New restaurants, food businesses and bars in Texas
927 new restaurants, food businesses and bars appeared in official Texas sales-tax permit data between Oct 3–17, 2026. Here's how they score for commercial insurance need and where they are, from our October 2026 snapshot.
- 927
- new restaurants, food businesses and bars
- 100%
- scored 70+ for need (927)
- 644
- flagged Hot (75+)
- 0
- Hot and scored 95+
Date coverage: Permit dates Oct 3–17, 2026, captured Oct 17–19, 2026. Texas Comptroller new sales-tax permits (not Secretary of State formations). Our pull hit its 5,000-record cap, so the earliest date in the window (Oct 8) is likely incomplete. These are 12% of the 8,057 new Texas businesses in the same snapshot.
Why new restaurants, food businesses and bars need commercial coverage
Landlords usually require liability and property coverage before a lease is signed, and a kitchen has frequent burn, cut and slip injuries. If alcohol is served, liquor liability is a separate line because general liability policies commonly exclude it.
Likely first lines in Texas
- Workers' comp (optional in TX): Texas lets most private employers choose whether to carry workers' comp. Employers without it (non-subscribers) lose its liability protections, must notify employees and must file DWC Form-005 within 30 days of hiring the first employee and every year. Source
- BOP: A business owner's policy bundles property and GL for a typical food business.
- Liquor liability: If they serve or sell alcohol: GL policies commonly exclude liquor liability, so it's a separate line.
- Property: Kitchen equipment, inventory and spoilage exposure.
Coverage notes are informational, based on the business's industry and public state rules. They are not legal or insurance advice. Confirm requirements for each business before quoting.
How they score
Distribution of our 1–100 commercial insurance need score for these 927 businesses. How the score works.
- 283 (31%) are new locations of businesses that already held a Texas sales-tax permit. We score those 15 points lower, because they likely have an agent already.
- None scored 95+ in this snapshot. In the product, Super hot is now every Hot 100 plus the top 5% of each state's leads, so it no longer depends on how many fields a state publishes. Texas permits carry a state NAICS code, but this industry's base score leaves less headroom than construction or trucking.
Busiest counties
| County | New | Scored 70+ |
|---|---|---|
| Harris County | 143 | 143 |
| Dallas County | 95 | 95 |
| Tarrant County | 73 | 73 |
| Bexar County | 73 | 73 |
| Travis County | 59 | 59 |
Areas with at least 5 new businesses. Aggregate counts only; we never publish individual records or owner details on public pages.
See this week's top 25 for your Texas county, free
Full business names, scores and likely coverage lines, shown on the page. No card. Business-level data only.
About this data
Source: Texas Comptroller new sales-tax permits. Counts are from our October 2026 New Business Pulse snapshot of Oct 19, 2026, after removing holding companies and registered-agent mail drops. Industry tags combine state codes, name rules and AI review, and some are wrong. See our methodology.
More: All new Texas businesses · Texas manufacturing · Texas construction · Texas auto services · Pennsylvania construction · Texas wholesale · Texas cleaning & landscaping · Pennsylvania trucking · New York construction · Pennsylvania cleaning & landscaping
Source: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Active Sales Tax Permit Holders, via the Texas Open Data Portal (data.texas.gov). Records are new sales-tax permits, not Secretary of State formations. Not endorsed by the State of Texas. All data sources.
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