An extinction-level event: That’s what some experts predicted the COVID-19 pandemic would prove to be for the restaurant industry. Take a look back to March 2020, as restaurants shut their doors and the world went into lockdown, and you’ll see more than a few nightmare headlines spurred by the predictions of celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, who forecasted that 75 percent of restaurants wouldn’t make it through the pandemic.
Fortunately, Colicchio proved to be wrong. A 2022 report on the matter from The Washington Post concluded that some 72,700 United States restaurants had closed their doors in 2020—still a high number, but only “around 11 percent of America’s roughly 660,000.”
The bad news is that, for many restaurants, the troubled times aren’t over. While the days of shutdowns, strict capacity limitations, and acute fear of indoor dining are in the past, the pandemic also precipitated a slew of other challenges that are pushing restaurants to the brink.
For one thing, restaurants and other hospitality businesses have struggled to win back the workers that left the industry during the pandemic. In addition, supply chain issues have sent the cost of many ingredients into the stratosphere.
It’s not even just COVID-related hurdles that are hitting restaurants: In Michigan, consideration of a bill that would drastically raise the minimum wage—and eliminate the tip credit structure that has long...
The Department of the Attorney General says the man claiming to be the state’s chief technology officer at national conferences and on online platforms is not affiliated with the state of Hawaii a...