection is arranged before opening.
- Have the health unit review the building plansThe City's restaurant guide tells operators to contact the health unit early to review building plans and construction needs.
- Apply for the Hospitality licence in the right categoryFood Service costs $587 new; Food Service with Ancillary Liquor costs $782 new, where food sales exceed 50 percent of sales.
- File the licence documentsThe application takes two pieces of government identification, a Master Business Licence if applicable, the Board of Health Inspection Certificate, and a copy of the liquor licence if applicable.
- Renew by February 28Windsor's licence renewal deadline is February 28 annually, the same date for every hospitality licence in the city.
Questions people ask
How much does a Windsor restaurant licence cost?
The City of Windsor's Hospitality Services schedule charges $587 for a new Food Service licence and $440 to renew it. A Lunch Counter licence is the same, $587 new and $440 renewal. Where liquor is ancillary to food, the Food Service/Ancillary Liquor category costs $782 new and $635 to renew. The fees are set in Schedule H4 of Business Licensing By-law 395-2004.
What is the difference between the two liquor categories?
Which side of the business leads. Food Service/Ancillary Liquor is a restaurant whose primary purpose is food service, where food sales exceed 50 percent of sales and alcohol service is ancillary to the food. Liquor Service/Ancillary Food is the mirror image — liquor sales exceed 50 percent of total food and beverage sales and the food is ancillary. Both cost $782 new and $635 to renew.
What does the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit do before opening?
Every food premises in Windsor must notify the health unit of its intention to operate. A public health inspector reviews the Ontario Food Premises Regulation with the operator before and during opening, the health unit can review your building plans and help determine construction needs, and a pre-opening inspection must be arranged with the inspector before the restaurant opens. The licence application itself requires a Board of Health Inspection Certificate.
What documents go with the Windsor licence application?
Two pieces of government-issued identification, including one photo ID and one showing proof of status in Canada; a Certificate of Incorporation if applicable; a Master Business Licence if applicable; the Board of Health Inspection Certificate; and a copy of the liquor licence if the restaurant serves alcohol. The Licensing Division sits in Suite 110, 350 City Hall Square West.
When does a Windsor restaurant licence renew?
Every year by February 28. That is the City's stated licence renewal deadline for hospitality services, and it is a fixed city-wide date rather than the anniversary of your first licence — a restaurant that opens in October renews the following February.
Where does the liquor licence itself come from?
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, not the City. Windsor's licence category records that you hold one — a copy of the liquor licence goes in the City application file — and the City's restaurant guide tells operators to apply for the liquor licence early to avoid delays. A food premises selling alcohol also needs its municipal licence category to match: serving liquor under a plain Food Service licence is the wrong category.
Sources
- City of Windsor, Hospitality Services — the Food Service, Lunch Counter, and ancillary liquor fees, the applicant requirements, and the February 28 renewal deadline, under Business Licensing By-law 395-2004, Schedule H4.
- City of Windsor, Opening a Restaurant — the health unit notification, the plan review and pre-opening inspection, applying for the liquor licence early, and posting the Safe Food Counts sign.
- Windsor Fire and Rescue Services, Business Licences — fire code compliance as a condition of the licence issuing, and the Building Department clearance for AGCO applications.