Restaurants, Bars, Food Trucks & Hospitality
Restaurant, bar, food-truck, and hospitality businesses operate through a dense set of legal relationships: owners and investors, landlords, vendors, employees and contractors, licensing professionals, brand contributors, and customers. A problem in any one of those relationships can affect the viability of the location or concept.
The firm represents operators in formation and governance, investor arrangements, leases, acquisitions, vendor and services contracts, employment documentation, brand and intellectual-property matters, expansion, and commercial disputes. Regulatory filings are coordinated with TABC, permitting, or other specialist counsel where required.
Hospitality leases often require particular attention to percentage rent, permitted and exclusive uses, buildout obligations, co-tenancy rights, operating requirements, and personal guaranties.
Legal needs across the operation
Formation and capital
entity structure, investor and equity terms, and the operating agreement that governs a partnership of chefs, money, and management. (Business Formation · LLC Operating Agreements · Executive Compensation)
The space
leases with the buildout, use, exclusivity, percentage-rent, and guaranty terms that make or break a location. (Commercial Lease Review & Negotiation)
Operations
vendor, supplier, and service contracts, plus brand and recipe IP. (Contracts · SaaS, IP & Technology Transactions)
People
employment, tip, contractor, and policy documentation for a high-turnover workforce. (Employment Counseling)
When it sours
partner, investor, lease, and vendor disputes. (Shareholder & Partnership Disputes · Commercial Real Estate Disputes)
Representative Experience
Represented restaurant, bar, food-truck, and hospitality operators on formation, investor arrangements, leases, asset acquisitions, vendor contracts, employment, and brand matters — single-location and multi-site.
Structured investor and operating terms for hospitality ventures funded by outside capital. More →
Representative matters. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
FAQs
Investors are funding the build-out. What protects everyone?
An operating agreement that says who controls, who gets paid first, what happens if the concept fails, and how an investor exits. Handshake restaurants become lawsuits at exactly the moment there is finally money to fight over.
Do you handle our TABC/liquor licensing?
The firm handles the entity, lease, investor, vendor, and employment layers and coordinates with permitting and TABC counsel for the regulatory filings.
The landlord says the lease is standard.
For a restaurant it never is: percentage rent, exclusive use, venting and grease-trap buildout, co-tenancy, and the personal guaranty are where a hospitality lease is won or lost.
We want to protect the concept and brand.
Trademark, recipe confidentiality, and clean IP ownership from every contributor — documented before a second location or a franchisee makes it worth taking.