Call (802) 209-2629 or fill in the request form, and a partner reviews the kitchen's figures before any offer.
A machine that runs for years fits equipment financing; payroll and food orders fit working capital or a credit line. Chittenden County, VT counted 279 restaurants with paid staff in 2023.
At a glance
- Sit-down restaurants, Chittenden County, VT (NAICS 722511)
151 in 2023, per County Business Patterns
- Counter-service restaurants, same county (NAICS 722513)
128 in 2023, per County Business Patterns
- Restaurant establishments with a ZIP 05401 address
96 in 2023 (58 full-service, 38 limited-service), ZBP
- Full-service rooms with fewer than five employees
33 of 151, or 21.9% (CBP 2023)
Loans for Restaurants: Dish Machines, Fryers and the Seller's Quote
A dish machine that quits in the middle of a dinner rush backs up the whole line, and the replacement arrives with a model number, a seller's price and an install date. Together they tell a partner exactly what is being financed. Through equipment financing, the machine itself can secure the agreement, and the term can be set against the years the machine will run. Fixed hood systems, ductwork and fire suppression are excluded. The supplier quote should identify each movable appliance separately.
Chittenden County, VT splits its restaurant count across two NAICS codes. County Business Patterns placed 151 full-service restaurants with paid staff on its 2023 rolls (NAICS 722511), the sit-down rooms where a server takes the order, and 128 limited-service restaurants (NAICS 722513), where customers order at a counter and pay before they eat. The two codes make 279 establishments, our arithmetic.
Restaurant Funding to Cover Payroll in a Thin Week
Payroll does not shrink when the dining room is half full. A thin week still has the same cooks, dishwashers and servers on the schedule, and the payroll account has to cover them on the same day it always does. To meet that payroll shortfall, the kitchen can compare a working-capital amount with revolving draws. A line suits a gap that comes back from time to time, because the kitchen draws only what the week is short and pays the balance down once deposits recover.
Wages are a large bill for a sit-down kitchen in this county: the 151 full-service restaurants reported $99.7 million in annual payroll for 2023, with 3,387 paid employees in the mid-March pay period (County Business Patterns, NAICS 722511).
Illustration only, invented figures. In this example a kitchen's biweekly payroll is $14,200 and the account holds $9,800 the day before payday, leaving a $4,400 gap. In this example the owner draws $4,400 on a line and pays it back at $2,200 a week over the next two weeks, so the balance is cleared before the following payroll; the partner sets the interest on top.
Restaurant Financing Options Side by Side: Fryers, Food Orders and a Credit Line
Each kind of restaurant spending points to a different product. The table pairs common kitchen costs with the product that fits and the records a funding partner can ask to see.
| Cost | Product that fits | Records a partner can ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Fryer, range or dish machine | Equipment financing | Seller's quote with model numbers |
| Weekly food and beverage orders | Inventory financing or a credit line | Supplier invoices and order history |
| Payroll in a thin week | Working capital or a credit line | Recent business bank statements |
| Walk-in cooler repair | Credit line | The repair estimate |
| A gap covered by future card sales | Merchant cash advance (not a loan; collected from future card sales) | Card processing statements |
A merchant cash advance is a purchase of future card sales rather than a loan, so it is collected as a share of those sales; it belongs in the comparison, but its cost reads differently from an interest rate. The inventory financing page covers food and beverage stock in more detail.
Financing Restaurant Business Growth: Budgeting a Second Burlington, VT Location
A second location is several purchases at once: a lease deposit, movable dining furnishings, a second set of cooking equipment, and opening payroll for weeks before the new room brings in steady sales. Splitting them keeps each cost on a product that matches it. The equipment can go on equipment financing, the movable furnishings on a term loan with a fixed payment, and the opening payroll on working capital.
An owner looking at a second address in ZIP 05401 would be adding to the 58 full-service and 38 limited-service restaurant establishments that ZIP Code Business Patterns placed in that ZIP for 2023 (NAICS 722511 and 722513). Those are ZIP figures, not counts for the city of Burlington, VT.
A partner reviewing a second-location request can look at how the first room is doing, since its bank statements are the record the new room is borrowing against.
New Restaurant Business Loans: What a Kitchen With a Short Track Record Can Show
A kitchen that opened a few months ago has fewer bank statements, a shorter sales history and less to show a partner than one with several years behind it. What it can put forward is concrete: the equipment quotes, the signed lease, the card deposits it has so far, and the owner's own plan for the amount. A partner reviews whatever the record holds and decides whether an offer fits.
Small crews are the exception among the county's sit-down restaurants with payroll: 33 of the 151 full-service establishments had fewer than five employees in 2023, or 21.9% (County Business Patterns, NAICS 722511). Among the 128 limited-service restaurants, 34 were that small, or 26.6%.
Some kitchens carry no payroll at all: 28 full-service and 23 limited-service restaurants in Chittenden County, VT had no paid employees in 2024, by the Nonemployer Statistics count. How a kitchen draws on a credit line for payroll and repairs is worked through in an article on restaurant credit lines.
By Wrenbridge Capital · Updated