The numbers
As stated by the listing on September 18, 2026.
- Asking price
- $1,190,000
- SDE
- $410,000
- Gross revenue
- $3,200,000
- Multiple
- 2.90x
Why we like it
A dining room and a commercial kitchen only earn money while someone is sitting in them or a crew is cooking for them, so the operators who do best are the ones who find a second and third use for the same square footage and the same walk-in cooler. Stacking catering and private event rental on top of a restaurant is the standard way to do that: the kitchen that plates lunch on a Tuesday plates a wedding dinner on a Saturday, and the dining room that seats walk-ins at night rents by the hour to a corporate holiday party in December. Each line behaves differently. The restaurant brings daily, lower-margin cash. Catering is contract work, booked weeks or months out. The venue rental is closest to pure margin but concentrated on weekends and in the warmer half of the year. Start with how the stated $3.2 million splits across those three lines, because a strong number can hide a restaurant that's fading while catering and events prop up the total. Then check what's already been collected in deposits for events not yet held: a buyer inherits the obligation to staff and cater weddings someone else got paid for. The real growth lever here is usually the dead weeknight calendar, filling it with corporate and off-season bookings the restaurant alone could never generate.
You probably need a licence to run this
A restaurant, catering, and event venue combination in Minnesota almost certainly needs an on-sale liquor license for the venue and a separate liquor caterer's permit for off-site catered events, plus a food service license from the local health authority. The listing doesn't say whether an existing liquor license is in place and whether it transfers to a new owner or has to be reapplied for from scratch, which can take weeks and requires the buyer (or a named officer of the buyer's entity) to pass a background check. A buyer without direct restaurant or liquor experience can still hire a licensed general manager to run day to day operations, but the license itself is tied to a vetted person or entity, not something that can simply be assigned at closing without City of St. Paul approval.
What worries us
- Owner dependence on event and catering relationshipsWedding planners, corporate event buyers, and repeat catering clients often book through a relationship with the current owner rather than the business's name alone. If those bookings walk out the door with the seller, the venue and catering lines can soften fast even if the restaurant holds steady.
- Seasonal concentration in event and catering revenueEvent and catering demand in Minnesota is weighted toward the warmer months and the December holiday season, with a slow stretch in the first quarter of the year. The calculated 1.60x debt service coverage is an annual figure, and a buyer needs to know whether cash flow through the slow months still covers the $14,312 monthly loan payment on its own.
- Liquor license and lease transfer riskIf the on-sale liquor license doesn't transfer smoothly, or if the real estate lease is short or lacks renewal options, the buyer could face a gap in alcohol service for events or a forced relocation, both of which would hit the catering and venue lines hardest since they depend on serving alcohol on premises.
The callSuits an experienced restaurant, catering, or hospitality operator ready to manage licensing and seasonal swings, not a first-time buyer wanting predictable hours.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $1,129,822 |
| Seller standby note | $62,768 |
| Buyer cash at close | $62,768 |
| Total sources | $1,255,358 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $1,190,000 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $35,700 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $29,658 |
| Total project | $1,255,358 |
- Monthly payment
- $14,465
- Annual debt service
- $173,585
- DSCR
- 1.59xSTRONG
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($125,536 against $125,536 required)
- Closing costs estimated at 3% of asking price
- Owner salary of $120,000, loaded
- Rate of Prime + 2.25% = 9.25%
- 10-year term, fully amortizing
- Injection split half cash, half seller standby note
How we would go about buying it
The order matters. Every step below is free until the last one, and each is a chance to walk away before it costs you anything.
- 1
Call the broker, not the bank
The listing is brokered, so the broker is the gate. Ask for the CIM and the last three years of tax returns, and expect to sign an NDA first. Do this before you talk to a lender: no lender will size a loan without the numbers, and the broker will not release them to a lender you have not engaged.
Open the listing - 2
Ask these before you spend anything
Specific to this business, from our read of the listing. The answers decide whether the numbers above survive contact.
- What is the revenue split between the restaurant, catering, and venue rental lines, and has the restaurant's dine-in traffic been flat, growing, or declining over the past three years?
- What is the total value of deposits and prepayments held for weddings and events booked but not yet delivered, and does the buyer assume the obligation to cater those already-paid events after closing?
- Is the on-sale liquor license transferable to a new owner, and has the timeline and approval process with the City of St. Paul been confirmed so there's no gap in alcohol service after closing?
- Is the real estate leased or owned, and if leased, how many years remain on the term and what are the renewal options?
- How many events are already booked for the 12 months following a sale, and how many of those bookings came through the current owner's personal relationships with wedding and event planners versus the venue's own marketing or reputation?
- 3
Take it to lenders who do this size
Talk to more than one. Rate is the least of it: the lender who has done fifty of these in Minnesota will close, and the one who has done two will waste your quarter. Below are the lenders whose typical deal size actually fits this one.
- 4
Structure the offer around the coverage
Our structure clears the floor at 1.59x, and a lender will run its own version with its own add-backs. If the earnings come back lower than stated, the price has to come down or the seller note has to grow. Model both before you make an offer.
Model it yourself
Who we would call
Active Minnesota acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- Old National Bank
19 loans in MNmedian $726,100median rate 8.27%~20 days to first disbursement
- Frandsen Bank and Trust
16 loans in MNmedian $560,000median rate 9.50%~6 days to first disbursement
- Associated Bank National Association
15 loans in MNmedian $642,000median rate 8.00%~11 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in Minnesota, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3. Funding speed is the lender’s national median from approval to first disbursement. Names link to our data profile for each lender.
The fine print
The statements this write-up makes about the trade and its rules, as opposed to the figures, were checked against public sources on September 17, 2026. 5 claims were checked.
Run your own numbers
The deal analyzer models price, seller note, equity injection, and DSCR under current SBA terms, with every assumption adjustable.
Open the deal analyzerListing facts as stated by the listing on September 18, 2026, not independently verified. Structure, payment, DSCR, and injection figures are our own computation under the assumptions above, using the Prime rate as of September 28, 2026. Lender shortlist from the SBA 7(a) FOIA file, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3, as of June 30, 2026. Methodology. See an error? Email us and we will correct it.