It would be glib to suggest that most restaurants can survive by simply pivoting to delivery. Indeed, many won’t—and not just because some consumers might be afraid of lukewarm trout. The bigger problem is that the most popular delivery items (appetizers and entrées) tend to be the least profitable, while delivery consumers rarely order the... See more

What needs to happen next for restaurants? We may be headed for the worst-case scenario. Even with more government intervention,2

No industry was spared from the effects of Covid-19, but restaurants were undoubtedly one of the hardest hit. The numbers prove the stark reality: food service industry sales fell by $240 billion in 2020 from a projected $899 billion, and more than 110,000 eating and drinking establishments closed last year nationwide (that doesn’t include what’s... See more

Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio called the illusion of restaurant prosperity “smoke and mirrors” in a recent interview with The Daily Beast, and predicted that, as a result of the underlying precariousness, only 25% of restaurants in the U.S. will survive this crisis. He himself announced on March 14 that he was closing all of his restaurants in New... See more

Is there a sustained move toward delivery and away from in-restaurant dining in that new world? Yes. Not to sound callous, but that’s it. I thought that shift was going to happen over the next 10, 15 years, and no one would have noticed because it would’ve happened gradually. This change is now going to happen instantaneously.