Opening and running a restaurant in College Station-Bryan, Texas: permits, taxes and what sells

Permits and the health authority

Your health authority for both College Station and Bryan is the Brazos County Health District, which regulates retail food establishments across the county under a single fee schedule. Its Retail Food Establishment Permit (annual, renewal) is tiered by risk category and size: about $350/year for Low Risk/Small (Category 1A) up to about $675/year for High Risk/Large (Category 3C), per the district's fee schedule effective September 2025. (Also running a truck: mobile food vendor licensing moved statewide to Texas DSHS on July 1, 2026, replacing the district's own prior mobile-unit fee — check DSHS directly.)

Sales tax on the ticket

Prepared food carries a combined 8.25% sales tax in both College Station and Bryan: 6.25% state plus 1.50% city and 0.50% Brazos County local components, identical in both cities per the Comptroller's local rate listing. That 8.25% is also the statewide ceiling — Texas caps combined local add-ons at 2% over the state rate everywhere, so both cities are already at the maximum.

Alcohol

TABC's statewide rules govern alcohol here the same as anywhere in Texas. Beer and wine service typically needs a Wine and Malt Beverage Retailer's Permit (BG); a full bar needs a Mixed Beverage Permit (MB). Either usually pairs with a Food and Beverage Certificate, requiring the business to qualify as a "restaurant" or keep alcohol to 60% or less of total sales — the current 60%-alcohol-cap rule, not the older "51% food" framing, though it amounts to roughly the same 40%-minimum-food floor. A permittee also owes a 6.7% mixed beverage gross receipts tax out of pocket, plus an 8.25% mixed beverage sales tax charged to the guest on the drink. We didn't confirm a local wet/dry restriction beyond Texas's standard local-option system — check your address with TABC before applying.

The local food calendar

Two confirmed annual events anchor the food calendar here: Taste of Aggieland, a tasting event run by the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber's 28th Annual Crawfish Boil. Both are recurring, chamber-organized events worth building a vendor or sponsorship plan around if that fits your restaurant. We didn't find a confirmed public farmers market for either city in this research.

What kind of restaurant works here

Texas A&M University is the dominant fact of life for a restaurant in either city — a large student population for most of the year, a research and agricultural-economy customer base when students are away, and a football-Saturday surge that can turn a quiet Tuesday-level town into a full house with almost no notice. Any restaurant here should plan its calendar around the home-game schedule specifically, not just a generic weekend pattern, since game-day traffic follows the athletic calendar rather than the retail one. Outside of football season, expect a steady, campus-driven weekday trade rather than a tourism-based one.

Running it on your own site

Your own site handles ordering four ways — pickup, delivery inside the ZIP zone you set, a dine-in order sent from the table, or a pay-it-forward treat for another table — with every ticket paid straight into your own Stripe account and no commission taken on any of them. Set your 8.25% combined rate once under Admin → Restaurant and it's applied and shown on every online ticket before the guest pays. Because College Station and Bryan are two separate cities even though the rate happens to match, set your tax rate per location if you ever run more than one address, rather than assuming one number covers the whole business. The staff scheduling tool is worth building specifically around the home-game calendar, since that's where the real surge days are.

FAQ

How much does a restaurant permit cost in College Station or Bryan?
The Brazos County Health District's Retail Food Establishment Permit is tiered by risk category and size, running from about $350/year (Low Risk/Small, Category 1A) up to $675/year (High Risk/Large, Category 3C), per the district's current fee schedule, and covers both cities.

What's the combined sales tax rate on food in College Station and Bryan?
8.25% in both cities: 6.25% state, 1.50% city, and 0.50% Brazos County, per the Comptroller's local rate listing.

What's the single biggest thing to plan a College Station-Bryan restaurant around?
Texas A&M's academic calendar, and football Saturdays specifically — home games turn the town from quiet to full almost overnight, and any staffing plan built on an ordinary weekly pattern will miss it.