# Opening Weekly: A weekly list of restaurants and bars about to open, from license and inspection records.

> Opening Weekly reads the public records a new restaurant leaves before it opens: liquor license applications, pre-license and pre-permit health inspections, and new food licenses. You get one weekly list for your areas, with the record and date each row came from.

- Page: https://rotomal.com/opening-radar/
- Category: Lead generation for restaurant suppliers
- Language: en
- Billing: subscription
- From: $39 per month
- Request (free, no card): https://rotomal.com/opening-radar/request/

- Sources today: California, Texas and New York liquor license applications, Chicago license inspections and food licenses, and New York City pre-permit restaurant inspections.
- Each row shows which record it came from and its date, so you can judge how close to opening the place is.
- We confirm by email which sources cover your areas before you pay.

## Suppliers win a restaurant before it opens, and the signals are spread across agencies

Food distributors, POS and payroll providers, linen services and insurers all want the same thing: a conversation with a new restaurant while it is still choosing vendors. The signals are public but scattered: a state liquor license application, a city food license, a health inspection required before a license to operate.

Each agency publishes differently. California posts daily web reports and a bulk export, Texas and New York publish pending liquor applications as open data, and Chicago and New York City publish inspection data with their own inspection types and codes.

Opening Weekly reads those sources every week and turns them into one list per area, matched across sources so the same restaurant appears once.

- California ABC's Daily Report of New Applications for 28 October 2026 listed 29 applications; 20 of its 34 license lines were restaurant licenses (types 41 and 47). (source: https://www.abc.ca.gov/licensing/licensing-reports/new-applications/)
- Chicago recorded 181 'License' food inspections, which are done so an establishment can receive its license to operate, from 1 to 28 October 2026 (our query, 29 October 2026). (source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/d/4ijn-s7e5)
- New York City's restaurant inspection data listed 3,947 establishments that had applied for a permit but not yet been inspected, as of 28 October 2026 (our query). (source: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/43nn-pn8j)
- A ready-made CSV of new New York City restaurants is offered at $999 a month (checked 29 October 2026). (source: https://csvfirst.pythonanywhere.com/csv/nyc-newly-licensed-restaurant-dataset/)

## How it works

1. **Pick your areas.** Tell us the cities or states you sell into and the kinds of places you want: restaurants, bars, grocery, caterers. Within 2 business days, before you pay, we tell you by email which sources cover your areas.
2. **We collect and match.** Our servers read each agency's report or dataset on its own schedule, match records across sources by address and name, and keep the earliest signal for each place.
3. **You get the list on Monday.** An email and CSV with business name, address, signal type (liquor application, license inspection, new food license), its date, license or facility type, and inspection result where there is one.
4. **Follow each place.** Mark places contacted. Later lists show when a place you have seen moves on, for example from an application to a passed inspection or an issued license.

## Features

- **Liquor license applications.** New applications from California ABC's daily report, Texas TABC pending original applications and New York SLA pending licenses, with license type and premises address.
- **New outlet or new owner.** California's action codes are kept, so you can tell an original license (ORI) at a new outlet from a person-to-person transfer (PER) when a place changes hands.
- **Pre-license and pre-permit inspections.** Chicago 'License' inspections with their result (Pass, Pass w/ Conditions, Fail, Not Ready) and New York City pre-permit inspections and not-yet-inspected permit applicants.
- **New food licenses.** Chicago Retail Food Establishment licenses at issue, as a confirmation that a place is licensed to operate.
- **Filters that match your route.** Filter by ZIP code, license type, facility type, and cuisine where New York City records one.
- **CRM push.** Send each week's rows to HubSpot, Pipedrive or another CRM through a webhook or Zapier, or to a Google Sheet, on Pro and Multi.
- **Source on every row.** Each row names the agency, the report or dataset and the record date, with a link, so your reps can check it before a visit.

## Who it's for

- **Food and beverage distributors.** Get on the vendor list before the first order. A liquor application or a pre-license inspection is the time to call.
- **POS, payments and payroll providers.** New restaurants choose their systems before opening. Reach them while the decision is still open.
- **Restaurant insurers and agents.** A new license or an ownership transfer means a new policy. Transfers are labeled separately from new outlets.
- **Linen, pest control and equipment suppliers.** Route visits around the places opening in your ZIP codes this month instead of cold-walking a street.

## Works with

California ABC licensing reports and data export, Texas TABC pending license applications (open data), New York SLA pending licenses (open data), Chicago food inspections and business licenses (open data), NYC restaurant inspection results (open data), Email (weekly list with CSV attached), Google Sheets sync, Webhook and Zapier (HubSpot, Pipedrive and others)

## Pricing

Prices are per month, billed monthly, cancel any time. Founding customer pricing is locked for 12 months for subscriptions opened during early access. We confirm which sources cover your areas by email before you pay. We onboard new accounts within 2 business days.

| Plan | Price | Includes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Starter | $39 per month | 1 area; Weekly email and CSV; Liquor applications, inspections and new licenses where available; ZIP code and license-type filters; Source link on every row; Email support |
| Pro | $79 per month | Up to 3 areas; Everything in Starter; Status tracking from application to license; CRM push via webhook, Zapier or Google Sheets; Twice-weekly delivery; 3 users |
| Multi | $159 per month | Up to 8 areas; Everything in Pro; Daily delivery option; Back-fill of up to 12 months where the source allows it; New sources included as they come online; Priority support |

## Compared with the alternatives

- **Checking the reports yourself.** Free, and our guides list the reports and datasets. California's report is a daily web page, the open-data sources each have their own fields, and matching the same restaurant across them is manual work.
- **Pay-per-record scraper actors.** An Apify actor sells new Chicago food-service licenses from $5 per 1,000 leads, and another, listed as free, turns New York City and Chicago pre-opening inspections into one feed (both checked 29 October 2026). Good value for one or two cities if you will run the feed yourself.
- **Ready-made lists and research services.** A ready-made CSV of new New York City restaurants is offered at $999 a month, and research services such as Starfleet Media's Preopening Restaurants Resource add verified contacts without a published price. Worth it when you need contacts across many markets.

## Security and data

- Lists are built only from public agency reports and open data, and every row links to its source.
- Account data, filters and contact status are encrypted at rest and in transit.
- We do not append phone numbers or emails from private data brokers.
- Each user has an individual login, and the account owner can remove a user at any time.
- Account data is deleted within 30 days of a request, and automatically 60 days after cancellation.

## Your first week

Most customers get a coverage note within 2 business days and their first Monday list the week after.

- Day 1: Request service and name your areas and the kinds of places you sell to.
- Day 2: We confirm by email which sources cover your areas.
- Day 3–5: Adjust filters: license types, facility types, ZIP codes, transfers on or off.
- Day 7: Your first Monday list arrives with source links on every row.

## FAQ

### Which areas do you cover?

Liquor license applications for California, Texas and New York State, plus city inspection and license data for Chicago and New York City. We tell you before you pay what we can cover in your area, and add a source only when an agency publishes it in a form we can read reliably.

### How long before opening do these signals appear?

It depends on the source. A liquor application or a Chicago license inspection comes before the business is licensed; an issued license comes later. Agencies do not publish an opening date, so each row shows the signal and its date rather than a predicted opening day.

### Do you include phone numbers?

Only where the source publishes one: New York City's inspection data and Texas TABC's pending applications include a phone field, while the Chicago, California ABC and New York SLA records we use do not. We do not append contacts from private sources.

### What do ORI and PER mean in California's reports?

They are ABC action codes: ORI is an original license and PER a person-to-person transfer, when a license moves to a new owner. Both are sales opportunities, so we keep and label them.

### Is it legal to contact applicants?

The records are public, but many applicants are individuals, and channel rules apply: CAN-SPAM for email and the TCPA for autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to mobile numbers. Opening Weekly is a data service, not legal advice.

### What happens before I pay?

Within 2 business days of your request we tell you by email which sources cover your areas and how your filters apply to them. You choose a plan after that, and your first Monday list follows the week after.

### What if a source changes or goes offline?

Public sources do change. We monitor each one, and if a source you pay for is down for more than two weeks we tell you and credit that share of your fee.

### What if I cancel?

Download your past lists from your account until the end of the billing period. Account data and filter settings are deleted 60 days after cancellation, or within 30 days of a deletion request.

## Guides

- [New liquor license applications in California: the ABC daily report and export](https://rotomal.com/opening-radar/liquor-license-applications/): California ABC's daily New Applications report and free license export, what the codes mean, our count for 28 Oct 2026, plus Texas and New York open data.
- [New restaurant openings data: the inspection and license records that come first](https://rotomal.com/opening-radar/new-restaurant-openings-data/): How to find new restaurants before they open: Chicago 'License' inspections and food licenses, NYC pre-permit inspections, with our October 2026 counts.

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Rotomal · https://rotomal.com/opening-radar/ · hello@rotomal.com