What permits do you need to open a coffee shop in Okaloosa County?

Alcohol Zoning Signature and Distance Rules (Unincorporated Okaloosa)

The state alcoholic beverage license is issued by DBPR's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Land Development Code Sec. 2.20.01(1) makes it unlawful to sell alcoholic beverages of more than one percent alcohol by weight at any establishment, including a private or bottle club, without that license. The county's part in the unincorporated area is a zoning sign-off, which the LDC Chapter 12 schedule prices as "Alcohol Signature $75.00". Under Sec. 2.20.01(2), apart from vendors licensed under F.S. 561.422 and other listed exemptions, no establishment licensed for consumption on premises may be located within 1,500 feet of a church, school, cemetery, residential zoning district or residential use, measured as a radius from the closest improved part of the property (excluding stormwater facilities and landscape buffers) to the nearest such parcel. Sec. 2.20.01(3) allows closer locations for uses listed in F.S. 561.20(2) and (7); for restaurants that meet three criteria (no outdoor serving within 300 feet of a residential use or zone except as the code provides, the kitchen open whenever beverages or food are served, and at least 51 percent of gross receipts from non-alcoholic food and beverages); for private clubs approved at public hearing in a master-planned or mixed-use development; for yacht clubs; and for uses authorized under F.S. 561.422. Sec. 2.20.01 sets further limits near residential uses that the code text lists in full. The same Chapter 12 schedule prices a Special Exception at $800.00. These rules apply in unincorporated Okaloosa County.

Public Food Service Establishment License

Banded by seats, and each band is four separate charges added together — a basic fee, a capacity fee, an epidemiological fee and a HEP fee. 1 to 49 seats is $262; 50 to 149 is $273; 150 to 249 is $294; 250 to 349 is $315; 350 to 499 is $336; 500 or more is $357. On top of any of those, a first application or a change of ownership adds a $50 application fee, and a late renewal adds $50. A non-seating permanent establishment pays $242 and a mobile food dispensing vehicle $347 — a food truck costs more to license than all but the largest restaurant. Two things catch people: statute caps the aggregate license fee at $400 per establishment, but the $50 application and $50 delinquency fees sit outside that cap; and applying within six months of the annual renewal period halves the first year's fee, while applying earlier than that does not. A restaurant operating inside a hotel needs its own license.

Shared with other businesses in Okaloosa County

• Food Service Employee Training and Manager Certification — Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Hotels and Restaurants, No fee, employee training 3 years; manager certification 5 years. Also required for restaurants and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the restaurants page.