What permits do you need to open a restaurant in Cuyahoga County?

Mobile Food License

A food truck, trailer or cart licenses once, where it is based, and can then trade across the state: CCBH states that 'Mobiles obtain an annual license from the local health jurisdiction in which their business headquarters is located' and that a mobile licensed anywhere in Ohio 'can operate anywhere in the State of Ohio.' The test for a mobile is therefore the headquarters address, which is a different test from the one for a temporary license, where CCBH looks at the event's location — the two must not be conflated. The two rates above are read from CCBH's 2026 Food Protection Program Fee Schedule, effective 1 January 2026, and each total is the local fee plus the $28 state fee CCBH collects and transmits: $380 plus $28 for a high risk mobile and $190 plus $28 for a low risk one. Risk is assigned on the state two-class mobile scheme documented in CCBH's Levels of Risk 2026. Timing is the part operators most often miss: CCBH requires the annual inspection to be booked before trading resumes each year — 'If you have a mobile license, please contact our office at 216.201.2000 after submitting your renewal application. We need to schedule your first annual inspection prior to operating' — and adds that 'Licensed mobiles will also be inspected at any events where they participate.' CCBH's 2026 Mobile Unit Plan Review Application recognises five unit types: knock-down mobile, pre-packaged non-perishable push-cart, push-cart, self-sufficient vehicle or trailer, and vehicle or trailer that is not self-sufficient; that plan review is mandatory before a unit opens, and CCBH publishes no amount for it, so the facility plan review fee is not applied to a mobile here. A truck headquartered inside the City of Cleveland licenses with the Cleveland Department of Public Health instead, which CCBH's Food Licensing page reaches on 216.664.2300.

Retail Cigarette Dealer's License (Cigarette Vendor's License)

A shop, cafe, restaurant or truck selling cigarettes at retail in Cuyahoga County needs this license for each physical place of business, and the Fiscal Officer issues it on 216-443-7420, option #7. ORC 5743.15(B)(1) requires 'every person desiring to engage in the retail business of trafficking in cigarettes' to 'pay an application fee in the sum of one hundred twenty-five dollars for each physical place where the person proposes to carry on such business', and ORC 5743.15(B)(2) authorises the business 'at such place for one year commencing on the first day of June', adding that 'When an application is filed after the first day of June, the application fee required to be paid shall be proportioned in amount to the remainder of the license year, except that it shall not be less than twenty-five dollars in any one year.' The county's own page prints the same amount — 'There is an annual renewal fee of $125.00 and a Vendor's License is required' — and describes its counter practice for part-year applicants: 'New applicants requesting a license will pay a prorated fee between January - May. Please contact the Fiscal Office at 216-443-7420, option #7 for the exact cost.' The statute's proration rule and the county's January-to-May wording are each recorded as their own source states them. Vehicles count as places: the county's page states that 'Any person who employs the use of a motor vehicle to convey a supply of cigarettes from place to place or for the purpose of offering such cigarettes for sale must obtain a license for each vehicle in each county in which any vehicle is used.' A lost, destroyed or defaced license is replaced for $5, and a move to another place of business inside the same county transfers for $5 while the licensee's ownership interest and business structure stay unchanged. The license must be on show: 'Cigarette licenses are to be displayed near the product being sold for easy inspection.' A Vendor's License is a prerequisite. One boundary is worth knowing before budgeting: tobacco retailing inside the City of Cleveland also draws the city's own annual tobacco retail license under Ordinance 187-2025, applied for through the city's licensing portal, so a Cleveland retailer's tobacco permit sits with the city rather than with the county Board of Health.

Food Facility Plan Review

Building or remodelling a food facility outside the City of Cleveland starts with CCBH's plan review, not with the license: CCBH states that 'New food and mobile operations must have plan approval prior to submitting a license application.' The standard fee is $500 on the 2026 CCBH Food Protection Program Fee Schedule effective 1 January 2026, under the heading 'FACILITY PLAN REVIEW (RISK LEVELS 1-4)'. The expedited figure is additive, which is the detail most easily misread from the schedule's $1,500 line: CCBH's own 2026 Food Facility Plan Review Application prints 'Standard Plan Review - $500' and 'Expedited Plan Review (optional) - $1000 + Standard plan review fee', so paying to expedite means $1,500 in all and buys a review 'within 3 business days of complete submission' against the standard 30 days. Plans go in 'at least 30 days prior to construction' with the completed application, two complete sets of facility drawings, the menu, food safety training certificates and the fee. The municipal layer comes first in the sequence: CCBH instructs applicants to 'Please ensure all inspections from the local fire department and building department are completed before contacting CCBH for a pre-licensing inspection,' so the city or township building and fire sign-off precedes the county health step. The heading on the plan-review line is the permanent-facility risk classes, and CCBH's separate 2026 Mobile Unit Plan Review Application states no amount, so this $500 is not the price of reviewing a food truck.

Retail Pricing Accuracy Duties (scanner accuracy and item pricing)

These are the newest obligations the county places on a retail business, and they are easy to miss because the Code imposes them directly, with no fee to pay and no application to file: County Code §§1302.10 and 1302.11 were enacted by Ordinance No. O2026-0008 on 7 July 2026 and took effect on 8 August 2026. They also reach further than the device-inspection duty, because a scanner or a shelf tag is enough to engage them and no weighing device is needed. Section 1302.10 sets an accuracy standard: 'Every retail establishment using scanners or electronic price lookup systems shall maintain a failure rate not greater than two percent (2%), consistent with the price-verification procedures of NIST Handbook 130', with the rate calculated as 'the number of items scanned at an incorrect price divided by the total number of items scanned, multiplied by one hundred'. It defines a correct price as one that equals 'The price displayed on the item', 'The shelf price displayed in reasonable proximity to the item', or 'The advertised price, if the item is currently advertised', and it resolves conflicts in the customer's favour: 'If multiple prices are displayed for an item (e.g., item tag, shelf tag, advertised price), the consumer shall be entitled to purchase the item at the lowest displayed or advertised price.' Section 1302.11 governs the tags themselves — 'For items with prices displayed on a shelf tag or sign in reasonable proximity to the item, the displayed price must be accurate and match the price at the point of sale', and 'When items are offered at a reduced price, the reduced price shall be clearly displayed at the point of display. If the original price is also displayed, it shall not be false or inflated.' Section 1302.12 then sets out consumer remedies for pricing errors. Enforcement is practical rather than paper-based: the Department of Consumer Affairs uses the Chapter 1301 charging-document and civil-citation machinery through §1302.07(D), and describes its own routine on its page — 'Our inspectors periodically conduct price sweeps to make sure the prices stores advertise are the prices that ring up at the register.' Territory follows the rest of Chapter 1302: §1302.13(A) applies it county-wide except within a municipal corporation that has appointed its own weights and measures official under ORC 1327.52.

Disposable Bag Rule for Retail Establishments

Any shop, cafe, restaurant or truck handing goods to a customer in Cuyahoga County is bound by the county's disposable bag rule, and this is one county duty that reaches a City of Cleveland address as well, because County Code §1304.02 applies it 'within Cuyahoga County' without the carve-out that limits the weights and measures chapter. The rule itself is short: 'Commencing on January 1, 2020 no Disposable Plastic Bags or Non-Permitted Paper Bags shall be used within Cuyahoga County by any Retail Establishment. Retail Establishments shall offer only a Reusable Bag or a Permitted Paper Bag to a customer at the point of sale for the purpose of transporting goods.' Two further duties sit alongside it: 'No Retail Establishment shall refuse to allow customers to bring with them and to use their own reusable bag or bags', and retailers 'shall encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags', with customers who do so neither required to take the shop's bags nor 'charged a fee for the use of reusable bags'. There is nothing to apply for and no fee to pay; the only amounts in the chapter are the penalties for breaching it, and §1304.03 escalates them per incident and per day: 'A Retail Establishment found to be in violation of this Chapter shall be subject to a written warning for the first violation, a civil fine of up to $100 for a second violation, and a civil fine of up to $500 for each subsequent violation. A separate violation shall be deemed committed each day during or on which a violation or noncompliance occurs or continues.' Enforcement sits with the Department of Consumer Affairs under §1304.04 from 1 January 2021, and a citation can be appealed to the Cuyahoga County Debarment Review Board and from there to the Court of Common Pleas under ORC Chapter 2506. The chapter was built in three steps — Ordinance No. O2019-0005, effective 29 June 2019, then O2019-0012 and O2020-0011, effective 9 June 2020 — and §1304.03 confines penalties to conduct on or after 1 January 2021.

Food Service Operation License

There is no single Ohio restaurant license fee. The state's share is fixed by rule at $28 for a commercial food service operation of any size or risk level, $14 non-commercial and $6 per vending machine location; the rest is set by whichever of roughly a hundred and ten local boards of health licenses your address. Under rule 3701-21-02 the license is issued by the local board of health; the Department of Health approves those boards and binds them to a uniform method, so every district's schedule has the same shape: four risk levels by two floor-area bands, commercial or non-commercial, with non-commercial fixed at exactly half of commercial. Each district must run an annual cost analysis and hold a public hearing before changing its figure. Renewal is due by 1 March and a late application costs a further 25 per cent. Only the vending machine fee is capped against inflation; restaurant and mobile fees are not.

Shared with other businesses in Cuyahoga County

• Food Service Operation / Retail Food Establishment License — Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Per the 2026 CCBH Food Protection Program Fee Schedule (Effective January 1, 2026, Rev 12.30.2025), by risk level and floor area. COMMERCIAL, per year, under 25,000 sq ft: Level 1 $260, Level 2 $284, Level 3 $490, Level 4 $606; 25,000 sq ft and over: Level 1 $348, Level 2 $364, Level 3 $1,140, Level 4 $1,204 — each total being the local fee ($232, $256, $462, $578, $320, $336, $1,112, $1,176) plus the $28 state fee. NON-COMMERCIAL, per year, under 25,000 sq ft: Level 1 $130, Level 2 $142, Level 3 $245, Level 4 $303; 25,000 sq ft and over: Level 1 $174, Level 2 $182, Level 3 $570, Level 4 $602 — each total being the local fee ($116, $128, $231, $289, $160, $168, $556, $588) plus the $14 state fee. A license renewed after 1 March carries a mandatory 25 per cent late penalty., annual; CCBH states that 'Annual food license renewal applications are mailed in January of each year for renewal before March 1. Licenses renewed after March 1 will be assessed a mandatory 25% late penalty.'. Also required for coffee shops, retail stores, childcare centres and fitness studios; what it involves is set out on the retail stores page.
• Vendor's License (Regular) — Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Licensing and Support Services, $50 one application fee for each fixed sales location in the county — a combined state and county amount, of which the county auditor transmits $25 to the Treasurer of State for the organized crime commission fund and credits $25 to the Cuyahoga County general fund; the county's page states 'No Annual Renewal Fee', a standing registration with no annual renewal fee; the county's own page states that 'Vendors must have one regular vendor's license for each sales location', and a new license is needed when the vendor's legal identity changes rather than at a fixed expiry date. Also required for coffee shops, food trucks, retail stores, fitness studios, auto repair shops and salons and barbers; what it involves is set out on the salons and barbers page.
• Vending Machine License — Cuyahoga County Board of Health, $9.62 per year, per vending machine location as priced on the 2026 CCBH Food Protection Program Fee Schedule — a combined amount of $3.62 local plus $6.00 state, annual, renewed on the same cycle as CCBH's other food licenses, with renewal applications mailed in January for renewal before 1 March and a mandatory 25 per cent late penalty after that date. Also required for retail stores, fitness studios, auto repair shops and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the auto repair shops page.
• Temporary Food License — Cuyahoga County Board of Health, $64 per day of operation for a commercial operator, as printed on the 2026 CCBH Food Protection Program Fee Schedule effective 1 January 2026; a non-commercial operator pays $32 per day, per event; CCBH states that 'Licenses can be issued for up to five consecutive days' and that applications 'must be applied for 10 days prior to the event'. Also required for food trucks, coffee shops and retail stores; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Weights and Measures Device Inspection and Sealing — Cuyahoga County Department of Consumer Affairs, Division of Weights and Measures, No fee, a standing county inspection duty rather than a license; the county states that 'Weights and Measures inspectors generally conduct device tests once a year' and that 'Our seal is good for 12 months', with tests unannounced. Also required for retail stores, coffee shops, food trucks, auto repair shops and salons and barbers; what it involves is set out on the retail stores page.
• Vendor's License — Ohio Department of Taxation, $50 one-time, per fixed location, no renewal — stays in effect until cancelled. Also required for coffee shops, retail stores, salons and barbers, fitness studios, auto repair shops and veterinary clinics; what it involves is set out on the retail stores page.
• Manager Certification in Food Protection — Ohio Department of Health, Food Safety Program, No fee, not stated by the Ohio Department of Health. Also required for coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.