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

Food Establishment Permit

A restaurant or coffee shop operating a fixed food-service location in Henrico County needs this $40.00 Food Establishment Permit, as published on the Henrico County Health Department's own fee page and re-confirmed live as current. The Health Department is a local health district of the Virginia Department of Health, funded on a cooperative basis of 55.0% state funds and 45.0% county funds, per Henrico's own FY26 Approved Budget, Public Health section — a structural fact about how the issuing agency itself is funded, not a separate licensing requirement. The county's fee page does not state an adoption date or a specific permit duration for this fee or for the related plan-review, mobile-unit, and temporary-permit fees listed separately for this jurisdiction.

Temporary Food Establishment Permit

A restaurant, coffee shop, or food truck selling food at a temporary event in Henrico County needs a Temporary Food Establishment Permit for each physical unit or booth. The Health Department's own fee page states this directly: '$40.00 permit fee will be charged to the temporary food establishment permit applicant for the first permit he or she acquires during the calendar year. Additional fees will not be charged for future temporary permits in that calendar year.' The Health Department is a local health district of the Virginia Department of Health, cost-shared 55.0% state funds and 45.0% county funds per Henrico's own FY26 Approved Budget. No adoption date is published on the county's own fee page.

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 Henrico County

• Alcoholic Beverage Licensing — State-Exclusive — Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, No fee, Not applicable at the county level; the license and its term are set entirely by Virginia ABC.. Also required for coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Foodservice Plan Review — Henrico County Health Department, $40 one-time, for a new or remodeled food facility's plan review, as published on the Henrico County Health Department's own fee page, One-time, before opening a new facility or completing a remodel.. Also required for coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.