I'd like to see the insurance claim !!
I've handled claims with that exact scenario. Not cheap at all, especially if the restaurant has high drive-through traffic. The loss of revenue can easily exceed the cost of the repairs to the building if you have to shut down their drive through. I've found that whenever possible, it's cheaper to pay the contractor an off-hours premium to have them do the work on overnights than it is to pay the restaurant owner for lost revenue. It's also much less hassle to calculate. "Oh, it's $x dollars? How much to fix it between 10pm-6am?" vs. rummaging through accounting documents and spreadsheets.
A lot of years ago, my wife and I came out of our local Cracker Barrel and heard this awful screaching noise. It would stop for a minute, then start up again. She finally spotted the culprit. It was a young woman driving a big u haul truck that had tried to go through the Steak and Shake drive thru a couple of lots over. She had it stuck pretty good. Finally, an older man came and got in the truck and just pulled it on out, tearing down the big red awning in the process. Now the awning is on the ground and the top of the truck is torn up. I wondered at the time, who's insurance is paying for this?.
