What are the legal requirements for opening a restaurant?

Opening a restaurant is often the project of a lifetime. While it offers many opportunities, it also involves a series of precise legal and administrative steps. From drawing up a business plan to obtaining licenses and choosing your legal status, each stage is crucial to ensuring your establishment gets off to a good start. We tell you all about it in this guide!

🤓 Bonus article: if you're just starting out, here are the 8 essential things some restaurateurs wish they'd known before...

1. Create a solid business plan

Before plunging into the administrative formalities, it's essential to draw up a business plan for your restaurant.

This strategic document will help you assess the economic viability of your project, and convince banks and investors to finance you.

Broadly speaking, a business plan should include :

• Market research to understand the competition and the expectations of your potential customers;
• An estimate of the budget required to open your restaurant (works, fittings, equipment, etc.);
• A financing plan detailing personal contributions and external financing;
• A marketing strategy to promote your restaurant and attract and retain customers.

Once you've taken this step, you're ready to move on to the legal and administrative aspects.

2. Choose the legal form of your restaurant

When you launch an entrepreneurial venture, you choosea "legal status" to frame your project.

This key decision will have consequences for your restaurant's tax and social security system, as well as for the responsibilities of the partners.

In France, most restaurants opt for:‍

• ‍Thesole proprietorship (EI or EIRL), which includes the micro-enterprise. This status is best suited to restaurateurs who want to go it alone. The advantage: simplified administrative procedures (especially for micro-enterprises). The drawback: it does not protect your personal assets in the event of bankruptcy (except for the EIRL).

• The limited liability company (SARL): a common choice for restaurateurs wishing to form a partnership with one or more people. The liability of partners is limited to their contribution.
• Simplified joint-stock companies (SAS and SASU): more flexible than SARLs, they offer greater freedom in drafting bylaws, but involve more complex management.
• Micro-entreprise: this is the simplified status for small businesses, and is of interest if you are planning a low-sales activity. If your sales exceed this threshold, you'll need to switch to one of the statuses listed above.

Whatever you do, plan to evolve! Less than 10% of private restaurants in France have SASU or SAS status.

Once you've chosen the legal form of your establishment, you need to draw up and register your company's articles of association with the relevant CFE (Centre de Formalités des Entreprises).

Bylaws are compulsory and govern the organization and operation of a company. Drawing up articles of association enables you to define how your restaurant is to operate, mentioning its form, name, registered office address, the identity of investors and the conditions of partners' contributions, etc.

3. Register your restaurant

Once you've drawn up your articles of association, you need to register your business with the Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés (RCS).

This is done via the CFE or online via specialized platforms such as Infogreffe.

This registration "gives birth" to your company and gives you your SIRET number, which identifies you to the tax and social authorities.

4. Obtain the necessary licenses

One of the most important steps in opening a restaurant is obtaining the licenses and authorizations required to operate your business.

👉 Good news: we've summarized the 4 training courses (and permits) required to open a restaurant. 

These licenses vary according to the type of establishment and the services you offer:

• License to sell alcohol: if you plan to sell alcoholic beverages, you need a license. There are several categories:

• The license to sell drinks on the premises (license III or IV, depending on the alcohol content);
• A small restaurant license, or a large restaurant license if alcohol is sold only with meals.

• Fast food license: if you offer fast food, you need a specific license for takeaway or on-site consumption.  

To obtain these licenses, you'll need to take a "Permis d'Exploitation" course, which will make you aware of the legal obligations involved in selling alcohol.

5. Respect health and safety standards

Food hygiene and safety standards are particularly strict in the catering sector. They are designed to guarantee product quality and customer safety.

The 3 fundamentals are :

• Food hygiene training: it is compulsory for staff handling foodstuffs to have undergone specific training. The restaurateur himself must be trained, or hire a trained person.
• Compliance with product traceability rules : you must be able to trace the origin of your raw materials and respect use-by dates.
• Layout standards : the layout of the kitchen and storage areas must comply with current hygiene regulations (ventilation, separation of clean and dirty areas, etc.).

6. Requesting authorization to occupy the public domain

If you're planning to install a terrace or any other equipment on the public domain, you'll need to apply to the town hall for a permit called permission de voirie or autorisation d'occupation temporaire (AOT). This application must be made before the restaurant opens, and requires payment of a fee.

If you're planning to set up an ephemeral terrace as summer approaches, dive straight into our article on summer terrace authorization!

7. Take out insurance

Prevention is better than cure! It is compulsory to take out certain professional insurance policies to cover the risks associated with running a restaurant.

The most common types of insurance include :

• Professional civil liability: covers damage caused to third parties in the course of your business;
• Multi-risk business insurance: protects your business against losses such as fire, flood or theft;
• Insurance for employees: if you hire staff, you must take out workplace accident and employer's liability insurance.

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8. Register your restaurant with the DDPP

Finally, you need to declare the opening of your restaurant to the Direction départementale de la protection des populations (DDPP).

This declaration enables the authorities to check that you comply with food safety and hygiene standards.

9. Hiring and managing your staff

If you have employees, you must comply with the legal obligations associated with hiring in France, such as :

• Pre-employment declaration (DPAE) to URSSAF ;
• Membership of a collective bargaining agreement in the catering sector ;
• Introduction of occupational medicine and mandatory training (safety, hygiene, etc.).

And because service is at the heart of any restaurant strategy, find out in this article how to recruit the pearl!

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