Posts by Aaron Wise

Current Statistics for the Restaurant Industry

Before the pandemic, restaurants employed approximately 10% of the entire U.S. workforce. As of today, employment in the restaurant industry has more than halved.  Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, there…

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Unprecedented Changes for Michelin Star Restaurants

Goodbye Gotham Bar & Grill, hello Noma burger bar. Worldwide, over 85% of Michelin-starred restaurants are currently closed. Some closures are permanent, such as New York City’s Gotham Bar &…

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Restaurants Keep Drive-Thru and Takeout, Hesitate to Open Dining Rooms

Approximately 1.5 million U.S. residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19, including 90,000 people who have lost their lives. Most of the infections are caused by respiratory droplets whose probability of…

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Forward Expectations for Restaurant Employment

Over 36 million Americans have lost their jobs since February. According to April data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was 14.7% two weeks ago. This…

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Polls Show Optimism Among Returning Restaurant Patrons

How many consumers plan to return to dine-in when restaurants reopen? According to Long Island Restaurant News, an auspicious 67%. So begins the procession of polls of innumerable variety about…

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Is Contact Tracing Required at Restaurants? Laws Change By the Day

Are restaurant owners required to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing? The topic has been contentious, confusing, and polarizing. Consider what happened this week in Washington State, for example. On Monday,…

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Shortened CDC Expectations for Restaurants Leave Questions Unanswered

Many patrons have only a fuzzy idea of what to expect when they return to dining establishments, and they are encountering different practices at each establishment. With global COVID-19 cases…

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Data from Georgia’s First Two Weeks of Dining Room Reopenings

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp allowed restaurant owners to reopen for dine-in service on April 27. As the first state to reopen, Georgians have now generated two weeks of data and…

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Restaurant Owners Unite for Support, Bargaining Power

As one of the most negatively impacted industries, owners of restaurants are joining together as they begin their long road to recovery. “We need to come together. Great to see…

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Restaurateurs Leverage Excess Alcohol for Cash Flow

Faced with mounting bills, many restaurant owners have been selling down their bottled reserves. Benefiting from long shelf life, unopened alcohol bottles are usually the most valuable tangible assets aside…

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