Categories
Finance & Legal
General Legal Counsel
General legal counsel for hospitality covers entity formation, leases, vendor and employment agreements, partnership structures, trademark, and the day-to-day contract review that protects the operator. The right NYC firm has restaurant or nightclub clients on their book, knows the SLA and HTC environment, and isn't billing Big Law rates for routine work.
View vendors →Accounting & Bookkeeping
Accounting and bookkeeping for NYC hospitality is bimodal — operators under $2M revenue buy bookkeeping-only at sub-$500/month, while operators over $5M pay $3K–$10K/month for outsourced accounting plus CFO-level analytics. The NYC premium over national averages runs 20–35% because of UBT, NY sales tax complexity, SLA-licensed beverage allocation, and the density of hospitality-specialist firms. Pick a vendor that closes the books monthly (not quarterly), files the ST-100 on time, and reconciles tip credit and FICA tip credit accurately.
View briefing →ADA Compliance Consulting
ADA compliance consulting is the third-party expert who audits the property against ADA Title III (federal), the NY State Human Rights Law, NYC Human Rights Law §8-107, and the WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA web standard, then writes a remediation scope a contractor can build to. NYC sees more ADA Title III lawsuits than any other US jurisdiction — bathroom layouts, pool lifts, website accessibility, and tactile signage are the recurring claim drivers. Engagements run $10K–$25K for a full physical-and-digital audit; a written report with photos and fix priorities is the deliverable that holds up if you are sued.
View briefing →Background Check & Verification
Background check and verification is the FCRA-compliant screening vendor (Checkr, Sterling, GoodHire) operators use to pull criminal, identity, employment, education, and motor-vehicle records on hires before they walk a floor or drive a delivery van. NYC is one of the strictest jurisdictions in the country — the Fair Chance Act §8-107(11)(a), the credit-check ban, the salary-history ban, and the marijuana pre-employment ban all box in what you can ask. Per-screen cost runs $5–$65 depending on package; pick a vendor whose intake form is built around NYC compliance.
View briefing →Bookkeeping & CFO Service
Bookkeeping and CFO service is the stacked product line — Tier 1 daily/weekly bookkeeping ($1,200–$2,000/month), Tier 2 controller-level monthly close with variance reporting ($2,000–$3,000), and Tier 3 fractional CFO with budgeting, cash forecasting, and capital-stack work ($3,000–$5,000+). Operators use Tier 1 from opening day, layer Tier 2 once they cross $3M revenue, and add Tier 3 when they are raising capital or opening a second unit. Hospitality-specialist firms (Bookkeeping Chef, Restaurant Accounting Services) close monthly, not quarterly, and integrate with Toast/Square/Restaurant365.
View briefing →Business Financing & Lending
Business financing and lending is the most variable category in the directory — on the same $150K need, a qualified operator with a CDFI relationship pays roughly $15K/yr in interest, while a desperate operator taking a merchant cash advance pays the equivalent of 40–350%+ APR once the factor rate is converted. SBA 7(a), CDFI loans (Pursuit, Accion), revenue-based financing, and equipment leasing all live in this category. Read the product, not just the monthly payment, and watch the daily ACH debit on any MCA — that is what kills cash flow in slow weeks.
View briefing →Business Insurance Broker
A business insurance broker is the licensed intermediary who structures and places GL, liquor liability, property, workers comp, EPLI, cyber, and umbrella coverage across the carrier panel. NYC leads the country in premises-liability lawsuits and hospitality absorbs a disproportionate share — slip-and-falls, dram-shop, assault and battery from the bouncer line, food-borne illness — and juries are historically generous to plaintiffs. Pay a broker who specializes in restaurants and bars (Distinguished, Society Insurance, Hub) and review limits annually before renewal.
View briefing →Employment & Labor Attorney
Employment and labor attorneys handle wage-and-hour audits, ESSTA defense, harassment claims, NY State Department of Labor investigations, tip-pooling structures, classification disputes (1099 vs W-2), severance, non-competes, and union avoidance. NYC hospitality is the most-sued sector for wage-and-hour, and the spread-of-hours premium plus tip-credit math drives most of the exposure. Hourly rates run $300–$800; the better firms know the FLSA, NYLL, and NYC's overlapping local laws and have a hospitality client base that recognizes the patterns.
View briefing →Equipment Leasing
Equipment leasing is the vendor that finances ovens, walk-ins, ice machines, espresso rigs, dishwashers, and POS hardware on 36–60-month terms instead of operators paying cash upfront. The trick is that lessors quote the monthly payment to anchor low and hide the embedded APR, which often runs 12–25% on hospitality paper. Compare $1 buyout vs FMV (fair-market-value) end-of-term, and watch for personal guaranties, evergreen clauses, and the new NY Commercial Financing Disclosure Law (CFDL) that requires APR disclosure on leases under $2.5M.
View briefing →Health & Safety Attorney
Health and safety attorneys defend OATH ECB violations from DOH letter-grade inspections, FDNY summonses for over-occupancy or blocked egress, DOB stop-work orders, and the slip-and-fall, food-poisoning, or fire incident that turns into a personal-injury suit. NYC operators get a DOH inspection at least once a year, and the difference between an A grade and a closure can be one inspector and one violation interpretation. Hourly rates run $600–$700; the better lawyers also handle the pre-inspection prep so you do not need them after.
View briefing →HR & Benefits Administration
HR and benefits administration is the operating layer that runs medical, dental, vision, 401(k), commuter, NY DBL/PFL, FSA, and the SECURE 2.0 retirement mandate (NY Secure Choice for 10+ employees) — plus harassment training, employee handbooks, and the annual ACA reporting. Hospitality typically buys this stacked: a PEO (Justworks, TriNet) bundles it for a 9–13% payroll markup, or a broker plus a separate HRIS (Gusto, Rippling) splits it. Per-employee monthly cost runs $100–$208 across the bundle.
View briefing →Immigration Attorney
Immigration attorneys handle the visa pipeline a NYC kitchen and front-of-house often runs on — H-1B for executive chefs and sommeliers, O-1 for celebrity chefs, EB-3 for line cooks, TN for Canadian and Mexican staff, plus I-9 audits and ICE preparation. The work is part filing, part audit defense, part employer compliance training. Hourly rates run $400–$600 and most matters are flat-fee per visa type. Pick a firm with a hospitality client base and current relationships at the relevant USCIS service centers.
View briefing →Intellectual Property Attorney
An intellectual property attorney handles the trademark filings on the restaurant name, the logo, and the cocktail list (USPTO Class 43); the copyright registration on menu illustrations and brand photography; the licensing deals when a chef sells a sauce line; and the cease-and-desist letters when a competitor in another city opens with a confusingly similar name. Hourly rates run $600–$700 at NYC boutique IP firms. Most operators only need an IP lawyer at three moments — naming the venue, expanding to a second location, and licensing the brand.
View briefing →Investor & Fundraising Advisor
Investor and fundraising advisor is the most wildly priced category in the directory — fees range from $2,500 for a one-off deck polish to 7% of a $10M Series A paid to a boutique investment bank, a 300x spread. The spectrum runs from solo deck consultants (Foodservice Consultants Society International members) to F&B-focused investment banks (Cypress Group, Roark, North Point) for actual placement. Sort vendors by product type and engagement model — advisory retainer, success fee, or equity participation — before agreeing to scope.
View briefing →Payroll Service
Payroll service is the two-part-tariff vendor (monthly base + per-employee/pay-run fee) who runs the paychecks, files the SUI/PFL/DBL contributions, handles W-2s and 1099s, and ports tip income through FICA tip credit accurately. Hospitality is a payroll edge case — tipped wages, spread of hours, ESSTA sick leave, NY pay frequency rules, and (since 2025) NYC LL144 AEDT bias-audit disclosure on any algorithmic hiring tool. Gusto, ADP RUN, Paychex, Toast Payroll, and Restaurant365 dominate. Budget $59–$250/month plus $4–$12 per employee per pay run.
View briefing →Tax Specialist — Hospitality
A hospitality tax specialist handles the NY corporate tax (CT-3), the resale certificate (ST-120), the partnership return (IT-204), the NYC UBT, the FICA tip credit, the cost segregation studies that accelerate depreciation on a build-out, and the SLA-required annual sales reports. NYC is one of the few jurisdictions with a separate city-level unincorporated business tax that hits partnerships and LLCs at 4% — a generalist CPA misses it. Hourly rates run $650–$950 at boutique hospitality CPA firms; the engagement pays for itself on the cost-seg alone.
View briefing →Other Operations sub-areas
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