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

Mixed Beverage License Tax

Fairfax County's Mixed Beverage License Tax is a local tax the Department of Tax Administration layers on top of a Virginia ABC mixed-beverage license, read directly from the county's own other-county-licenses fee page: a business with seating capacity of 50 to 100 owes $200 a year, 101 to 150 owes $350, and over 150 owes $500; a private non-profit club operating an on-site restaurant, as determined by the ABC Board, owes $350 a year. This tax applies to any Fairfax County business holding a state mixed-beverage license, including a restaurant inside a hotel or motel. Filing and payment are due annually by March 1, with a 10% late penalty; first-time filers must file within 75 days of starting business or of ABC license issuance, and proration applies only when a business moves in during the year, not when it moves out. Effective January 1, 2026, this due date changed from January 31 to March 1 for this tax and the county's other specialty DTA license taxes, and the Department of Tax Administration mails notices by January 30 each year. Fairfax County Code §4-9-1 is the citation for this tax, confirmed directly on the source page with its own Municode citation node.

Food Establishment Permit

A restaurant or coffee shop operating a fixed food-service location in Fairfax County needs a Food Establishment Permit from the Health Department's Division of Environmental Health, with fees read directly from the raw HTML of the county's own environmental health fee schedule page under its 'Food Establishment' header: New Application $40, Plan Review $40, Preliminary Inspection $100, Renewal Application $40 (due by December 31), Late Renewal $50, and Change of Ownership $80. The same fee-schedule page also carries a separate, explicitly-labeled 'Fairfax City Code Chapter 46' pool-fee table for comparison purposes only; it is not a Fairfax County fee and does not apply to a business operating under this county-level permit. The Division of Environmental Health's main office is at 10777 Main Street, Fairfax, VA 22030 (703-246-2201).

Food Establishment Permit

One flat $40 for the whole state, which is unusual and cheap — and the fee's authority is the Appropriation Act rather than the food statute, so anyone looking for it in Title 35.1 or in the food regulation will not find it there. A new restaurant pays $80 in total, plan review plus permit, and the combined fees are capped at $80 a year per facility. Apply at least thirty days before opening. A permit is not transferable, so a change of ownership means a fresh $40. Ten localities adopted their own food ordinances before 2022 and permit independently — Alexandria, Arlington, Danville, Fairfax County, Hampton, Hopewell, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth and Roanoke — and some add real money on top: Fairfax charges $100 for a preliminary inspection and $80 for a change of ownership. Retail food stores and manufacturers are a different regime entirely, run by the agriculture department, where the permit is free and the annual inspection is $40.

Certified Food Protection Manager

No state fee — Virginia neither issues the certificate nor charges for it; an accredited programme does both. At least one employee with supervisory and management authority must hold it, but the rule carves out establishments serving only food that needs no temperature control, and those that merely reheat or cold-hold commercially processed food, provided they do not cool it. The five-year validity people quote is the certifying programme's rule, not Virginia's — the regulation sets no term. Virginia requires no food handler card statewide either, and the department publishes a table of the twelve localities that do impose one, all of them in Hampton Roads and the Peninsula.

Shared with other businesses in Fairfax County

• BPOL Classification — Restaurant / Coffee Shop / Food Truck (Retail Merchants) — Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration, $0.17 per $100 of gross receipts/purchases for a Retail Merchants-classified business with gross receipts over $100,000; at or below $100,000, the flat-fee tier in the BPOL general registration record applies instead., Annual; renewal due March 1, same as the general BPOL registration.. Also required for coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Temporary Food Establishment Permit — Fairfax County Health Department, Division of Environmental Health, Temporary Food Establishment Permit $40 (a fee exemption may apply under the schedule's own terms); Temporary Food Event Application: no fee., Per temporary event.. Also required for coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.