Sell your restaurant business.

What actually transfers in a restaurant sale

A restaurant sale is a lease, a license, a kitchen that can still produce the menu, and a crew that will show up the Monday after closing. Buyers underwrite remaining lease term and assignment rights, rent as a share of sales, liquor or beer-and-wine transfer rules in your city, and whether regulars come for the room or for you. Full-service rooms with a general manager, a stable kitchen, and a lender-friendly lease trade differently than a chef-owned concept where the menu and the following walk out with the seller.

Delivery-app mix matters. A dining room that looks busy on Saturday can still be thin once you strip marketplace commissions, owner labor on the line, and one-time equipment patches. Buyers also separate real estate from the operating company. If you own the building, that is usually a second decision—sale-leaseback, package deal, or keep the dirt—not a single “restaurant price.”

How restaurant cash flow is read

Most independent restaurants are priced on seller’s discretionary earnings after a real owner salary, personal meals, and non-recurring repairs—not on a published dining-room multiple. Buyers discount deferred hood, grease-trap, and fire-suppression work, expired options on the lease, and a concept that only works with the current chef’s hours. Seasonal tourist rooms need a full-year P&L. Peak-month annualization is how deals die in diligence.

Quick-service and fast-casual rooms with documented managers and repeatable recipes are easier to finance than fine dining. Franchise units follow the franchisor’s transfer process and often a right of first refusal. That calendar, not the buyer’s enthusiasm, usually sets the closing date.

Diligence that stalls restaurant closings

Expect weekly sales, merchant-processor statements, sales-tax filings, vendor aging, and health-inspection history. Liquor, entertainment, and outdoor-seating permits often sit on a local board schedule you cannot rush. A short consulting period after close is normal. An earn-out that only works if the chef stays is a signal the cash flow is not transferable yet.

If you are preparing to list, clean the add-backs, get the landlord’s assignment posture in writing, and decide what you will do for 30 to 90 days after closing. Bridge Point can walk that pack with you before anyone sees the name on the door.

Most independent restaurants are still an SDE sale

A room the owner still opens is priced on seller's discretionary earnings after a real manager wage, not on a dining-room rumor. Those restaurants often trade around 2x–3.5x SDE. A general manager, a stable kitchen, and a lease a lender will live with often move the file toward 2.5x–4.5x SDE. A managed multi-unit group priced near $10 million is more often read on adjusted EBITDA, commonly about 3x–6x. A chef-owned concept does not borrow that multiple. These ranges are directional, not a quote, and not legal, tax, or lending advice.

Operators buy rooms. A single concept is not a fund deal.

The buyer is usually an operator or a small local group that already runs restaurants. They care about the lease, the liquor class they can actually hold, and whether the crew shows up without you on the line. A single chef-owned room does not draw private equity. A staffed group with a manager might, and that buyer is reading EBITDA.

SBA 7(a) is common when a manager is real, weekly sales support debt service, and the lease assigns. The SBA 7(a) cap is $5 million. Liquor hearings and landlord consent sit on the same calendar as the loan. This is not lending advice.

A Florida season is an example, not a Florida-only price

South Florida winter and parts of the Panhandle summer are tourist seasons. So are shore weeks in other states and ski weeks somewhere else. Peak-month annualization fails in all of them. Liquor transfer rules are local. Florida's process is one example. Bridge Point sells restaurants nationally and still wants a full-year P&L, a lease that assigns, and a manager who is not the chef-owner.