Liquor — Florida
Florida runs an quota system. A restaurant license here typically takes 3–9 months. The quota math: 1 quota license per 7,500 residents per county (Fla. Stat. 561.20(1)); minimum 3 per county. New quota licenses are issued only as county population grows, via the Division's annual random drawing ($100 entry per county). Beer & wine (2COP) licenses are not quota-capped..
| License | Covers |
|---|---|
| 4COP Quota License (consumption on premises) | Full liquor |
| Special Food Service / SRX License (SFS) | Full liquor |
| 2COP License | Beer & wine |
State fee: see note — Annual state license fee for quota licenses varies by county population and license series (compiled range roughly $468-$1,365/yr) and is dwarfed by the market acquisition price; quota drawing entry is $100. No single statewide fee - verify the current DABT fee for the county and series..
Open-market price (quota): $20,000–$1,000,000 on the open market (secondary sources, dated — Market/secondary (license-broker listings, not an official state source): quota licenses reported from roughly $20,000 in small rural counties to seven figures ($1M+) in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Price is entirely county-specific - get county-level broker comps before budgeting.).
The exception: Special Food Service (SFS) / Special Restaurant License under 561.20(2)(a)4 — Bona fide restaurant: minimum 2,000 sq ft of service area, equipped to serve 120 persons at one time, at least 120 physical seats, and at least 51% of gross food & beverage revenue from food and nonalcoholic beverages (tested over the first 120-day and first 12-month periods, then audited on a staggered scale). License is premises-specific and not transferable like a quota license. Run your floor plan and menu split through the Liquor Path Checker before you shop for a quota license.
3–9 months — Non-quota SFS and beer/wine applications move on the standard DABT track; a quota purchase adds private negotiation plus DABT transfer approval. Timelines vary by district office workload and local zoning.. At typical rents, every month of that clock is dead money: the Wait-vs-Burn visualizer inside the checker turns your rent × this timeline into the dollar figure.
Temporary permit: available — a transferred license can often pour during processing; ask by name.
Transfers: Temporary license available on transfer/application under Fla. Stat. 561.331 for qualified applicants (temporary fees reported roughly $100-$455 by license type), letting a buyer operate while the permanent license is processed. Quota licenses transfer with DABT approval and are the tradable asset; SFS licenses do not transfer - the new operator applies fresh.
Don't read the table — run your verdict. Your sq ft, seats and food split decide exception eligibility — the checker does that math.
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Included in the $49 Opening Pack: the filled templates, trackers, calendars and worksheets for this door — built from the same dated datasets as the free checker above.
Typically 3–9 months for a restaurant, per the dated sources on this page. Transfers and protests run longer.
The state fee is in the note above. In quota territory the real price is the open-market range on this page — labeled secondary, because no official price exists.
Sources: Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (DABT); Fla. Stat. 561.20 and 561.331. This row was verified against the primary source named below.. Dataset checked October 23, 2026. Where a fee or rule is set by a county or city, this page says so instead of guessing a number.