Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Restaurants and food brands run on leases, licenses, and a name customers remember. The Schenk Law Firm advises restaurant groups, packaged food brands, beverage companies, and the brokers that sell their products. Our work runs from the first lease through a sale or a closing.
Restaurant Leases
We negotiate restaurant leases for tenants and landlords, including guaranties, purchase options, and the timing of a liquor license transfer. See our commercial leases page.
Buying or Selling a Restaurant
We handle purchase agreements, escrow, the bulk sale notice, and coordination with the license broker on the liquor license transfer.
Franchise Transactions
We represent owners selling a franchised location, including the franchisor’s transfer approval and the lease assignment.
Trademarks and Brand Licensing
We register restaurant names, logos, slogans, and product brands with the USPTO, keep them registered, and draft license agreements when a brand is shared between companies.
Broker and Distribution Agreements
We review and negotiate broker, distribution, and retail placement agreements for food and beverage brands.
Closing Locations
When a location has to close, we negotiate the lease exit and wind down the company. Our closing a business page has more.
We’re signing our first restaurant lease.
Restaurant leases raise issues an office lease doesn’t, such as grease traps, venting, signage, hours, and alcohol service. Review the use clause and the buildout terms before you sign the letter of intent.
We’re buying a restaurant that serves alcohol.
The liquor license usually transfers separately from the business, through the state, and the purchase has to be timed around that transfer. We coordinate with the license broker and escrow.
Can we use the same name at a new location?
If the name is registered, yes, and the registration helps keep others from opening under a similar name nearby. If it isn’t, register it before you expand.
A distributor sent us an agreement.
Check the commission or margin formula, the territory, the length of the term, and what you owe after it ends. We can redline it before you sign.
We need to close one location.
The lease, the employees, and the vendor accounts each need an exit plan. Closing one location doesn’t have to affect the rest of the business.
Experience
David Lizerbram has practiced business and trademark law for more than two decades. Benjamin Schenk founded and runs a commercial real estate investment and asset management firm.
Lease to Brand
We handle the restaurant’s lease, its company structure, and its trademarks.
Licensing Coordination
We work with license brokers and escrow so the liquor license, the lease, and the closing line up.
Case Study
A property owner leased a restaurant space to a new operator that planned to serve alcohol. We negotiated the lease, the personal guaranty, and a related purchase option, then coordinated the deposit and move-in steps with the owner’s property managers. The tenant’s liquor license transfer was filed through a license broker, and we approved a temporary license so the restaurant could open while the state processes the transfer.
Case Study
A Mediterranean restaurant group built its brand around a name, a logo, a slogan, and a second concept name, and we registered each of them with the USPTO. When the main registration reached its fifth year, we filed the combined declaration of continued use and incontestability, which the USPTO accepted.
Case Study
A broker was offered an agreement to place a licensed frozen food brand with a national warehouse club. We redlined the agreement and flagged an unclear commission formula, a short post-termination tail, weak audit rights, and gaps in the indemnity. The draft also lacked protection if the brand changed hands. The client used our redline to negotiate the terms.
Case Study
A local coffee roaster wanted to own its name before opening more shops. We filed the federal application, took it through registration, and later filed the combined declaration that kept the registration in force and made it incontestable.
Client names and identifying details are withheld. Results depend on the facts of each matter, and past results don’t guarantee a similar outcome.
The Schenk Law Firm is based in North Park, San Diego. We advise restaurants and food companies throughout California, and our trademark work covers brands nationwide.
Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating leases for landlords and tenants.
Buying, selling, or merging a business, from the first offer through closing.
Closing or Winding Down a Business
Lease exits, dissolutions, and final state filings.
Trademark searches, applications, and protection for brand names and logos.
Keeping a registration alive with its maintenance filings.
Contract Drafting & Negotiation
Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating the agreements a business runs on.
Whether you’re opening a location, buying a restaurant, or protecting a food brand, we can review the deal and explain your options.
Contact us today to discuss your restaurant or food business.
Request a ConsultationNot automatically. In California, the buyer applies to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for the transfer, and the purchase is usually structured around that approval.
When a business sells most of its assets, California’s bulk sale rules may require public notice to creditors before closing. It’s typically handled through escrow.
If you plan to grow, yes. A federal registration gives nationwide rights in the name for the services listed, which matters when you add locations or sell packaged products.
Yes. A written license should cover how the brand may be used, quality control, fees, and what happens when the license ends.