How to sell a restaurant
Restaurants sell on provable earnings and on the lease. The kitchen equipment is usually part of the business, not a second price, and a buyer who needs you in the kitchen every night is buying a job.
The published average for this category is 2.18× owner earnings. See the full valuation guide. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Get the books ready
Tax returns, sales-tax filings, and the POS should match. Separate dining-room sales from catering and delivery. Prime cost and what you pay yourself have to be visible. Unreported cash is not a selling point; buyers and lenders will not pay for it.
Calculate owner earnings
Your salary, owner meals, personal expenses, depreciation on equipment, interest, and a one-time repair are the usual add-backs. Food, hourly labor, and rent for the restaurant that continues are not.
SDE explained: how to calculate owner earnings and add-backs walks through the method. Add back only what a buyer can verify.
Reduce owner dependence
If you are the chef and the closer, write down what has to be true for you to leave: a kitchen manager, recipes, and vendor accounts that are not only in your phone. Buyers discount a restaurant that is a person.
Licenses and permits
A health permit, a food-service license, and any liquor license are local and often do not move automatically to a buyer. Liquor transfers in particular can set the closing date. This is not legal advice; talk to the local licensing office early.
Customer contracts
The lease is the contract. Time left, options, rent, and whether the landlord will assign or sign a new lease decide if there is a sale at all. Catering agreements and delivery-platform accounts should be listed, not assumed.
Timing
Landlords and liquor authorities move on their own clocks. Start there, then the books. Staff and regulars should hear the plan from you when a buyer is real, with a manager they already know still on the floor.
Ways to sell
Through a broker
A restaurant broker will market the lease and the earnings and will expect a data room of POS reports and returns. You pay a commission if they sell it.
Directly to a buyer
A chef, a local group, or a buyer who wants the location may buy directly. You still need the landlord and, if you serve alcohol, the license path.
To an employee or a competitor
A kitchen manager or a front-of-house manager who wants to own it, or a neighboring operator who wants the seats, can be the buyer. They need the lease as much as a stranger does.
Nobody contacts you unless you opt in. MainStreetKeys does not introduce you to a broker or a buyer.
Value your restaurant
The chat uses the same published multiple as the valuation guide. It is free, and nobody contacts you unless you opt in.
Trade: Restaurant ·
Questions
What if the restaurant is not profitable?
Buyers may still want the lease and the equipment, priced as assets rather than as a multiple of earnings. That price is outside the earnings calculator. The valuation guide explains the difference.
Does anyone get my number if I use the calculator?
No. Nobody contacts you unless you opt in.