Opening and running a restaurant in Austin, Texas: permits, taxes and what sells

Permits and the health authority

Austin Public Health issues and inspects your food establishment permit, under Austin City Code Chapter 10-3. We could not locate a published fee schedule with a dollar figure for the permit during this research pass — call the department directly to confirm the current cost before you budget. DSHS only issues permits directly where no local authority has adopted its own ordinance; Austin has, so Austin Public Health, not DSHS, is your point of contact.

Sales tax on the ticket

An Austin restaurant charges 8.25% combined sales tax on prepared food — the state's 6.25% plus 1% city sales tax and 1% for Capital Metro transit — per the Comptroller's official local rate listing, and the same total applies to the Williamson County portion of Austin. That figure is already the statewide ceiling: local add-ons are capped at 2% combined on top of the state rate.

Alcohol

Serving alcohol runs on TABC permits, not a city license: beer and wine typically need a Wine and Malt Beverage Retailer's Permit (BG) or Retail Dealer's On-Premise License (BE); spirits need a Mixed Beverage Permit (MB). Any of those requires a Food and Beverage Certificate (FB) add-on, and the current TABC rule caps an FB holder's alcohol sales at 60% of total sales unless the business otherwise qualifies as a "restaurant." On tax, the state charges the permit holder a 6.7% mixed beverage gross receipts tax plus an 8.25% mixed beverage sales tax on the drink. Whether alcohol is allowed at a given address depends on a local-option election; we didn't verify Travis County's wet/dry status, so confirm with TABC or the county clerk first.

The local food calendar

Two verified events anchor Austin's food calendar: the Austin Food & Wine Festival and the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival. We didn't find a verified, citable list of recurring farmers markets or food halls for Austin in this research pass — check with Austin Public Health or a local market association for the current schedule.

What kind of restaurant works here

We didn't verify a current population figure or a neighborhood-level dining breakdown for Austin, so take this as general orientation, not sourced fact: the dining scene commonly splits between downtown/campus-adjacent volume near the University of Texas and neighborhood spots in East Austin and South Congress. Confirm foot traffic and seasonality for your own address before committing to a lease.

Running it on your own site

Set your confirmed 8.25% rate under Admin → Restaurant, and every online ticket — pickup, delivery, a dine-in order, or a pay-it-forward treat for another table — applies it automatically and shows it to the guest before they pay. None of it touches a delivery dispatcher or a POS terminal — whatever you already use stays exactly where it is. Given how much of this page is "call and confirm," your own site is also the place to publish your actual hours and permit status once you have them.